The Language of Youth

By Spencer, 05-11-08

It was the charismatic, ambitious and hugely talented Pompey who said to the older Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 BC) that more people worship the rising sun than the setting sun.

I was reminded of the words when I watched the first of the three debates between the presidential candidates, struck by the exceptional self-confidence of Obama which – if taken as a sign of who won the psychological battle – signalled the decline of Senator John McCain’s already trouble ridden campaign.

Upon the sight of a relatively young Barack Obama becoming the Commander in Chief of the United States of America a great many people have speculated about the reasons for his success.

There are basically three conventional theories:

The first is that voter support was secured by promises of health care insurance for 100 billion dollars, a continuation of a long-standing Democratic agenda Bill Clinton failed to implement.

The second is a combination of circumstantial political factors, such as the unpopular war in Iraq, the tainted image of an overspending Republican administration, McCain’s bad standing in the Republican Party, his poor judgement in appointing Sarah Palin for VP candidate – and on top of it all the sudden but not exactly unpredictable or unpredicted rise of a financial crisis.

The third is Barack Obama’s exceptionally well organized campaign and its ability to outdo the Republicans on fundraising, on strategic campaigning and on the use of the new medium, the Internet.

Reality is not mono-causal, but multi-layered, and none of these explanations can be ignored, if you want to analyze Barack Obama’s walk to victory and, if possible, extrapolate some kind of psychological profile that offers insight into the nature of the 44th Presidency of the United States of America.

Tolerance is a political imperative of the 20th Century

But more telling than anything is his trademark, his well known oratorical skills, referred to by BBC reporter Kevin Connolly as “muscular poetry”. Often observers will comment on the similarity between Obama rhetoric and the impassionate speeches of Martin Luther King, and much of the world has chosen to perceive Barack Obama as a civil rights activist that has conquered the White House.

Just as in the case of Plutarch’s flattering portrait in Life of Pompey that is an image calling for many modifications and containing only a shadow of truth:

“From 1992 until his election to the U.S. Senate in 2004, Barack Obama served as a professor in the Law School. He was a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996. He was a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004, during which time he taught three courses per year. Senior Lecturers are considered to be members of the Law School faculty and are regarded as professors, although not full-time or tenure-track”, the University of Chicago Law School informs on their website.

The classes Obama taught: Constitutional Law.

His activist ties are largely the now discredited Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where he grew accustomed to the impassionate speeches of African-American religiosity.

A third tie that connects Barack Obama to the zeitgeist, the rapidly flowing current of internet powered politicalization, is his open protest against the war in Iraq prior to the invasion, when he was merely a state legislator in Illinois.

Much has been said about Obama’s intellectual background and fervour, about his past history in the TUCC and about his promises to withdraw the US forces from Iraq. Even more has been said about his Kenyan father, his unusual upbringing and marvellous ascension to power in spite of all odds.

What really distinguishes Barack Obama, however, is his ability to speak the language of youth. Being 46 years old he is not exactly young by any other standard than power. Still, his speeches not only appeals to a new generation of voters, but they reflect their passionate interests.

While McCain praised The United States of America as a country possessing youth and vitality, unwittingly undermining the Republican strategy to expose Barack Obama as “young and inexperienced”, Barack Obama with his vigorous appearance and spirited mien embodies youth and vitality.

Obama’s speeches touches on delicate subjects like racism, frequently and without shame referencing his eclectic cultural background and personal experiences, and even in his victory speech he emphasized that his triumphant moment was a message from “…young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled.”

In stark contrast McCain opened his campaign by tacitly approving O’Reilly’s statement that his work would be to protect the “white male Christian power structure” of America.

Barack Obama’s words reflect more than the traditional multi-culturalism of the United States of America or the inclusive attitude towards minorities that has become a trademark of the Democratic Party. His speeches pierce through to the very essence of the moral lesson that a majority of young people all over the world are taking from current events as portrayed in the mass media:

With debilitating power struggles and cultural conflicts tolerance, tolerance has - in the age of globalization - become a prerequisite for any other kind of political progress. It has, to speak European for a moment, become an existential demand.

Only the spirit of youth can overcome the challenges

Age brings wisdom, conservatives often claim. Youth is better than old age, the rebellious painter David Caravaggio contended. In his painting of David and Goliath the face of David is his own in his youth, while the face of the beheaded Goliath is a portrait of the artist in his old age.

It is not just that – as Plutarch lets Pompey phrase it – more people worship the rising sun than the setting sun, but also that youth has its own virtues, most of all hope and ability to change. Young people can more readily adapt to new circumstances; they learn faster; their minds are unbound by conventional thinking; they are creative; they do not have the option to give up in the face of challenges and settle on spending the last of their years in relative peace and prosperity.

“Yes We Can” is the message that Barack Obama keeps pounding from his newfound platform of power. The naysayers have been working overtime to shoot down his visions, and they are still not silenced; they merely await their cue:

Mixed in with congratulations and assurances of will to cooperate are warnings that “he will have a hard time fulfilling his promises”; that “the expectations are huge” and that it is a “critical time in our history” due to two wars, financial crisis, energy gap and ecological breakdown – and the prospect of foreign political challenges in the Gulf.

