Cornel West on Obama
by: Dave Belden on November 16th, 2009 | 5 Comments »
Cornel West in the New Yorker
I missed this short piece two weeks ago in the New Yorker but if you did too it’s worth reading. When Cornel West came on board to support Obama in the campaign he said, “Brother, I will be a critical supporter. I’ll be a Socratic supporter.”
So far, West finds himself infinitely more impressed by Obama’s mastery of “spectacle” than by his attention to the poor. “In terms of the impact on young people, I think it’s a beautiful thing,” he said of Obama’s election. “But, in the end, even spectacle has to deal with the darkness. That’s where the bluesman comes in. Guy Lombardo can be nice on a certain night, but you’re going to need Duke Ellington and Count Basie.”
Spectacle: yes. The talk… but we need more of the walk.
Socratic dialogue with Obama is what we are planning for a national conference in June and I hope you will come: more on this soon.The focus will be: “Support Obama to BE the Obama We Voted For — Not the Inside-the-Beltway Pragmatist/Realist whose compromises have led to a decrease in his popularity and opened the door for a revival of the just-recently-discredited Right wing.”
As you may know Cornel West is one of the chairs of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, which is Tikkun’s support network and potentially a vibrant social movement. The ideas and ingredients are there (e.g. explore the Spiritual Covenant with America or get a taste via my post here in which we contrast the Spiritual Progressive view of health care with the Liberal and Conservative views). It just needs more energetic people to pick them up and run with them. Meanwhile you can join and at very least help the publication of these ideas to continue. Our thanks to all who have done so!
If you haven’t seen it, Cornel West and Michael Lerner’s jointly authored book Jews and Blacks: A Dialogue on Race, Religion, and Culture in America is a remarkably honest and energizing dialogue.
I am extremely disappointed in Obama’s tenure to date as president. Unless he joins the International Criminal Court, our country will not heal. Obama can talk the talk but he cannot walk the walk.
Increasingly I’m beginning to believe the Obama-crises are manifestations of class dysfunction in Amerikaan culture. Those who have much, have inherited much, have taken much more and have reserved nearly all the power over any modifications to a deeply entrenched system of mass-failure for themselves. For the rest of us, we may have the skills, that brawn and the guts to do what must be done but that entrenched failure cult of the owning class is such that nothing outside a complete internal overhaul of the owning-class really will matter much in terms of actual changes occurring.
The level of intellectual and emotional disconnect and massive failure I observe going on in the owning class tells me it’s time to get out of Dodge if possible before they blow everything up for good, or hunker down and hope that when they do it’ll blow over and I can survive it. Either way, it seems to me things can only get better once the Amerikaan owning class is done away with and long gone. We cannot bear much more insanity and promises.
From where I sit at the bottom of the class heap, having already been homeless twice in the past three years, Obama’s just another hi-quality failure of the owning class (I know all the stories and legends of his “humbler” beginnings but I speak from experience when I tell you, his “humble beginnings” were still more amply sufficient than mine).
My “hope” is in we poor peoples’ ability to survive all manner of crass wickedness and abuse. At this point, I hope we can simply outlast the owning-class’ massive system-fail. I suspect many of us won’t. The cynic is the guy ducking dodging diving and … dodging while the uppers throw anvils rocks and spears at him. The hopefuls stand in a group huddled together in the hope that those nasty things won’t stick them through an eye…. and as we often say, “wahaddya gonna do?” and move on.
JustJack,
You just gave me new insight into the Bible verse, “The poor will always be among us.” Rather than implying that there will never be an end to poverty, perhaps it means the poor will survive when all others perish.
Unfortunately the only way to “get out of Dodge” is to leave the planet. If we held a Cynic of the Year contest, the competition would be awesome. Thank you, Mr. President.
I am dismayed at the amount of Obama bashing I have read in this preview. Shame, shame, shame! Wait- I think I see him pulling out his MAGIC WAND and waving it over Congress and the Senate! POOF! VIrginia Fox, John Boehner, Eric Cantor and Michelle Bachman- all gone with one single wave! Wait! Sarah Palin and Glen Beck have just been tuned into frogs and forever banished from our kingdom! Hold on, he’s not done. Now, for his biggest trick yet, Obama will single-handedly end the war in Afghanistan, supply the nation with a million new jobs AND, saving the best for last, END GLOBAL WARMING! All in less than one year, folks! The AMAZING OBAMA! One term only!
Focusing on polls of popularity, criticising any attempt to bring a divided nation together, slamming Obama for not making the poor rich-Wo, there! Who are you talking about? The president or Jesus? His job is nothing more than a spectalce office. Every American knows- or SHOULD know that the president does not make policy. This is why we have a congress and a senate! (LOL)
If you are so angry, why not do what our enemies on the right are doing and march on Washington FOR our causes? Why are the progressives sitting back and allowing the Becks and the Palins and members of both houses to organize these “revolts”? Why is the liberal media paying so much attention to the opposition but not actually offering any opposition back at them? Why aren’t WE spear-heading any marches FOR the Public Option or single payer health care reform? Why aren’t WE pushing back? These organised marches seem to be the only thing members of both houses hear or understand!
Ultimately, I think we are being lazy and expecting Mr. Obama to do all the work for US. Who knew how bad the Bush administration’s mess would be? Of course the poll numbers are falling because of unemployment, the lack of a meaningful health care bill and the fact that most of your own party’s elected officials are frail, to say the least. There are so many things to consider.
I, for one, think he’s doing the best he can with what he’s got.
Instead of bashing, you should be offering him constructive criticism. Some of your demands on him are simply unrealistic. I admire his ability to look at the whole situation and devise his plans accordingly. To run over everyone else’s opinions and ideals is exactly what Bush did to the nation for so long. We certainly don’t want a repeat of that, either. Can we grow up, start organising marches for what we WANT as opposed to what we DON’T want? Can WE START this action, or do we really have to wait for the Prez to do it for us? How quickly we forget what we did to get him there- now let’s KEEP him there!
Jenny, the reason the liberal media is paying so much attention to the opposition is because it ISN’T liberal. As a progressive, my values and I are constantly ignored or marginalized. Demonstrations get covered when they support the corporate values of the medium. I get real news from the UK Guardian.
I haven’t forgotten what we did to get Obama elected. The problem seems to be, he has forgotten. I sincerely believe he cares more about Glen Beck’s opinion than mine. Otherwise he would have supported Van Jones.