Guardian UK: Americans have never felt so excited, and yet so depressed

[marmar]

Americans have never felt so excited, and yet so depressed
As the nation basks in the warm glow of Barack Obama's win, its wealth and power are perched on the edge of a precipice

Gary Younge
The Guardian, Monday November 24 2008


One night, in a bar in Zanzibar, I saw two sex workers chatting up a couple of Germans. The men were in their 50s, paunchy and balding - the women were young and pretty. It was a painful sight, the Germans plying the women with drinks and single entendre; the women laughing as though their lives depended on it, which in a way they did.

But after a while the true pathos became apparent: the men actually thought that these young women were interested in them because of who they were rather than what they had - money. That their dazzling personalities and dashing good looks had magically transformed them into irresistible specimens of manhood. Mistaking the possibility of a commercial transaction for the unlikelihood of sexual attraction, their eyes lingered on the mirror behind the bar as they started preening themselves, as though their looks mattered.

Power, whether you wield it or not, has a way of shading our sense of selves and others. In The Audacity of Hope, Barack Obama recalls a businessman seeing Al Gore shortly after the 2000 election. "During the campaign I would take his calls any time of day," the executive said. "But suddenly, after the election, I couldn't help feeling that the meeting was a chore. At some level he wasn't Al Gore, former vice-president. He was just one of the hundred guys a day who are coming to me looking for money. It made me realise what a big steep cliff you guys are on."

The US may be perched on the edge of a similar precipice. The degree to which it commands its hegemony through wealth and might (hard power) as opposed to culture and democratic example (soft power) has long been an open question. The personal aspiration, individual liberty and social meritocracy that are central to its national brand has an almost universal appeal. But how much that ethos makes sense without wealth and power is another matter. People need a social ladder worth climbing and something to do with their freedoms when they get to the top.

Have Caribbean kids been ditching cricket for basketball because it is faster and slicker, or because it offers the possibility of university scholarships, riches and fame? Was Obama's victory any more miraculous than Evo Morales's - he was the first indigenous Bolivian to rule his country - or do we just know and care more about it because of America's impact on our lives? What is Sex and the City without the shopping and the skyline? By almost any count Sweden has greater gender equality and liberated sexual mores than the US. Yet would the escapades of four single women in Stockholm stand a chance of becoming an international blockbuster, even if it were in English? Unlikely.

The truth is that American economic and cultural power are so inextricably woven that to separate them would be to see the whole thing unravel before your eyes. Both are fundamental to how the rest of the world views the US and how Americans view themselves.

And yet, with the simultaneous transition of Obama's ascent to the White House and the national economy's descent into long-term decline, countervailing pressures are pushing those two factors in contradictory directions. Abroad, American political leadership has never been so popular or so impotent. At home, Americans have never felt so excited about what their country might become or so apprehensive about where it might be heading. The next few months are shaping up to be truly Dickensian: the best of times, and the worst of times. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/24/barack-obama-nic-hillary-clinton

[rockymountaindem]

1. Exactly how I feel. This era sucks.

I read somewhere that people of my generation (I'm 22) identify closely with the people and ideas of the Depression and WWII era. I certainly feel that way. Those were terrible times but it seems to me that back then it was possible to at least make oneself feel like you could really make things better. Nowadays it just feels like I'm a cork out on the ocean. There's no real way to even vent my frustration in a meaningful way.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times..."

The about says it in a nutshell. Nothing could say it better.

[Waiting For Everyman]

3. We don't have a meritocracy and that's why the economic power is gone.

We have been rewarding the most idiotic, amoral, and irrelevant among us. (But at least Obama's election shows we're catching on.)

The personal aspiration, individual liberty and social meritocracy that are central to its national brand has an almost universal appeal. But how much that ethos makes sense without wealth and power is another matter.

The wealth and power flows from the social meritocracy, and that's exactly what we have entirely corrupted since WW2. There's no need to consider whether one makes sense without the other, because they don't exist separately. This is what society is seeing now, as reality catches up with temporary illusion, whether it's admitted or not.

What we have now is a Corporatist oligarchy. There's nothing to admire about that, and our difficulties now are proving how unsustainable it is. The writing's on the wall for any who will read it. Or... there's always more implosion, for those who prefer that.

The article does describe the odd opposites of mood we're in though. Hope, with lots of danger. Have we woken up in time, this time? And will we go in the right direction, fast enough, to back away from the precipice? The first step was the election, and we chose right on that. Hopefully, we'll continue choosing right and/or being lucky.

[fla nocount]

4. The author of this piece, Gary Younge, is good at his craft...

very good. The hooker analogy and observation of appearances vs. cost is particularly apropos balanced against the guys perception of power and the girls ability to hold both their noses and their smiles at the same time. That's America today.

Just had to make the comment, I admire a word-smith.

[marmar]

5. Indeed. I love a good wordsmith as well......

.....Good writing warms my heart.