(This
is a “dated” entry, written during the 2008 American Presidential Campaign,
before I started posting entries on this blog. In the present posting, it
becomes the opening entry of a short “Obama”
series, and, as such, it regains its currency, especially considering that it
is being posted on the day of President Obama’s second official swearing in
ceremony. It will be followed tomorrow by another “dated” entry, written two
years later, in 2010, and lastly by a 2013 update, thus creating a chain of
historical continuity.)
Preamble of a wishful thinker…
Some
people advise us never to put all eggs in one basket. Others warn not to seek
our source of happiness outside ourselves, which means beyond our control. Both
are right, but in real life, things do not work that way. What if there is just
one decently looking basket, to put the eggs in? What if in our Quest for the
Holy Grail, our happiness is inextricably linked to the Quest, whose object is
conspicuously outside us and realistically beyond our control?...
As
a professional man, endowed with certain unique qualities, that under perfect
circumstances would have allowed me to make a profound difference in my field
of study, which is world affairs, I have by now come to terms with my abject
failure to achieve my professional objectives, and have semi-retired from an
active pursuit of practical opportunities, reconciling myself with the status
of an outside observer, satisfied that I may still be able to make a difference
by privately commenting on the unfolding events in such writings as these.
But
in my capacity of a private observer, which is presumably moving the gravity
center of my effort from the outside to the inside, the focus of my attention
still remains outside me, and also hopelessly beyond my control. A giant game
is being played out there between the forces of a senseless, self-destructive
reality of the “new American century” and my risky investment in the
American ideal. With such treasure at stake, I cannot pretend to be a neutral
spectator, in fact, I am, by far, one of the most interested parties, with a
stake second to none in the game, which will decide, at least in my mind,
whether the Physician is still capable of healing himself, or
else, the Twilight’s last gleaming bears no prospect of a new dawn.
And
here is where the Obama phenomenon comes into the picture. Nobody understands
the essence of the so-called old thinking better than I do, and both
Senator McCain and Senator Clinton alike are objectively two salesmen of the
same snake oil.
But
with Mr. Obama, this may be very different. Knowing the world as much as I do,
it is surely ready to give Obama a new chance, a new promise of a lease on
leadership of the free world. Conversely, no such lease will be given to either
Ms. Clinton or Mr. McCain. Without the wishful thinking of idealizing a
potential Obama Presidency, he alone has the chance to raise this nation above
its racial and ethnic squabbles to the healthy sense of nationalism, which is
glaringly absent from the Globalist/neoconservative ideologies of the past few
decades. This rebirth of nationalist consciousness may then awaken this nation
to the appreciation of nationalism as such in all its particular manifestations
among the nations of the world, and thus will provide a giant impetus to
international understanding, cooperation, and coexistence, in other words,
laying the foundations of a new, better world order.
There
are no guarantees, of course, that the fresh face of Barack Obama will be enough
to overcome, and to subdue, the forces behind the “neoconservative,” but
in fact “neobipartisan,” Project for the New American Century.
But, at least, he has a chance to succeed, whereas the others, on both sides,
both in the field and on the benches, have none at all.
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