It’s Inauguration Day, and there are likely to be upwards of two million people in Washington DC who have come especially to share the experience of the first black president in American history beginning his term of office: the vast majority of the attendees are there to support Barack Obama; some are there to oppose, and a small number might be giving the secret service something to do – but in the main it will be a swath of people, replicated across the nation everywhere from front rooms to bars to stadia, basically thinking the same thing.

“You have given us hope.”

Take a look at this video. (Barack Obama: Hope in Davenport)

None of the change Obama speaks of is because of hope; it is because of the desire for change, the will to succeed, the tenacity to stick with a task until it is complete, and the refusal to delegate responsibility for something onto someone or something else. Hope is delegation of responsibility.

From my side of the Atlantic this “hope” agenda seems bizarre. Here is a man who has broken the glass ceiling in some ways; he is a pioneer in American political terms, but I really cannot see this as anything more than symbolism. The US President is the head of the least important arm of the governmental system, after the Judiciary and Congress; either of these other two arms can veto anything that the President attempts to put into place. The reason George Bush was able to go to war in Iraq, to keep “enemy non-combatants” in Guantanamo, to prevent the USA committing to greenhouse gas emissions reductions, to ensure the banking system could behave in whatever way it chose – was because the power to either side of the President made it possible. It just happened that Bush supported all of these policies; so GWB became a convenient scapegoat (and smokescreen) for the activities of the corporate machine that has only ever gained from the activities of the US government.

Obama is symbolically a threat to the system, but he can be easily bypassed via the Judiciary and especially Congress, which will become the home of unprecedented levels of corporate lobbying; from the arms industry, the oil industry, the motor industry, the lumber industry, the health industry, the chemical industry…

Have a listen to this clip, from a national BBC radio phone in. The two comments from UK callers are highly significant – this kind of thing rarely gets said on such a widely listened to show.

BBC Obama Debate : 20 January 2009

Yes, millions of people in the UK had “hope” that Tony Blair would make things wonderful. Almost everything got worse: Blair became a mouthpiece for the machine.

Contrast the UK callers with those from the USA who, once again, use the word “Hope”. Keep hoping all you like, guys, sadly it ain’t gonna make a shred of difference. Only action by individuals will change things; action by people who have realised hope only keeps you on the treadmill, always chasing the carrot being dangled in front of you until you either jump off the treadmill or keep running until you die.

Don’t hope: Act!