I’m going to make a prediction, and you can hold me to this: within a year of taking office, Barack Obama will seem like just another President of the United States. I feel sorry for him because — having an instinct for these things — I think he really does want to make change happen, at least in a social context, yet he has but one choice: toe the line or face the consequences.
A few months ago I wrote a highly contentious article called “Obama Or McCain: Who Cares?†which said the following:
Sorry to upset your political sensibilities — if you feel that party politics is a big deal — but it makes no difference at all who becomes president; and here is why.
It has always been the foreign policy of all civilized nations to maximise the amount of resources it can obtain, whether that be fossil fuels, metals, farmland, fish or slaves — like the people who make most of our clothes and consumer goods. Civilization requires natural resources and labor in order to keep it running: failure to secure these is economic and political suicide. The USA is no different: neither Obama nor McCain will change that policy, because one of them will become head of the most powerful civilized nation on Earth. Their raison d’etre will be to ensure the continued success of that nation on the world stage, and so their primary objective will be to secure resources — that’s the way it has always been; that’s why all civilizations have sought to create empires.
Don’t get me wrong, the man in office may want to change, but his head will be on the block from Day One. Should he choose to make sweeping changes to the healthcare system that are detrimental to the income of the pharmaceutical industry, those changes will be watered down or canned via the House or the Senate (whichever has the ear of that industry); should he choose to implement tough new emissions regulations on vehicles (detrimental to the motor and oil industry), those changes will be watered down or canned; should he choose to impose strict rules on employee exploitation, which hurt the bottom line of retailers, those changes will be watered down or canned; should he choose to ban all logging and toxic releases in protected areas, and expand these protected areas, those changes will be watered down or canned.
Should he try and defy the powers that be, he will put himself in serious danger. There is a precedent for this.
Worse still, none of the changes described above will actually make a significant difference to the net impact of civilization upon the lives of people, and the environment which we all depend on: the President operates within a context of continuing to expand Industrial Civilization. The President has no choice but to work with the system. The President will do the bidding of the system because he represents the system, in all its toxic glory.
That is why Barack Obama will become a greenwasher — it’s his job, whether he likes it or not.
Keith, to find myself taking the optimistic rather than the pessimistic side of a question surprises me. But I think you may be a bit too strong here.
Certainly, other nations have made some semi-enlightened moves vis-a-vis the environment. Leaders in various European counties have called to their citizens to support increasing environmental awareness. And, their citizens have heard and at least partially supported their calls.
I would suggest that the key difference here in the U.S. is how deeply our governing mechanisms have been captured by the business world. As you said, we cannot do anything here which affects the bottom lines of business without we get a huge push back and the entire effort is tied up and muted.
Other countries have not lost the notion nor the functional reality that their governments are governments ‘for’ their people and their people’s welfare. We largely have lost it because here lobbyists and special interests have captured our national decision making process.
But, let us get to the place were we see the problem and name it. Let us go directly to the root of the issue. It makes little sense to lobby, say, for alternative energy if big oil and coal are going to spend huge sums manipulating congress and obscuring the issue.
Let’s go after the root issue which is whether or not we wish the U.S. to be controlled by multinationals for their own profits.
Until this key issue is made conscious to the people and its consequences are undeniable, those who really control the U.S. will continue to move in the shadows manipulating things and allowing us to think we have choices that we really don’t have.
http://samadhisoft.com/2008/10/14/how-deep-is-the-power-of-corporations/
Oh, I don’t know, Dennis – that sounded like a pretty stern statement; agree with all of it, except maybe for the use of the word “citizens”. I am not a citizen, and the idea of being “called upon” by “leaders” sounds quite scary to me.
Human beings, that’s what we are – leadership has to be earned, and is always ephemeral; hell, I’m a leader and so are you in our own way. We just don’t get paid wads of cash to run corporations/nations.
;-)
Wow, that’s a really depressing post, Keith.
Of course, on many levels you’re right (perhaps your extreme realism is intended to provoke people into action as a way to prove you wrong).
My sense is that a majority of the people involved in the grassroots movement that helped on the Obama campaign have already begun their own transition of sorts searching for constructive ways to keep the pressure on (e.g. MoveOn’s “Fired Up. Read to Go” event). These folks know that Obama will be under tremendous pressure and the more that constituents can keep up the pressure on their representatives in DC the easier it will be for Obama to deliver on his campaign promises (for me, the renewable energy platform is key since the US’s dependence on foreign oil and gas has been the worst example of unjust and unsustainable resource obtainment).
I also suspect that there is a lot of soul-searching going on among Congressional reps in terms of how/whether they should rethink their individual stances/strategies under the new administration. For that reason, the next several weeks represent an important opportunity for grassroots groups to step-up their efforts to let Washington know we’re not satisfied. Yes, Obama’s election was a big step in the right direction but it’s only the first of many, many more that need to be made and we’re not going away. On the contrary, we’re just finding our mojo!
Hi Will
I think the realisation that the President, whoever he is, will not be able to make any significant changes is the first step in realising that nothing that operates within the system we call Industrial Civilization can ever make things better – it’s civilization that is screwed, and it can’t be fixed because the nature of civilization is to destroy.
Once you understand that, like I did not so long ago, then it’s a wonderful liberated feeling – I recommend you read A Matter Of Scale, then decide whether you are happy to keep trying to change the system.
K.