[MD] Congratulations America!

[david buchanan]

Mati quoted Obama:"To those -- to those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope. That's the true genius of America: that America can change. Our union can be perfected. What we've already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow."dmb says:Good to hear from you Mati.I should be doing my work but this moment is big and I just can't resist the temptation to comment. Apologies to gav, but I can't resist the temptation to gush a little.Obama's acceptance speech was not "rhetoric", except in the Pirsigian sense, by which I mean "excellence in thought and speech". It would have been very impressive even if he were a well-rehearsed actor doing a scene in West Wing or some hopeful movie. The delivery was pitch-perfect, the stagecraft was invisible. The style of delivery and the substance of the ideas fit together just right. But it wasn't just a movie. It was actual history in real time. It was a sublime moment.I'd ask gav to notice the part where he says, "NOT from the might of our arms", and I'd suggest that his threat to "defeat" "those who would tear down the world" should be seen in that context. He's no pacifist or anything and he certainly can't afford to look weak but he does think the macho tough-guy pose is a stupid posture for conducting foreign affairs. I suppose his attitude is that you gotta have a gun in the tool box, but it should be a big one with lots of other tools in it.And notice how he attributes our "true strength" to ideals rather than guns or money. Doesn't that strike you as a case of putting intellectual values over social level values? I think so. This is immediately followed by locating the source of our "true genius" in an openness to change, putting the dynamic over all. It looks forward by looking back at the pattern of historical change and it does so with a reasonable hope that we can make things better. For a guy that's only giving a political speech and not even trying to be a philosopher, I think he's saying some very MOQish things. I can see how it could smell of nationalism - our strength, our genius - but considering the substance of the remarks, the way it sets priorities in terms of these values, and the context of having just been elected to our highest office, it is was entirely appropriate the nation's self-image and all that. It would have been enough for me just to stop the slide toward being a police state but I think we probably did a lot better than that.Two cents, dmb
_________________________________________________________________
Stay up to date on your PC, the Web, and your mobile phone with Windows Live
http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/119462413/direct/01/