Obama’s speech
Like many others I suspect, I awoke earlyish this morning to listen to the inauguration speech of new American President Barrack Obama. It was, as anticipated an inspiring speech. The guy is a gifted orator, and I would like his speech writer to help script some sermons I hade to endure (and preach). It was a speech about new beginnings, about strength in times of adversity, and a progressive approach to America’s leadership in international affairs. It was a speech of hope – one of the great yet often overlooked Christian virtues. Ironically, perhaps most powerful was not the content of the speech but the colour of the speaker.
Given all that, why was I so unsettled – why did I have alarm bells going off in the back of my mind? Because Obama is being positioned (or positioning himself) as a saviour. A saviour of the underprivileged; a saviour of a nation in recession; and a saviour of America as the leader of the so called free world.
That’s no small order! Is he up to the task? Is anyone up to that task? I suspect not. I say this not because I believe one person cannot make a difference. They can. The previous American president (with some help from Osama Bin Laden and others) made a difference. But unfortunately it’s easier to get things wrong (or at least flawed) than it is to get them right. Obama’s speech was full of dualisms. In my opinion false dichotomies. Bush’s administration did not get it all wrong, and Obama’s will not get it all right. No administration will get it all wrong or all right. They will all be somewhere in the middle. It’s a question of degree, not kind.
Further, there are many things, such as hurricanes, or the behaviour of foreign powers or economic markets which are by and large outside the influence of American presidents, whatever their persuasion. Nor is the case to say that if managed well, the environment, or the middle east, or the economy will fix itself. There will always be natural disasters, wars, and greed induced market crashes.
While we all hope that this president will be better than the last, history tells us that to hope in humanity somehow fixing itself and the world progressively is a misplaced hope. That hope needs to be placed in another saviour.