USA may be temporarily infused with a revitalization of their image globally by the election of an already hugely popular African-American president, but Barack Obama is inheriting a failed military campaign or two and “a budget deficit running into hundreds of billions a year and a national debt which is about to go over the $11 trillion mark”, as Kevin Connolly of the BBC puts it.

Barack Obama is 46. His Vice President, Joe Biden, is almost 20 years older and largely accepted uncritically by Obama supporters, because he was Obama’s choice, and for the positive effect he had on the weaknesses in Obama’s image, his lack of age and experience. Known as a brilliant politician and an even more muscular debater than Obama, the Irish Catholic would – in a more conventional, less problem ridden and slower paced world – be a more obvious choice for President.

Schylla and Charybdis: Power and co-dependency

Some say that any man born for glory is born for tragedy. Barack Obama’s personal history certainly has the pathos of an epic, and the challenges when listed do appear Herculean, but his political ending need not be grievous.

My contention is that the inner circle around Barack Obama is essential to the way his presidency will play out. The third man that will form the triumvirate – speculations are already rampant, just as in the case of the VP co-runner before the nomination – is the Secretary of State.

The success of Barack Obama, so far, rests on his ability to listen and - however talented he may be - acknowledge the importance of informed advice.

"For who does not realize that it is in no wise fitting, nor yet advantageous, to entrust affairs to any one man, or for any one man to be put in control of all the blessings we have, however excellent he may be? Great honors and excessive powers excite and ruin even such persons", writes Cassius Dio, quoting Catulus’ Roman History.

Suitable words for a man about to enter the office of the most powerful nation in the world. As a Professor and Senior Lecturer on Constitutional Law Barack Obama is most certainly acquainted with Lord Acton’s famous aphorism: “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

But to be receptive is also to be vulnerable to deception; it implicates a trust in the competencies and the loyalty of others that may or may not be justified. To Pompey his quest for power and glory even in the service of just causes was crowned with defeat. The triumvirate split up and landed the conquering hero, the imperator, in a civil war.

Plutarch, defensive of the gallant and always poised Pompey to the last, in spite of all his mistakes, wrote in Life of Pompey:

"The great power in the city which was rightly his was used by him wrongly in the interests of others; as he strengthened them, so he weakened his own reputation till, before he realized what was happening, he found himself ruined by the very force and greatness of his own power. "

The Secretary of State is the litmus test

It was Barack Obama that said, himself, during his historical campaign for the Democratic nomination, that Washington is a place where good ideas go to die. Barack Obama is a man of vision, a man with many a good idea and perhaps even a few really great ones. But Washington is still Washington.

That is the obvious dilemma that Barack Obama finds himself in, and it is already the fuel for the schadenfreude of those that envy him his power: Either he insists on his way, risking reprimands for autocratic behaviour, or he compromises with the powerful interests in Washington to the point of losing public support.

What is the correct priority in a situation like this? The answer is simple:

On January 20th 2009 Barack Obama will be sworn in as the president of the United States of America. From that moment on he must act in accordance to his vision; he must do what he has said he will do. It is better to be criticized for having and exercising authority than losing authority to the ones that criticize or even hate you.

The scope of the project itself suggests that it may lead to failure and regret for Obama. If Obama makes one too many compromises with the powerful interests that will try to sway him from his purpose, they will not reward him for it, but strip him of whatever power he may have left after getting burned.

If, on the other hand, he chooses his own style of governance – most likely a very communicative one that attempts to continue to the close relationship with the public developed during the campaign – he may still be favoured by the public opinion, and what was enough to bring him into the White House is also sufficient to keep him in a position of authority.

Barack Obama fully realizes this predicament. That is why his victory speech contained the humble plea:

“I need your help.”

A majority of political significance, if not too big in actual numbers, helped Barack Obama into his position as President elect. But the voters can still mess up his game, particularly if Obama continues to give concessions to the right wing to consolidate his position on the political centre. Bipartisan support is a prudent condition to wish for, but it is reckless to actually expect your political rivals to work to benefit you.

This particularly reflects on the upcoming choice of a Secretary of State. America will have it that Obama’s presidency is about the nation’s affairs, but USA has become a truly globalized nation, and foreign policy will most certainly demand his attention – just as Joe Biden predicted.

Biden was a good choice for Vice President. If Obama selects a third man, a Secretary of State, based on a desire to appease the malcontent Republicans, he will invite discord into his inner chambers. It will, in that case, be his first really big error. It will also, most likely, be a mistake that dooms his presidency.

It is very simple: There can be no realization of the promised change in the US foreign policy, if it is represented by a hawk. First you lose the positive signal value from the election of Obama, and then, little by little, you lose everything else.

As a president he must keep all options open, in case he should need free hands to order military engagement. But it has to be his own decision. What no leader can afford is to make that decision based on subtle pressure from powerful influences in your cabinet that are not fully aligned with the agenda of your administration.