Monday, November 17, 2014

Obama's Brisbane Speech: Trying So Hard to Make the Ruling Oligarchy Junta Look Happy, Funny, and Likeable

On November 15, President Obamadelivered a speech at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. Looking at the speech, it is obvious that Obama tried hard to paint "optimism," "Idealism," and "youth" over the face of the system which is as old as nearly dying and nihilistically cynical and Machiavellian in its character and design. 

Obama also tried to put his best possible face over the fact that the US policies are pushing the world to the edge of a World War III over its Drang nach Osten, which, through the Maidan, has just turned Ukraine into a war zone and US "bridgehead," exactly as Brzezinski outlined it in the grand or grandiose geopolitical plan of the US for the early 21st century.

Keeping with the spirit of Australia, as perceived from the White House, Obama tried to be funny: "I promise you, if you lead a country, there are times where you are aggravated with people voicing opinions that seem to think you’re doing something wrong. You prefer everybody just praise you." Obama obviously feels "aggravated" when "people SEEM to think" and when they thus seem to have opinions other than those he wants to have them.

And so Obama tried to deliver a relaxed, almost jovial and upbeat speech. But his speech writers managed to associate Burma with Australia: " I just came from Burma; this is a place that for 40 years was under the grip of a military junta, one of the most closed and oppressive nations on Earth. And there, I was inspired by citizens and civil society and parliamentarians who are now working to sustain a transition to a democratic future. I had a town hall meeting with young people like you, in which they were asking, what does it mean to create rule of law? And how should we deal with ethnic diversity in our city? ... What does a free press look like, and how does it operate? ... Those young people, they want the same things that you do."

Yes, we all wonder what the rule of law ought to mean in fact and how a free press looks like ... The problems posed to us by oligarchic juntas in power seem to be what we all share whether knowingly or not.

Obama claimed that the US is merely "occasionally" using military force abroad (as opposed to the fact of its perpetual warfare). Furthermore, he even claimed that this "occasional" militarism is in part done out of charity: "When we talk about these issues of development, when we invest in the wellbeing of people on the other side of the globe, when we stand up for freedom, including occasionally having to engage in military actions, we don’t do that just because we are charitable."

When Obama proudly spoke of the rights of women and mothers in Australia, he clearly did not have the right to maternity leave on his mind: "We will stand up for the rights and futures of our wives and daughters and partners, because I believe that the best measure of whether a nation is going to be successful is whether they are tapping the talents of their women and treating them as full participants in politics and society and the economy." Actually to be more precise, he limited the role of women to wives, daughters, and partners, and left out mothers.

In a brief, but key passage, in which he was stating his perfect commitment to accountability and justice, Obama called Russia "a threat to the world" and claimed without the slightest evidence that Russia is responsible for downing Malaysian Boing MH 17: "We're leading in dealing with Ebola in West Africa and in opposing Russia’s aggression against Ukraine -- which is a threat to the world, as we saw in the appalling shoot-down of MH17, a tragedy that took so many innocent lives, among them your fellow citizens."

This huge lie, quickly uttered, amidst all the pretended “youthfulness,” “optimism,” and “idealism” which, in reality, supports a Nazi regime in Ukraine and is posing a threat to world peace, Obama, as I already said, tried very hard to be funny and likable: "I spend a lot of time with young people. I spend a lot of time with old people, too. But I prefer spending time with young people." 

Evidently, Obama and his speech writers were confident that hardly no US seniors would ever bother to read his speech. Luckily, Obama spoke just after the November 4 US elections at which, as usually, the older citizens represent the largest voting bloc. Or, if one were to be charitable, one may try to see in this an implicit confession of Obama's true feelings about all his political colleagues in Washington D.C., including Senator John McCain, the true Cain of our time, or Hillary and all the others who, by any measure, cannot be considered young, and when it comes to any idealism than we would then need to assign a measure of idealism even to the devil himself.

Using an excellent Czech idiom, one may say that Obama or his speech writers decided that their audience is made of rabbits and other small funny animals and that the speech and the message also needs to be adjusted accordingly--or, as the Czech idiom says, "pro srandu králíkům." The other funny thing about the Czech word for rabbit is that it literally means: a "small king." And a small king is a funny thing, indeed, for a small king is an oxymoron. A small king is usually no king at all. 

The Czech idiom "pro srandu králíkům" literally means "for the joy (or fun ... perhaps slightly even mischievous, but quite happy) of the rabbits." The metaphor now sounds to my ears not only interesting,but also beautiful. The Czech genius liked to relate to the world through proverbs related to animals, the countryside, and farming. In a sentence: "Musíme jít spát, nebo budeme pro srandu králíkům." We'd better go to bed; otherwise the rabbits would make fun of us.

As “Just us and all of us” on my FB page noted rabbits symbolize the male spirit, especially when it is at its stupid phase and its “material form” when it is “strong & foolish, silly, stupid, but learns by going from stupid episode to stupid episode.” The idiom might thus have, indeed, very old, perhaps even ancient, roots. The stabilizing wisdom of the other half is missing (just like the mothers in the list of Obama’s women in his speech, which mentions daughters together with his dislike for the old people)—both in Obama’s speech and on Obama’s part.

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