direction in space
a camera/ a sight
a view from nowhere
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Of Promises and Dreams
Watching Obama speak in Denver, and thinking of the event that it is. He dares to show that his candidacy is not about him or his abilities or credentials. It never has been and, I hope, never will be. His candidacy is not about what he knows or what he can encompass -- it is about his intensity, the way he moves toward becoming-President so that we, as Americans can more fully become. As such, it is more ethical and more "value-able" that the values crowd.
Watching not only tonight, but past evenings has been really interesting. The repetition and enactment of values -- family, gender, patriotism, hope -- have taken center stage at almost every turn, from Biden's reference to his life, to the introductory film on Barack's background and even in the Republican-turned-Democrat narratives from Susan Eisenhower and others. If there is a dramatic narrative here, it is the affective and embodied dimension of ethics. Such ethics are bound up with promises and expectations -- individual as well as corporate and governmental. And, with promises of change comes the aspiration of dreams -- from the personal dream of Barack becoming President to individual dreams of their family's security and to Dr. King's dream of a promised land: Obama made the case tonight that these dreams and promises are nothing if not embodied, if not affected, if not continually emergent in each of our lives and government can both aid and hinder that emergence.
Watching not only tonight, but past evenings has been really interesting. The repetition and enactment of values -- family, gender, patriotism, hope -- have taken center stage at almost every turn, from Biden's reference to his life, to the introductory film on Barack's background and even in the Republican-turned-Democrat narratives from Susan Eisenhower and others. If there is a dramatic narrative here, it is the affective and embodied dimension of ethics. Such ethics are bound up with promises and expectations -- individual as well as corporate and governmental. And, with promises of change comes the aspiration of dreams -- from the personal dream of Barack becoming President to individual dreams of their family's security and to Dr. King's dream of a promised land: Obama made the case tonight that these dreams and promises are nothing if not embodied, if not affected, if not continually emergent in each of our lives and government can both aid and hinder that emergence.
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