Friday, April 25, 2008

Experiental v. Experience

In the wake of the Pennsylvania primary election, I feel compelled to share this video of a speech made by Obama, pre-Iraq 2002. What I keep hearing about the measures of experience from the Clinton camp, their preparedness to take up the reins immediately because she's been standing up or taking on (as she says) Republicans for over "a decade" -- is very use of language and approach we need to change. We don't need more division, we need Unity, across all parties and ideologies. Obama is the only person talking in this manner. That's why I voted for him in my primary in Colorado earlier this spring. More experience does not dictate proper action or capability: case in point -- almost the entire current Administration cabinet began as a who's-who of previous term participants, many stemming from George Bush Sr.'s presidency. That cabinet is chalked full of experience, so much so that there have been countless jokes since the very beginning about Bush not even being the one running the country, but a puppet to other masters. So where has experience gotten us?

As Einstein said about the nature of Insanity, it is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Experience in the methods of the old world does not guarantee success, or vision or anything capable of ensuring a better future. To begin, we must begin new: new ideas, new ways of doing things -- to drop our stories of intolerance and finger-pointing. In the end, we all have to pick up the slack. The buck stops here and now: this is a Generation of Hope. And hope is empowering, because it provides strength and determination. It is the quelling of silence, it is the roar of many, too many voices, which for too many years maintained indifference, for lack of any spark of Truth; the truth that goodness is inside us. And not a lofty goal that must be reached by tackling mountains, or waging war or instilling fear... but instead the experiential fact that change is a house we build together.

This is not about race or gender, and yet it is. But both are illusions. And at this time in American history, illusive angles and puffed up "experience" claims do nothing when the call is made for Character. For Integrity. For Purpose. Obama has been "standing" up to iniquities far longer than Senator Clinton, who swerves and wavers in her stance based on who shares her company and takes no responsibility for the divisiveness she portrays, but instead trumps it like a good hand of cards. The problem is, this is no game.

This is the age when Ethics shall trump Power. The powerful and the egoic impulses of commerce and greed shall fall away, as darkness from a blinding light. I see in Obama the hope of a united country, the coming full circle with the malice and constitutional ignorance of humanity's power and depth of being, and transcending all odds, because it is the Will of the People that it be so. He is the perfect symbol of the body-nation: shackles removed, no longer torn by slavery and indecent politics.


1 comment:

Kristen's Raw said...

I love your Hindu proverb.