His address spoke of progress and unity, of the equal power of individuals, be they black (like him - yes, the president of the United States is black), female, straight or gay, a term that speaks to me of my own personal journey. He promises a vision of possibility that I cannot turn from in skepticism.
I can't stress how much witnessing this is humbling and incredible to me, a moment that I will carry with me as living, breathing history. This man is being elected to lead a country many miles from me, I know that this should not matter to me in the way it does, above and beyond the politics of my own nation, but the fact is that in a world that gradually becomes more and more international, Obama promises a unique rallying cry that can be heard across the globe.
"Yes we can," and finally the 00s - the 'naughties' - in the States, Britain and much of the world, have transitioned from the political mire that thus far defined them, moved away from obsessions with the attacks of September 11 and from the baby-boomer trans-Atlantic special relationship of Blair and Bush, and onto a new era.
Welcome to the future.
2 comments:
It's amazing to think how carried away the whole World has gotten with Obama, considering he's only meant to be in charge of America. I think it speaks a world about his charisma and charm (or alternatively, the black holes of personality which make up most other politicians) that one man can inspire the world the way he has.
So far!
I think it speaks more of the strained sense of limbo the rest of the world felt with Bush in charge. The US's broad cultural and political hegemony means that changes in American politics have more than just a simple ripple effect on the rest of the world - they have an almost undemocratic direct influence on our own country's domestic, eceonomic and foreign policies, let alone the sort of art and culture we get to experience tangentially from the readjusted American machine. So the rest of the world in a sense invests more faith in the US presidential elections than the American voting public ever does, because without any influence on a result that has so great an impact faith is all they have, as they stand by and hope for change.
That said, I do now find this post cringe-worthily naive and trite. I think I was sleep-starved.
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