some words
I just wrote what follows as a response to someone in my last entry, but I think my words have wider relevance, so I'm posting them here as a separate entry. Let me preface it by saying this: when I started this journal something like eight or nine years ago, I had a wide variety of people reading it, including quite a few with who I disagree on a range of issues. After 911, livejournal polarized, and for one reason or another, nearly all of those people departed (or I departed them) from my friends list. One conservative remained. I kept him on my list, and he kept me on mine (I assume), because we respect each other, because there's more to life than agreeing on political issues. It's possible to disagree on things and still communicate. I'll repeat that: it's possible to disagree on things and still communicate. Remember that. The US is a polarized place, severely polarized, and once, not long ago, it was much less polarized. Livejournal, and much of the internet, in fact, has become a huge echo chamber. All those voices you hear, you know, the ones agreeing with everything you think and say...they're not the only valid voices out there. Other perspectives matter. Sometimes it's hard to find those other voices. Sometimes it's painful to listen to them. Sometimes you hear them and retain your ideas, deciding that those other voices are wrong. But you know what? Sometimes those other voices end up being right. You won't know that unless you listen to them. Give them a chance sometime. Chances are, you're resilient enough to bear the risk.
Anyway, here's what I wrote to my friend when he expressed surprise that I'm pleased with the US election result. I'll just add the impression I've given him (the impression that led him to believe I wouldn't be so pleased) is a valid one. He's seen that I'm willing to listen to other points of view, that I think on my own and don't blindly accept other people's rhetoric. What he perhaps didn't quite see is that I can think critically and doubt other people's words while still agreeing with some of their basic premises, just as I can disagree with some people and still respect their point of view. Etc.
I left the US because I couldn't bear to live in a country which starts unjust wars and tortures people and which had utterly abandoned its ideals. And I watched as every single thing the Bush administration touched turned to crap, and how nearly every Republican in office was corrupt in one way or another. What would possess me, or anyone for that matter, to support any Republican whatsoever? Not that I ever have in the first place, but since I'm pretty much of a centrist except for equality issues (which I'm solidly left on), I've always been willing to give some benefit of the doubt to politicians on both sides of the political divide. But even if I supported McCain, which I do not, his choice of Sarah Palin as a VP was obscene. That she had any chance of becoming the President of the US is utterly outrageous.
So even if I didn't support Obama, I would have voted for him, because the alternative, continuing _any_ of the policies of the Bush administration, or putting someone utterly, utterly unqualified to be President (Sarah Palin) near the summit of the US government, would have made me choose Obama.
But in any case, I do support Obama. Totally. I saw your post earlier. It's ridiculous. I'm sorry to have to say this, but you, my friend, have been hoodwinked by right wing rhetoric. Obama is the best thing to happen to the US in a long, long, long, long time. The whole world has been waiting for this moment. The US has an opportunity to move, solidly, into the 21st Century. On virtually every issue, the US has lost the respect of everyone. I don't know if you can see that from inside the states, but from here, it is overwhelmingly clear that the US has entirely lost the respect of the rest of the world. That should matter to you. How is the US supposed to follow its ideals if no one else trusts or believes that the US can live up to those ideals?
Today, this very day, this very moment, the US has regained a lot of that respect. Do you hear what I'm saying? Simply by electing Obama. And, of course, because the other countries of the world want to give the US the benefit of the doubt. I've seen this, though I don't have time right now to go into detail. The rest of the world wants the US to live up to its ideals, and last night, it did just that. This is the first, the very first, time in a number of years when the US did actually live up to one of its ideals, and the rest of the world is ecstatic. ECSTATIC. This should matter to you. This should make you question all the information you've been spoonfed. I know that you are intelligent. I know that you think critically about the information you receive. However, I'm telling you, it's not enough. You need to step outside your world and look at what's going on from an entirely different perspective. The rest of the world has been looking on in horror at the US, and for the first time, they are breathing a collective sigh of relief.
Does this mean that Obama is some sort of superman who is going to change the world and live up to everyone's expectations? Of course not. Being the President is an impossibly difficult task. He has his work cut out for him, and nobody is going to agree with everything he does. That's the point of having a democracy: the people get to judge the leaders and change them if necessary. Your fears are groundless. You've already lived through a nightmare, whether you fully recognize it or not. Right wing policies have done incredible damage to the US. That doesn't mean that left wing policies are going to be perfect. They're not. The US needs perspectives from both sides, from every side. All I will say for certain is that this is a genuine chance for the US to move forward again. It's a genuine chance for recovery, and you should support that.
