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Obama! What an amazing, historical day.
Nov. 5th, 2008 09:02 amI normally don't post at breakfast time but I feel moved to express my complete delight at the American election! Go you, American-citizen listsibs! I am so happy for you! And I am happy for all of us because, cheesy as it sounds, this truly is a historic day for the whole world.
In soccer, commentators very cornily like to intone, "This was a victory for football." Well, I do think that this was a victory for democracy. I always get moved to tears by democracy at work. (I weep at the Olympics, during football, and during democracy. Yes, I know that weeping is not equal to rational approval. Aristotle told me so. But still!)
What an impact this is going to have on a whole generation of voters! The lesson that young people learned is 'work for what you hope for, and you'll get it!' What an amazing lesson. I only now realise to what extent I had written off American voters. The past few elections have really only taught us that you can't make a difference and that the democratic process is flawed. For me, it's not September 2001 that's been the biggest disaster in recent American history but the preceding Florida ballot debâle. That debâle just made a mockery of democracy. But now? How amazing. I am so relieved and happy that the victory was unequivocal and not by a tiny margin.
I looked at all those people in that Chicago park on TV last night. The very irritating and disappointing BBC television coverage last night kept insisting that this was a 'black presidential candidate' and 'of course, he was going to get the black vote'. How stupid is that comment! Yes, at one level this is true but do people vote only for reasons of race? No, they voted for Obama because they believe in his policies and attitudes. And what struck me about that crowd in Chicago was what a motley crew it was, a wonderful mixed bag of everybody. In fact, the characteristic they did mostly share was youth. (Perhaps because it's mainly young people who're going to squash themselves onto a grass lawn for hours in the evening... *g*)
The more middle-aged I get and the older my children grow, the more moved I am by youth. They forge on, and while older people might sigh and say 'been there, done that, here we go round the mulberry bush', the young think everything is new and made just for them, and they have such a lot of get-up-and-go. I am so happy that young people in America learned yesterday that their vote can change their world!
Also, democracy? How awesome is democracy!! I was converted to it during the late 1980s when my university staged protests and sit-ins and for a whole semester took over the campus. We lived and breathed in seminar rooms; we held votes; we went on strike! We locked the professors out and ran our own seminars. I was politicised and energised! (That was my own youth, *g*.)
I think of all the people of this world, and they are probably the majority, who have never had the experience of walking into a polling booth and casting a secret vote in an election that is really open, with debates, discussions, differences between candidates and no repercussions for those who don't vote as they 'should'. There is nothing like it. It is a tremendous and precious right that was struggled for over centuries. Democracy does not at all come naturally to humans. I think it has to be learned and practised. What comes naturally is dictatorship and autocracy and rule from above because above 'knows best' and 'we need a strong leader'. That's how most of the world is run.
I love democracy.
In soccer, commentators very cornily like to intone, "This was a victory for football." Well, I do think that this was a victory for democracy. I always get moved to tears by democracy at work. (I weep at the Olympics, during football, and during democracy. Yes, I know that weeping is not equal to rational approval. Aristotle told me so. But still!)
What an impact this is going to have on a whole generation of voters! The lesson that young people learned is 'work for what you hope for, and you'll get it!' What an amazing lesson. I only now realise to what extent I had written off American voters. The past few elections have really only taught us that you can't make a difference and that the democratic process is flawed. For me, it's not September 2001 that's been the biggest disaster in recent American history but the preceding Florida ballot debâle. That debâle just made a mockery of democracy. But now? How amazing. I am so relieved and happy that the victory was unequivocal and not by a tiny margin.
I looked at all those people in that Chicago park on TV last night. The very irritating and disappointing BBC television coverage last night kept insisting that this was a 'black presidential candidate' and 'of course, he was going to get the black vote'. How stupid is that comment! Yes, at one level this is true but do people vote only for reasons of race? No, they voted for Obama because they believe in his policies and attitudes. And what struck me about that crowd in Chicago was what a motley crew it was, a wonderful mixed bag of everybody. In fact, the characteristic they did mostly share was youth. (Perhaps because it's mainly young people who're going to squash themselves onto a grass lawn for hours in the evening... *g*)
The more middle-aged I get and the older my children grow, the more moved I am by youth. They forge on, and while older people might sigh and say 'been there, done that, here we go round the mulberry bush', the young think everything is new and made just for them, and they have such a lot of get-up-and-go. I am so happy that young people in America learned yesterday that their vote can change their world!
Also, democracy? How awesome is democracy!! I was converted to it during the late 1980s when my university staged protests and sit-ins and for a whole semester took over the campus. We lived and breathed in seminar rooms; we held votes; we went on strike! We locked the professors out and ran our own seminars. I was politicised and energised! (That was my own youth, *g*.)
I think of all the people of this world, and they are probably the majority, who have never had the experience of walking into a polling booth and casting a secret vote in an election that is really open, with debates, discussions, differences between candidates and no repercussions for those who don't vote as they 'should'. There is nothing like it. It is a tremendous and precious right that was struggled for over centuries. Democracy does not at all come naturally to humans. I think it has to be learned and practised. What comes naturally is dictatorship and autocracy and rule from above because above 'knows best' and 'we need a strong leader'. That's how most of the world is run.
I love democracy.