I just got back from watching Inside Job, thanks in large part to encouragement, even insistence, from members of this community. I was laughing some at the cognitive dissonance the skilled interviewer created in some of the powerful financial figures who agreed to talk with him for the film. As I walked to my car, though, I began sobbing.
I don't know how many of you have been willing to sit through Shoah, the relentlessly factual nine-hour documentary covering the Holocaust. The narration is free of affect. It's "Just the facts, Ma'am" from start to finish. I forced myself to watch the entire film out of a sense of responsibility toward the murdered Jews. Near the end, without warning, I erupted into uncontrollable sobbing. My reaction to the horrors of corruption and cold-hearted global theft painstakingly detailed in the Inside Job was less powerful, but belongs in the same family as my reaction to the film about the Holocaust. I had no idea I was feeling that way until I was walking out of the theater.
Earlier in the day, I had wasted time arguing about whether it's okay to criticize Obama, about how civil I may or may not be, about how fair-minded, intelligent, sane, and pragmatic various kossacks may or may not be. In light of the film I just saw, the level of indulgence of everyone of us in that diary is embarrassing.
I agree with Bill Moyers that Andrew Bacevich is one of the most clear thinkers of our era. Moyers spoke of Bacevich's neon sentences. Here is one that flashes for me time and again:
The President is what we have instead of genuine politics, instead of genuine democracy.
To the extent that our arguments here on this site center around Obama and what he is and is not doing, we are participating in the fake democracy Bacevich mentions. Real democracy demands granting issues more importance than politicians, focusing on results rather than on personalities or motives.
Some think Obama is our "horse in this race", to quote a recent diary, and will make progress on our cherished issues if we support him. Others of us think he is governing in a very different fashion than he campaigned. Here is what Bacevich says:
So, as the Congress has moved to the margins, as the President has moved to the center of our politics, the presidency itself has come to be, I think, less effective. The system is broken.
and
Parsing every word, every phrase, that either Senator Obama or Senator McCain utters, as if what they say is going to reveal some profound and important change that was going to come about if they happened to be elected. It's not going to happen.
The take home, dear friends, is neither to give Obama a free pass nor naively to expect him to solve intractable problems. Supporting Obama will not bring him any closer to challenging the status quo. Blaming Obama is an unrealistic shirking of responsibility. All that being said, the implication is also very strong that advocating fiercely for real change means critiquing the ways our government is broken, including critiquing Obama's active participation in a democracy that no longer responds to the people. Making it about Obama as a person, as a leader, even as a president, whether in support or in criticism, misses the point. The system is broken, and Obama is not going to fix it. Neither is silence in the face of the most outrageous robbery in the history of humanity.
The economic team Obama has assembled are the very same people who actively created conditions that led to an economic collapse for which poor people the world over are paying a heavy price in suffering. Every government official now making the important financial decisions for our country has been intimately involved in an enterprise characterized by corruption and criminality, prostitutes and cocaine. And no, there has been no "come to Jesus" moment for any of these people who continue to profit obscenely from business as usual.
Was it $12 million or $12 billion Henry Paulson made betting against the financial instruments he helped created, save from regulation, then sell to unsuspecting buyers? I'm not sure, but I know it doesn't matter. Does Obama care about the little guy, is he our guy in the White House doing everything he can? I don't know and at this point, it doesn't much matter. Bernanke, Summers, the whole damn gang of thieves is still on top of the world while the rest of us, the whole world over, suffer.
Obama is not going to save us. And it's not his fault. We damn well better get serious about addressing the criminal corruption at the heart of our financial system, a system that seems to own our government. For starters, this means discussing facts, policies, and tactics without resorting to petty, polarizing tactics.
I thought this diary would go elsewhere. I thought I would express more the depth of my feeling concerning the seriousness of the challenges facing our species. I'll leave with something I heard Al Gore say in response to a question after his climate change presentation. As we were walking out, inspired by Gore's commitment, wisdom, and presence, my astute daughter reminded me of this crucial remark:
In the end, we must ask ourselves whether we are a serious people.