Comments on President Obama's Inauguration Address
Robert Morpheal, Morphealism, Bob Ezergailis
The inauguration speech was anything other than disappointing. It
surpassed any and all expectations in its nuances as to the depths and
extent of the changes as to the shape of things to come in America. In
many ways Barack Obama does promise to be the first truly post Cold
War president of the United States of America, making allusion to H.G.
Wells’ tale of rebuilding from ruin particularly poignant. In many
ways it is not only infrastructure that must be rebuilt, but also
trust, diplomacy, and genuine progress. It is interesting that
tradition has always placed the symbols of destruction in the west,
and the symbols of new life and rebirth of hope in the east. In that
sense President Barack Obama chose the east, not the west, as he began
his term in office. His predecessors, in that sense, due to
limitations of circumstances and sometimes limitations of vision,
chose the west. . It is in the east that the sun rises. This new
administration, in its idealism, is not to be seen as a setting of the
sun, into the darkness of the west, but rather its rising, as renewed
illumination in the east. At least that appears to be the intent.
President Obama has declared independence from many of the groundless
beliefs of many of his predecessors. He has set forth a new foundation
upon which America can potentially be rebuilt. It remains to be seen
whether the reassertion of the ideals that he clearly cherishes can
and will be transformed into realities. President Obama was quoted as
saying that "in America anything is possible", and yet he is only
beginning to learn about what is possible, beyond even his furthest
abilities to imagine. We know that whatever is potentially for good
can be turned to evil, if vigilance and wisdom chance to fail. That is
now the greatest peril and perhaps the most difficult to defend
against. More difficult than it ever was before. The same advances
that can take the human species to the furthest reaches of the galaxy
can destroy all of humanity, at this most crucial step in humanity's
evolution. The greatest steps forward always carry the greatest of
risks.
We are so near, in ground breaking theory, fledgling experiment, and
technical breakthrough, to building the means to travel to distant
stars, far flung regions of the galaxy, and yet we are in danger on
Earth of destroying ourselves and our own humanity, in avarice, self
centeredness, obsession with profit, in conflict, in ignorance and in
irrationality. We are standing so near to the gate to the heavens, and
yet we are still utterly humbled by our species' savagery, brutality,
and unwillingness to cooperate together for the mutual progress of all
to a greater destiny than most are able to imagine possible.
To be the President in this time is similar to being the president
when the first satellites were launched, or when the first men were
launched into space and to the moon. Now truly, we come to a time,
when anything is possible in America including the conquest of space,
as only science fiction once dreamt of it. When we talk of budgets,
deficits, and government spending, we again place barriers in the way
of real progress. Genuine science, and technological advance,
invention and innovation, must never be allowed to suffer from the
effects of a failed system, and its failed reliance on fiscal policies
that become the sole obstacle to real progress. This is a time when
monetary policies of the past must not be allowed to stand in the way
of real progress and particularly scientific and technical progress at
the gateway to our species’ destiny. Where the existing system does
not provide the means to progress, we must change the system and
further than progress. Time is never on our side, and any brilliance
is but a momentary spark in infinity. We cannot afford to waste even
one tiny spark of intelligence. Where existing beliefs and policies
cripple talents and efforts, they must be changed. Whether we will see
sufficient change, under President Obama remains a question, but it is
the most vital question that humanity as a whole has ever come to
face.
Of particular significance in President Obama’s speech is the
recognition as to the necessity of the watchful eye, in commerce,
science and technology, to assure that human good is served, along
with the liberty necessary for genuine innovation and invention, while
safeguarding against corrupt and evil intent. As new technological
frontiers are breached, the ever present danger shifts towards a
greater danger from within than that which was always perceived from
outside. The new advances are more perilous, than any that came
before, and it requires greater foresight and wisdom to manage and
guide human progress to its impending and true destiny. President
Obama already hints that he realizes in principle, the necessity that
technical and scientific advancement imposes, for education in ethics,
in morality of use, and for wisdom to guide progress which otherwise
would most easily be led astray into dangerous and evil purposes. Any
tool can be used for good or evil, and has no good or evil in its own
nature as to itself. When we realize that fact we know that it all
depends on improving education.
It was noteworthy that Abraham Lincoln was present as a material
legacy. In many ways Abraham Lincoln failed to finish the work that he
claimed as champion. The connection between Barack Obama and Abraham
Lincoln now seems more akin to that unfinishedness. The train ride,
Lincoln’s Bible, and a repast styled after Lincoln’s own preferences,
appears to mark Lincoln’s legacy of an idea that was never really
began to be most fully realized until a century later. In many ways
America’s history since the Civil War has been largely confined to
concentration on material legacy, and somewhat obsessed with that side
of its own life. I think President Obama has exactly that problem in
mind. While Lincoln’s idea of emancipation provided a hope, the lack
of any greater illumination lasted for generations, and in fact gained
slow momentum from the early decades of the 20th century into the
civil rights movement of nearly 45 years ago.
Nevertheless Lincoln’s legacy provided for significant material
progress, but without equality as to enjoyment of it. It was a long
and very arduous journey from the days of Lincoln to these times of
Obama, and it also warns us as to how long a time it can take for real
change to become effective, from the inception of a new idea to where
it is most fully realized. The material connections with Lincoln’s
legacy, of an idea, take on a strangely symbolic role in the pageant
of inauguration and progress. Interesting in the fact that America and
the world cannot wait that long for slow increments of social,
technical, political, environmental, and economic progress. Lifetimes
too are much shorter than that, and cycles of economic turbulence,
consistent instability, and faltering principles, have eaten away at
countless lives. Where conservatism, of Lincoln's time and subsequent
to that time, continually battered the very idea of real progress,
President Obama, now champions progress, in a very human form rather
than as a legacy of historic artifact and custom. It is that change
that I see picking itself up off the floor and dusting itself off, to
take on the challenge. Material legacy is not enough. Humanity must be
more fully considered. That is the humanity, inclusive of the true
potential, of every person.