I don't say all this lightly. You should step back and out of your comfortable perspectives and think deeply about what has been going on. Your fear and cynicism, though warranted, are not the final word. There's room in this world for hope and striving for ideals. The cynical, fearful world you live in (the world that the US has become, and it has truly become a cynical fearful place) is not the only world. There are plenty of places in the world (I live in one of them) where cynicism and fear are hardly present at all. There are places of peace in the world, and there's no reason whatsoever why the US can't be one of those places. The world is a bigger place than you know. I'm not saying this as a personal attack. I respect you very much and want you to imagine the possibility that something amazing has just happened, and that maybe it's a good thing.
Anyway, here's what I wrote to my friend when he expressed surprise that I'm pleased with the US election result. I'll just add the impression I've given him (the impression that led him to believe I wouldn't be so pleased) is a valid one. He's seen that I'm willing to listen to other points of view, that I think on my own and don't blindly accept other people's rhetoric. What he perhaps didn't quite see is that I can think critically and doubt other people's words while still agreeing with some of their basic premises, just as I can disagree with some people and still respect their point of view. Etc.
I left the US because I couldn't bear to live in a country which starts unjust wars and tortures people and which had utterly abandoned its ideals. And I watched as every single thing the Bush administration touched turned to crap, and how nearly every Republican in office was corrupt in one way or another. What would possess me, or anyone for that matter, to support any Republican whatsoever? Not that I ever have in the first place, but since I'm pretty much of a centrist except for equality issues (which I'm solidly left on), I've always been willing to give some benefit of the doubt to politicians on both sides of the political divide. But even if I supported McCain, which I do not, his choice of Sarah Palin as a VP was obscene. That she had any chance of becoming the President of the US is utterly outrageous.
So even if I didn't support Obama, I would have voted for him, because the alternative, continuing _any_ of the policies of the Bush administration, or putting someone utterly, utterly unqualified to be President (Sarah Palin) near the summit of the US government, would have made me choose Obama.
But in any case, I do support Obama. Totally. I saw your post earlier. It's ridiculous. I'm sorry to have to say this, but you, my friend, have been hoodwinked by right wing rhetoric. Obama is the best thing to happen to the US in a long, long, long, long time. The whole world has been waiting for this moment. The US has an opportunity to move, solidly, into the 21st Century. On virtually every issue, the US has lost the respect of everyone. I don't know if you can see that from inside the states, but from here, it is overwhelmingly clear that the US has entirely lost the respect of the rest of the world. That should matter to you. How is the US supposed to follow its ideals if no one else trusts or believes that the US can live up to those ideals?
Today, this very day, this very moment, the US has regained a lot of that respect. Do you hear what I'm saying? Simply by electing Obama. And, of course, because the other countries of the world want to give the US the benefit of the doubt. I've seen this, though I don't have time right now to go into detail. The rest of the world wants the US to live up to its ideals, and last night, it did just that. This is the first, the very first, time in a number of years when the US did actually live up to one of its ideals, and the rest of the world is ecstatic. ECSTATIC. This should matter to you. This should make you question all the information you've been spoonfed. I know that you are intelligent. I know that you think critically about the information you receive. However, I'm telling you, it's not enough. You need to step outside your world and look at what's going on from an entirely different perspective. The rest of the world has been looking on in horror at the US, and for the first time, they are breathing a collective sigh of relief.
Does this mean that Obama is some sort of superman who is going to change the world and live up to everyone's expectations? Of course not. Being the President is an impossibly difficult task. He has his work cut out for him, and nobody is going to agree with everything he does. That's the point of having a democracy: the people get to judge the leaders and change them if necessary. Your fears are groundless. You've already lived through a nightmare, whether you fully recognize it or not. Right wing policies have done incredible damage to the US. That doesn't mean that left wing policies are going to be perfect. They're not. The US needs perspectives from both sides, from every side. All I will say for certain is that this is a genuine chance for the US to move forward again. It's a genuine chance for recovery, and you should support that.
I don't say all this lightly. You should step back and out of your comfortable perspectives and think deeply about what has been going on. Your fear and cynicism, though warranted, are not the final word. There's room in this world for hope and striving for ideals. The cynical, fearful world you live in (the world that the US has become, and it has truly become a cynical fearful place) is not the only world. There are plenty of places in the world (I live in one of them) where cynicism and fear are hardly present at all. There are places of peace in the world, and there's no reason whatsoever why the US can't be one of those places. The world is a bigger place than you know. I'm not saying this as a personal attack. I respect you very much and want you to imagine the possibility that something amazing has just happened, and that maybe it's a good thing.