Raconteurs are skilled, colorful storytellers who can entertain and often inspire his or her listeners. Perhaps no one was any better at such mastery than Barack Obama. At 8:00 Saturday mornning, December 6, 2008, Obama took center stage in front of the O.U.T.R.A.G.E. television cameras and enthralled viewers with his personal tales of struggle and tenacity that brought him to the limelight of American politics. It was the perfect way to start a day which would be devoted to a roundtable discussion of how to 'get America back on track'. It had been ten months of general despair, disillusionment, and depression as Americans suffered horrific personal losses of family, friends, finances, fortune and futures. Millions were out of work; millions had no homes. Millions were hungry, sick, injured, or spiritless. Those who just months before owned beautiful houses, drove luxurious automobiles, ate in fancy restaurants, and enjoyed the "great American dream" now found themselves mired in a muck of devastating personal and financial losses, unable to cope with the tragic events that had overtaken them in recent months. Obama, joined by John McCain and Colin Powell, made the case for America abandoning its position as a world leader and global peacekeeper. "We must focus all of our energies on our own people," Obama stated resolutely. In a sense, it was a hollow resolution since everyone already understood that the U.S.A. had lost its status ever since the Bush administration's moronic invasions of Iraq and Iran. Nations around the globe had lost faith in the U.S.A. Daily demonstrations degrading the United States as an 'evil empire' came back to haunt George W. Bush as his political impotence and unbelieveable mismanagement continued to drag America down in the eyes of the world.
Americans had become the fat, lazy, soft underbelly of all of Earth's humanity.
And nobody recognized that vulnerability more than the rest of the world.
For a hundred years, America's puffery had bullied the world into believing that what was in America's 'best interests' was also in the best interests of the world. Now, other developing nations were beginning to recognize that they, too, had their own "best interests" at stake; they, too, deserved their own rung on the worldwide ladder to success and prosperity for their people.
Barack Obama knew that America was in no position to start picking fights with the rest of the civilized world. United States citizens were in turmoil, suffering as a result of their own apathy. Americans had squandered their wealth on their own personal gluttony. Only 5% of the world's population, Americans had been used to hoarding 55% of the world's natural resources. Now it was the rest of the world's turn to share in some of that avarice. Obama knew America could no longer hold title to being the world's strongest, toughest, richest survivor of the fittest. America's fitness had turned to flab, and this recent series of tragic circumstances demonstrated to the world how weak the U.S.A. had become.
Everyone had been used to the rich guy flaunting his money by consuming bottles of imported champagnes or $100 filet mignon meals. Everybody accepted that Americans 'needed' an extravagant home with five bathrooms, four garages, and six bedrooms - even though only three people inhabited the house. No one in America was appalled by the fact that so many motorists drove $75,000 gas-guzzling SUVs - vehicles that were designed to hold eight people, but more often than not only carried the driver on his seven-mile round trip to and from work. We had become a country of goldbrickers. We honestly believed we 'worked hard for what we had' and therefore were not obligated to share our good fortune with the rest of the world....particularly those whom we had come to hate. Muslims who chanted 'Death to America' were despised. Americans failed to recognize what they recognized: we were a society of sloth. We'd had it too good for too long.
Whether Americans liked it or not, they were going to be forced to share their wealth with the rest of the world in ways they never would have imagined less than a year ago. The tumescence of America always being top-dog had tumbled into a tumultuous tousle of troubled truth: America was no longer the top-dog. America was now the under dog.
Kirt Russell's provocative movie, 'Escape from New York' came to mind. America was in the throes of despair....and Americans had to pull themselves up by their collective bootstraps and come together for the "good" of the nation. It was, afterall, in the nation's "best interests" to do so.
Americans had become the fat, lazy, soft underbelly of all of Earth's humanity.
And nobody recognized that vulnerability more than the rest of the world.
For a hundred years, America's puffery had bullied the world into believing that what was in America's 'best interests' was also in the best interests of the world. Now, other developing nations were beginning to recognize that they, too, had their own "best interests" at stake; they, too, deserved their own rung on the worldwide ladder to success and prosperity for their people.
Barack Obama knew that America was in no position to start picking fights with the rest of the civilized world. United States citizens were in turmoil, suffering as a result of their own apathy. Americans had squandered their wealth on their own personal gluttony. Only 5% of the world's population, Americans had been used to hoarding 55% of the world's natural resources. Now it was the rest of the world's turn to share in some of that avarice. Obama knew America could no longer hold title to being the world's strongest, toughest, richest survivor of the fittest. America's fitness had turned to flab, and this recent series of tragic circumstances demonstrated to the world how weak the U.S.A. had become.
Everyone had been used to the rich guy flaunting his money by consuming bottles of imported champagnes or $100 filet mignon meals. Everybody accepted that Americans 'needed' an extravagant home with five bathrooms, four garages, and six bedrooms - even though only three people inhabited the house. No one in America was appalled by the fact that so many motorists drove $75,000 gas-guzzling SUVs - vehicles that were designed to hold eight people, but more often than not only carried the driver on his seven-mile round trip to and from work. We had become a country of goldbrickers. We honestly believed we 'worked hard for what we had' and therefore were not obligated to share our good fortune with the rest of the world....particularly those whom we had come to hate. Muslims who chanted 'Death to America' were despised. Americans failed to recognize what they recognized: we were a society of sloth. We'd had it too good for too long.
Whether Americans liked it or not, they were going to be forced to share their wealth with the rest of the world in ways they never would have imagined less than a year ago. The tumescence of America always being top-dog had tumbled into a tumultuous tousle of troubled truth: America was no longer the top-dog. America was now the under dog.
Kirt Russell's provocative movie, 'Escape from New York' came to mind. America was in the throes of despair....and Americans had to pull themselves up by their collective bootstraps and come together for the "good" of the nation. It was, afterall, in the nation's "best interests" to do so.
posted by Bushwacker! at 7:21 AM
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