Some things remain unclear. There were nuances of realization that
although we all now know that we cannot divide less and less among
more and more, until little of anything remains for anyone, there are
those who have very much more than they themselves really need or can
possibly use. The Cold War era was a pitched battle between those who
believed in the principle of dividing everything among an infinite
number, and those who opposed that in practice and principle. Although
it remains unclear in President Obama’s speech, it might be hoped that
we are entering a time when both infinite population growth, and
unlimited market growth, are both seen as dangerous and destructive
tendencies. A time when growth is no longer measured by recourse to
unlimited production and consumption, with little regard as to what is
produced and consumed in terms of any higher criteria of value beyond
immediate profit. That population growth has been dangerously
increased by policies that define population as market, without regard
for long term consequences to the environment and human quality of
life. Thanks to previous administrations rebuilding a globalized
America is in fact very much a rebuilding of more than America itself,
and needs to have profound consideration for that globalized reality,
beyond its previous self centeredness, which it carelessly sought to
proselytize across an entire planet.
The quality of human life, its inherent value, the values of positive
culture, can only be preserved in terms of lasting values, inclusive
of lasting material values that fight the evils of obsolescence, and
an increasingly disposable view of everything that comprises society
and its products. The world cannot withstand the globalization of
those values, and their radical overthrow will continue to be a major
challenge to the success of any long term success in rebuilding
America and its already globalized influence.
When things of truer value are made, expressing originalities,
talents, craftsmanship and ingenuity, people who make them are also
given value.
Despite the need to gradually expand and improve the quality of public
transit, throughout America’s cities, the automobile remains a pillar
of American life. Will we begin with the primary symbol of the
American economic dream, the American automobile, redesigned for the
real needs of this new era ? Will we see a vehicle built to last,
rather then predestined to the scrap heap and its energy wasteful
environmental degradation ? Will cars and trucks, from President
Obama’s era, last 20 or more years ? Will lasting quality be made
more affordable to more people, by removing the costly impact of
automotive fashion, from the provision of quality, affordable, lasting
value in transportation ? Lasting a longer time, is paid for across a
longer span of time, and an improvement in value. What will happen
with automotive craft will invariably impact many other areas of
economic activity. Will we see the resurgence of real craftsmanship
and quality as the saving grace to both economy and environment ? Is
this where the billions in automotive bailout loans end up going ?
Will the money now being provided, and spent, truly rebuild America
and its values into something that can be a suitable model for this
new phase in the world’s economic development ? The plight of the
automakers are merely a symptom of a much deeper and debilitating
illness. There are cures, but the medicine is unconventional, and many
will be reluctant and afraid to accept as radical a therapy as is
required for survival. The same has become true throughout the
economic sphere.
An apocalyptic economics, of here today and gone tomorrow, has gained
control, and won over popular belief, when what is most needed are
lasting values. This too is a Cold War legacy, in its impact upon the
mass psyche.
The time of live for today, and today's profits, and forget about
tomorrow, has gone, along with the Cold War. This is a different time,
needing different values.
What previous administrations have done, will now have to be undone.
In some ways some of the values that Abraham Lincoln knew of, in his
America, can provide valuable lessons for today. Then too, a war,
brought apocalyptic disaster, with an exceptionally long period of
slow recovery from its effects. We are still attempting to recover
from a century of war, including WWI, WWII, Korean, Vietnam, and Cold
War, and a number of lesser military involvements, and it will not be
an easy recovery. It will be further complicated by the unfamiliar
choice of peace, requiring a Commander in Chief, an elder statesman, a
senior diplomat, who is exceptionally capable at maintaining,
promoting, and where necessary enforcing, the peace. Only in that way
can the rebuilding truly succeed. Can President Obama succeed in this
exceptional task ? It is the hope of the world and certainly he
cannot do it alone. Where new means and ways are necessitated to bring
about, restore and maintain peace, to protect civilian populations, to
preserve and further the ideals of liberty, and to further the
creation of an effective, empowered, international justice system, to
enforce peaceful resolution of differences and disputes, will the
President have the courage to empower those means fully and
unhesitatingly ? Previous administrations tended to falter and fall
short, mired in an excess of conservatism, often failing to uphold
fundamental principles of progressive civilization.
We know that peace keeping and peace enforcement, and the enforcement
of internationally empowered governing resolutions, needs military
power to back what is right, in the same way as cities, communities,
need the power of policing to maintain order, and to battle crime.
Wayward city gangs, and organized crime, are not so very much
different from predatory nations who attack their own civilians, or
the people of other nations. The world needs international enforcement
of international resolve to peace. Will President Obama back that new
paradigm, and help to change the world ? Can we now break away from
the 20th century, mired in constant conflict, and from the Cold War
contentions of the past ?
That and many other questions remain to be answered, as they no doubt
will be answered. The question is whether America will truly regain
the lead, as to real progress. We have already learned that good does
not come from what is poorly managed, poorly led, poorly directed, and
left abandoned in what becomes a socio-economic wilderness. Industry,
commerce, the stock market, is no exception to that fact. Those too
have become lost in that wilderness. Will President Obama, restore
real leadership, and thus real progress in terms of genuine liberty,
real wisdom, real truth, and positive material values consistent with
real and meaningful progress to America and the world community ? Can
President Obama lead America out of the wilderness and to a world of
promise where the good is really possible once again ? Can the
watchful eye be restored to a role of benevolence, serving true
liberty, real progress, and achievement of human potential, rather
than being subverted to the role of miserly dragon, guarding the
surplus wealth of a relatively few ?
Robert Ezergailis