EVEN MORE MISPLACED EXPECTATIONS:

Great expectations (Benjamin Teicher, 21 January 2009, Online Opinion)

Where the Bush administration was indifferent to the threat of global warming, Obama has announced that America will join the carbon-trading fold. He has also promised that the prison at Guantanamo Bay will close, if not as quickly as he had initially promised.

The risk is that Obama's supporters will wait for these initiatives to change the world for them. They will slowly forget that they too played a part in the events that concern us today.

The problem with words like economy, environment and government is that they seem like malevolent entities, independent of ourselves.

The economy, for instance, is comprised of all the different moments of economic activity in our daily lives. When we work for money, when we pay for a book or a DVD, when a bank or lender approves a home loan, these are moments that shape what we call the global economy.

Likewise, while Obama has promised to make the environment a focus of his presidency, it is a comforting illusion the idea that the world can halt global warming, reverse the destruction of forests and clear the choking pollution from its cities without actions on the part of individual human beings.

If human civilisation is truly facing an environmental catastrophe, then it will be up to citizens, workers, business leaders and consumers to opt for sacrifice at both the board room and kitchen tables.

The actions of individuals are key even on the issue of human rights. The torture of terrorism suspects was never merely the action of a sinister cabal in a dark corner of the White House. It occurred because, on the most part, these acts of the government were met with the acquiescence of ordinary citizens.

It is up to these citizens to ensure that human rights remains on the political agenda if such cruel acts are never to be repeated.

Supporters of Barack Obama must be willing to act and make changes in their lives if for no other reason than that this is something fundamental to Obama's message.

Odd how rapidly a sensible warning that folks have delusional ideas about what a President Obama can accomplish turns into a far more delusional plea for Americans to act on beliefs they don't actually have. A plurality of the American people does not believe in man-made global warming and only a small minority believe Guantanamo Bay should be closed.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 20, 2009 8:39 PM