The speech President Obama will deliver in a few hours may be his last chance to make a difference over the next three years.
In order to get elected he had to offer hope and belief in a change for the better.
After an inspiring Inaugural speech, instead of taking on a thousand windmills, he should have taken stock and then a few weeks later started to prepare citizens for the future.
The current administration inherited a incredible number of problems that have been mishandled and made worse over the past 37 years by both political clans.
In addition, the current administration inherited the smoldering ruins from specific responses to crises that arose over the past decade. It is as if someone (Uncle Dick?) said: “What is the worst way to respond to this event?”
And THAT became the administration’s policy: 11 September 01 (“go shopping,” while we start two wars) economic stagnation (lower the interest rates to stimulate ‘growth’ and subsidize Large, Private vehicles); citizen well being (Buy more house than you need in places you can only reach with a Large, Private vehicle); protect health and safety (Do not enforce existing health and safety regulations); the list is endless…
Today’s WaPo has a nice one pager (A-4) that outlines seven broad categories of Obama promises and how far he has gotten. Not far.
There is a bigger problem:
Joel Achenbach nails that problem in “Americans are all for being against everything” also in today’s WaPo
Citizens are not prepared for the Transformations that will be necessary to achieve a sustainable trajectory for civilization. They want an economic ‘recovery’ that will take them back to where they think that they do not have to worry about anything beyond optimizing their short term profit and pleasure form Mass OverConsumption and Business-As-Usual.
After all, that is what both major political clans have promised would happen if you vote for “our” candidate.
We will explore why this is the case in more depth in “What the Future Holds” forthcoming, but here is a quote from the rough draft:
“Lets start with what is behind and beyond ‘The current fiscal status of nation-state, state and municipal Agencies.’ In the comments following Peter’s 30 November post “Going Vertical,” Groveton said:
“In the end, a nation only has so much wealth. We have overspent our asset base many times over. Our exploding entitlement programs get the current politicians votes at the cost of our country’s future.”
“From the example given, it appears Groveton is equating “nation” and federal Agencies. There is solid fact behind that statement but it is only the tip of the iceberg.
…………
“The problem with Groveton’s observation, the MainStream Media headlines (omitted here) and Ruth Marcus’ first grim reality (a brief paraphrase of Jim Bacon’s Boomergeddon) is that they are not comprehensive enough.
“It is NOT just nation-state Agencies or even ALL Agencies that have over spent. That is still just the first layer – to use the Hazel Henderson analogy. It is the tip of the only iceberg THAT IS NOT MELTING.
“Not just Agencies but Citizens, Households and Enterprises have overspent. They were led to believe “a growing economy raises all boats” regardless of what makes it ‘grow.’ Mass OverConsumption is sinking all boats. It is sinking the private boats of the vast majority of citizens and their Households. It is also sinking the collective boats of citizen’s Organizations – Enterprises, Institutions AND Agencies.”
EMR tends to agree with what Peter and the early comments on his Obama post (“Its Really Business As Usual”) but how is that grim reality going to change / Transform? Only if citizens believe it must change / Transform.
Can Obama pull it off? If he does not, it may be a decade before citizens are ready to listen again and in a decade how much of the once bountiful resource base will be left to support the Transformation?
As readers of Chapter 1 of The Shape of the Future know, Clinton’s State of the Union speeches play and important role in depicting why Clinton / Gore were not able to understand human settlement patterns or contribute to evolving a sustainable trajectory. Hopefully Obama will do a better job.
The best preparation for tonight’s speech may be to reread (surely you have read it at least once) Amitai Etzioni’s 17 June 09 The New Republic essay “Spent” that has been republished by Utne as “Get Rich Now” in the Jan / Feb issue.
Etzioni does an incredible job of laying out the difference between consumption and consumerism (aka, Mass OverConsumption) the Green Menace. In four pages he wraps up the Communitarian and Transcendental alternatives to Mass OverConsumption. The essay outlines the fundamentals of “A New Metric of Human Well Being” (PART V of TRILO-G)
We can only hope Obama read Etzioni when he was framing what he was going to try to communicate in preparing citizens for the future.
EMR
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