Dirty South rocks with Speech
Monday, December 10, 2007
(9 p.m. - local time, Columbia, South Carolina)
AL GORE holds his acceptance speech on winning the Nobel Peace Prize on a live broadcast on CNN. Proud Americans clapping heartily. At the same time I see the sheer overload of commercials on TV, and the huge SUV's driven by 20 year old university students on the South Carolina campus and all over the country. I can not help myself thinking that to change consumption patterns will be impossible for this country.
I see the waste that is produced unpacking daily grocery shopping, oversized food portions and obese adults and children. Maybe being a European citizen seeing the American land mass (my own euro-centric rational thought patterns) wasted like this, lets me overwhelmed by the facts. A crisis no longer hidden in my own imagination, it makes another business model for sustainable economy nearly impossible to dream up.
Oprah & Obama stood together beautifully in the football stadium holding hands under a heartily cheering crowd of 35,000 spectators. It was strong, it was beautiful and it was desperate. A desperation transcending 400 years of slavery and colonial and imperial history of the new world made in North America.
The most powerful and rich Afro-American woman in the world teams up with a visionary Afro-American politician to change the world, to bring a paradigm shift that will shake the world. But at the same time the superstructure of the power fields of the industrial and military complex have not embraced sustainable methods of production and distribution.
I wonder if the idealism and integrity of Obamania and truth can win the giant battle that is going on inside American society. Is there a battle going on at all?
According to conventional wisdom and media there is a constant battle everywhere, but what I see is business as usual.
The change necessary to be effective and lasting is so huge now, that even the most powerful personalities like Oprah and Obama feel dwarfed by the challenge ahead.
A task that will require every ignorant citizen to stop, learn, and listen...to feel with their heart and to question what they are doing at present. And I doubt that celebrity endorsements can make a difference for this individual challenge that is often linked to discomfort and pain. Sacrifice? What are you? A communist?
My heart wants to believe that a different president like Obama with good intentions can make a difference. But what I sense is that most people here do not care about politics and who is running the country. They are struggling to survive but support the same system that makes them overmax their credit cards and can not keep pace with their mortgage payments. If they have a minute to relax, they watch TV or play computer games. Escapes into a fantasy world that lets them forget how miserable our situation is at that moment.
As history is only made when the collective ego has reached a crisis point, I feel this country is still far from a personal crisis. The economy booms, people drive huge cars while clubs, bars and restaurants are filled with a thriving middle class whether white, black or brown. Most of the people seem not to care to deeply for the environment or politics - apart from superficial sound bytes or statements they repeat after watching certain programs.
I consider myself not much different from American consumers, since my life is jaded by a deep skepticism that I feel towards consumer capitalism or state-controlled socialist totalitarianism (having grown up in East Germany).
Two opposing ends of systems that have affected my take on life deeply. I never dropped out but also never joined them fully.
I do not believe any longer in dreams - socialist, green or American. Being in-between the front lines, hovering like an informer who snitches bits and pieces of information is my pathology of doubt. Can I solve the puzzles in my own head? With all my getting involved with community action and politics, would I trust in Obama rhetoric enough?
Having lived through the corruption and decay of communism, I am usually holding back on following any political bandwagon. A promises of change where others have failed miserably is easy when George Bush and his administration run the country. But the big question that looms over this for me is like: Can Judeo-Christian idealism (which was the founding superstructure of communist and fascist empires) produce any tangible results that overcome our human conditioning?
Can we overcome opposing political systems inside liberal democracies better known as consumer fascism? What model produces a quality beyond binary (dialectic) thinking that marks the realm of western traditional philosophy?
Maybe if we all would stop suddenly believing in 0 and 1 models then our information systems might have a new chance to transform. But I feel locked inside like so many others. Who needs a breakthrough discovery in philosophy?
Chicago, IL — U.S. Senator Barack Obama released the following statement today on the climate change negotiations in Bali:
“The post-Kyoto climate negotiations that have kicked off in Bali offer an important opportunity for America to re-engage with the rest of the world in taking on one of the greatest challenges of this generation. But we must start by showing the world that we are serious about tackling the climate crisis here at home, which is why I’ve put forth a bold energy plan that would reduce our carbon emissions 80% by 2050. As President, I will also personally reach out to the leaders of the biggest carbon emitting nations and ask them to join America in creating a new Global Energy Forum that can continue the work begun in Bali and lay the foundation for the next generation of climate protocols.
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For Immediate Release
December 10, 2007
Contact: Obama Press Office; (312) 819-2423