ovations?

During the communism era the texts of so-called referats (reports) of the top apparatchics and autocrats were interspaced with the parenthetical comments "(ovations)", "(standing ovations)", "(long spontaneous standing ovations)", and similar. Ovations were shown on tv, and ovations also used to precede the referats delivered at the communist party meetings.

I like good natured ovations which honor artists and sportsmen.

Ovations for politicians worry me. They are a sure sign that things are wrong.

In the recent months I saw ovations for President Obama. The older folks, who got their hair gray and thin doing politics, get up on their old legs to thoughtlessly clap and clap and clap, standing but not tall for the youngish looking President, and they do it several times during his speeches, and it is a terrifying image.

I understand clapping when a man lands on the moon for the first time in the History, but clapping for the leader is a very different thing, is wrong. It breeds the wrong kind of culture and values.