Jangling thoughts on Obama Day
Today, Obama will step into the presidency and it is a very important day. Not only because he is the first person of color to lead the USA, but because he has the opportunity, the charisma and the intelligence to bring genuine change and lead not by fear and browbeating, as his predecessor did, but by dint of vision. The many challenges facing the country, the world, are to a certain extent irrelevant. All predictions are always based on parameters of today, and just because people hope for constancy, doesn't mean that there is such a thing. Entropy.... that's the plan. The point is: where does each individual in a collective stand, how much responsibility are we ready to take individually.
But President Obama already sent some good signals not only for the USA, but for the world at large. Everyone has to pitch in, not by wanting and consuming more, but by sharing more. And I suspect he means not only materially. One can give a little bit of sunshine, maybe just by acknowledging others in everday life.
Writing from the center of western Europe, I can say it would behoove people here, too, and the world round in fact, to develop a greater sense of community, to be respectful and considerate, to be friendly with one anther, to spread a little bit of feelgood, especially when the news is filled with gloominess. Yet for some reason, our wealthy, bloated "western" lifestyle, which has set a terrible example to other countries, seems to turn everyone inward. Naturally, because it is based on greed and the need for cheap labor, in other words, it per se exploits the frailty of other peoples, hence it makes us suspicious of anyone approaching us and just being friendly. Here, in the small town I live in, people hardly speak to each other, even if they meet on a daily basis. Other than some insane fear of connecting with neighbors, there seems to be no apparent reason for this bizarre behavior. (Time to welcome the recession... We can easily do with less material and more time. Perhaps some theoretical physicist can come up with a 21st-century e-mc2 expressing this correlation?)
So let the partying begin.
Today, Obama will step into the presidency and it is a very important day. Not only because he is the first person of color to lead the USA, but because he has the opportunity, the charisma and the intelligence to bring genuine change and lead not by fear and browbeating, as his predecessor did, but by dint of vision. The many challenges facing the country, the world, are to a certain extent irrelevant. All predictions are always based on parameters of today, and just because people hope for constancy, doesn't mean that there is such a thing. Entropy.... that's the plan. The point is: where does each individual in a collective stand, how much responsibility are we ready to take individually.
But President Obama already sent some good signals not only for the USA, but for the world at large. Everyone has to pitch in, not by wanting and consuming more, but by sharing more. And I suspect he means not only materially. One can give a little bit of sunshine, maybe just by acknowledging others in everday life.
Writing from the center of western Europe, I can say it would behoove people here, too, and the world round in fact, to develop a greater sense of community, to be respectful and considerate, to be friendly with one anther, to spread a little bit of feelgood, especially when the news is filled with gloominess. Yet for some reason, our wealthy, bloated "western" lifestyle, which has set a terrible example to other countries, seems to turn everyone inward. Naturally, because it is based on greed and the need for cheap labor, in other words, it per se exploits the frailty of other peoples, hence it makes us suspicious of anyone approaching us and just being friendly. Here, in the small town I live in, people hardly speak to each other, even if they meet on a daily basis. Other than some insane fear of connecting with neighbors, there seems to be no apparent reason for this bizarre behavior. (Time to welcome the recession... We can easily do with less material and more time. Perhaps some theoretical physicist can come up with a 21st-century e-mc2 expressing this correlation?)
So let the partying begin.
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