The so-called "mainstream media" bears a huge responsibility for this, the deaths of millions for their collaboration with Bush/Obama regimes; must be held accountable before any Republic may re-surface in America
World News
By Dallas Darling
01/26/2012
Before
Dante Alighieri descended into hell in the "
Divine Comedy," an inscription above the door read:
Abandon Hope All Ye Who
Enter Here. Listening to
President Barack Obama's
State of the Union Address (
SOTU), this is sadly what I was reminded of. For someone who campaigned on the "audacity of hope," it seemed his speech was more about the "malaise of hope," a kind of sick, depressive state of hope. For a movement and party that promised "change we can hope for," his speech was riddled with not with great and wonderful expectations and idealistic perceptions about the world and ourselves, but with more war and militarism, more corporate greed and extreme individualism, and more global domination and technological determinism. All of which contain the
Seven Deadly Sins, mortal wrongs that lead people and nations into destruction and death.
 |
| Obama the Liar |
It was very revelatory, then, that
President Obama started his
SOTUA by declaring he had just visited
Andrews Air Force Base, where he welcomed
home troops from
Iraq, and for the first time in nine years there were no
Americans fighting there. It was also telling that he announced
Osama bin Laden was no longer a threat, having been assassinated, and the Taliban's momentum in
Afghanistan had been broken. But in an empire where two plus two is five, deceit is a friend of the
State and an enemy of the
People. Thousands of troops still remain in occupied Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tens of thousands of security forces still protect corporate hegemony there too. Wanting Americans to be like the
Armed Forces and offering them and the
American flag a "proud" salute evoked
Dante's definition of perverted hatred and contempt for others, namely the rest of the world.
Perhaps America descended into
Hell and abandoned hope right after
World War II.
Having just defeated
Nazism and
Japanese militarism, not to mention helping to stop the
Holocaust and defending human rights, and then building the greatest economy on earth, it seemed Americans had a hopeful future. But these life-giving aspirations were quickly replaced with more sinister crimes, like nuclear weaponry and the continued maintenance of thousands of military bases around the world. As a militarized economy continued to churn weapons of mass destruction, a reactionary and binary group of political and leaders wrestled foreign policy away from the
American people.
The National Security Council made the
Soviet Union into a permanent enemy, manufacturing over one-hundred military interventions that cost the lives of more than thirty-million people.
 |
| Obama the Betrayer |
As a wrathful national security state and its military replaced the hopeful ideas of freedom and human rights, seeking to no longer win but to dominate the hearts and minds of the world-even if it meant committing horrendous war crimes and atrocities in foreign places like
Korea,
Guatemala,
Iran,
Vietnam,
Chile,
El Salvador,
Lebanon,
Bolivia,
Honduras,
Panama, and many other parts of the world-a greedy and lethal permanent war economy emerged. For
Dante, wrath was uncontrollable hatred and anger, a cycle of revenge that could last for generations.
Greed, also known as covetousness, was a rapacious apatite for resources and a desire for wealth and ultimate power. Hope in providing comfort and aid to others became objectified, extremely materialistic. Resources became more important than life and others, as did trillion dollar offensive military strategies and their budgets.
This is really what President Obama meant, when he said that "we will safeguard America's own security against those who threaten our citizens, our friends, and our interests.
Look at Iran." From the
Persian Gulf to the
Yellow Sea, from the
Barbary Coast to the
North Atlantic, from the
Caribbean to the
Drake Passage, "the renewal of
American leadership can be felt across the globe." But it is not an optimistic leadership. It is a corporate greed and a militant leadership. It promotes advanced weaponry and preemptive wars. Of late, it is a leadership that encourages indefinite detentions, secret renditions, torturous experiments on humans, and covert and overt assassinations and killings. For each successive generation since World War II, hope is new defense strategies and weapons technologies that maim and murder and "ensure the finest military in the world."
 |
| Obama the Tyrant |
For a moment in the national life of America, Vietnam caused it to pause its descent into hell, to reevaluate its abandonment of optimism in life-giving ingenuity and goodness. So did the political and military scandals surrounding
Watergate and the
Pentagon Papers, both of which detailed criminal conduct and war crimes at the highest levels of government. Ironically, though, many Americans had an adverse reaction to such news. Tragically, they descended into the deepest levels of Hell, or indifference, through extreme individualism and corporatism. Through corporate cultures that included promotional gimmicks and gadgets, like Wal-Mart and
Apple, millions of Americans turned inward, or from public to private concerns. And while conspicuous consumption replaced conspicuous citizenship, the Me
Generation replaced the
Greatest Generation.
Americans have forgotten that hope is never acquired through a life of ease. Still yet, willful and optimistic people are those that are publicly engaged and extremely concerned about others and future generations. They are not hopeless but hopemore, and their hopes are healthy and life-giving, ones that promote expanding political and economic rights for others while bettering the livelihoods and opportunities for everyone. Much like Dante's
14th century Florence, where he was exiled from, millions of Americans too are fragmented through political machinations and economic disparities. Many live like outcasts, unable to fully participate in society. Even worse, and through preemptive wars and corporate greed, America has prevented millions of others from around the world from being full-fledged global citizens. Dante defined it as a failure to merely love others.
 |
| Obama the Treacherous |
If all that mattered that day was "the mission," or wanting to kill Osama bin Laden, while millions of Americans were unemployed and homeless and sick and dying due to unaffordable medicines and healthcare, then America is not back. Neither does this kind of misguided and malaise-like hope set a moral example. And perhaps those who perceive and warn that America is in decline or that its influence has waned, do know what they are talking about.
Maybe those who recognize America's descent into Hell and how it has abandoned all hope, replacing it instead with, and allowing it to be redefined by, war and militarism, more corporate greed and extreme individualism, and more global domination and technological determinism, are just as much of a patriotic citizen as the
President himself.
 |
| Obama the Mindless Destroyer |
In this universal drama called life, hope can be misguided. It can become even destructive. Ideals and behaviors have consequences and can either lead to good and beneficial State of the Unions, or deadly and destructive State of the Unions. It is somewhat comforting to know that
Dante's "Divine Comedy" ended in a
Heavenly state.
Instead of boasting about war and militarism and vengeful actions against Osama bin Laden and Iran, instead of declaring America would try and remain a global power, President Obama would have provided a more vigorous and steadfast hope if he had discussed virtues like self-control and simplicity and wisdom and justice.
The audacity of hope should always attempt to ascend into the ethical realms of charity and sharing, or economic and political equality, and forgiveness, compassion and above all, humility.
Dallas Darling darling@wn.com
Dallas Darling is the author of
Politics 501: An
A-Z Reading on Conscientious Political Thought and
Action, Some
Nations Above God: 52 Weekly
Reflections On Modern-Day
Imperialism, Militarism, And Consumerism in the Context of
John's Apocalyptic
Vision, and
The Other Side Of
Christianity: Reflections on
Faith, Politics,
Spirituality,
History, and
Peace. He is a correspondent for www.worldnews.com. You can read more of Dallas' writings at www.beverlydarling.com and wn.com//dallasdarling.
Related links:
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