Anas’s Blog

It’s almost impossible to comprehend the monumental significance of the fact that the soon to be most powerful man on Earth is black — especially as he will become so through assuming presidency of a country whose wealth, and hence its power, was founded on the mass importation of african slaves just a few hundred years ago. Alas this significance is mostly symbolic: as far as the policies go, although Obama will provide a welcome respite from the more diabolical excesses of Bush/Cheney,  there’s little to suggest, given his prior words and actions, that we’re going to get much of a deviance from the imperialist neoliberal path pursued by previous administrations. It would be naive to expect Obama’s much trumpeted though nebulously defined policy of “change” to go too much beyond the superficial and cosmetic — though if this means less chance of a war with Iran, the toning down of the obscenely bellicose rhetoric and less overt belligerence this is much to be welcomed.

However, it’s hard not to get swept along with the man’s messianism, his charisma and wealth of oratorial skills. It’s also hard not to feel that Obama’s election means a dampening down of the brazen imperial arrogance that a McCain/Palin win would have signalled and that the previous Bush wins did signal to the rest of the world. Perhaps a majority of Americans have realised – and not a minute too soon -  that America’s stature is rapidly diminishing and the usual patriotic hubris becomes more and more absurd as the years go by. Obama with his message of hope and renewal of faith in the American dream helps to revive some of that spirit of heady optimism that epitomizes all that is most powerful about the idea of America. It also means that for the time being Americans abroad dont have to feel the need to pretend to be Canadian or to continually apologise for the painfully ludicrious figure of George W Bush.

As I said above the symbolism of an Obama win is profound. It helps unravel, to a large extent, some of the more glaring contradictions in the message that America has presented to the world, of liberty and equality for all regardless of superficial differences, of success based on ability and merit — something that clearly wasnt, and still isnt near being reflected in reality notwithstanding the prominent exceptions. It gives the American dream a new lease of life, well perhaps only a brief spurt of life : the core is rotten, war, corruption and greed have prevailed thanks to an infernal eight years of Bush/Cheney, and the ascent of China is becoming more and more irressitible.

Still no more George Bush and no McCain and praise the lord, alhamdullilah, no Sarah Palin.