World full of sissies?

[cadeira]

Yesterday, I heard it as the thing first in the morning. It was still dark outside and I reached back to the radio switch with an irrational surge of worry. All that came through was "Feiern im ganzen Land." "...parties across the nation..." and then I let out a breath I didn´t know I was holding.

This doesn´t even affect me I found myself thinking, or does it? Germany is stil governed by a coalition that moves forward like a narcoleptic elephant. So why this awkward euphoria among all the people I met? And then the most extra-ordinary thing happened in the first class that day. We were talking about Adorno´s Enlightenment text, the structure of evil and antisemitism and violence as mislead projection processes of the subject, when my professor made a loop and started to talk about torture, Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo and how torture is trying to eliminate the subject´s sense of their own selves. Suddenly he became all quiet and said that hopefully this would all come to an end now. An eerie silence stretched out in the room and many people smiled to themselves. Until then I have never in my life actually seen Hope. It gave me goosebumps.
I know that this guy can´t change around everything that has gone wrong in the past eight years. I also know that the more hope is held up, the more it can be disappointed. But he embodies all the potential of America that has been kept unused over the course of the last years.

Ideology can do so much bad things. And many people are aware that Obama´s campaign was trying to sell us a different ideology but this time it was not the kind that alienates other countries, that tries to implant fear into the people´s brains. The former mind-abuse was torture, not physical of course, but it had a striking similarity. From over here it seemed like people were forcefed decisions they didn´t support. Non-Americans made projections and formed prejudices towards Americans were there should have been none. Today´s paper´s headlines read "The dream comes true." or "The New America" and people begin to realize that this decision will not only affect Americans. Europe is inflamed with sympathy and hope, too. (Our famous thinkers, Habermas being the most prominent one, even declare neoliberalism dead and buried.) Every other conversation ends with "Let´s wait and see!" though...
This morning a lady on the radio told a story about how she keeps newspapers of important events - her marriage, the birth of her children. "The last one I kept was from November 1989 and I will keep this one, too", she said.

Not totally unrelated:
I´m taking the course "The American Presidency and the myth of virtuous power" and two weeks ago agreed to do a presentation. We´re going through the history of America and look at how various presidents justified their politics with the national values. I said to the professor "I´ll do the one on Obama." and he replied "You know, you´ll have to give the presentation even if McCain gets elected?" And I said: "Hopefully, that´s not going to happen." I´m so excited. So many good bits to use in his speeches.
Did you also have the impression that Palin was on the verge of tears when McCain receded?

The text mentioned above is here as a .pdf: Christopher Bollas - The Structure of Evil

Today´s free song "Who´s gonna save my soul" by Gnarls Barkley and one that actually fits in a metaphorical way:

Comments

[muhsilisk.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Yesterday was the first day since I moved that I really missed TV and Internet. I seem to have the wrong radio station selected, because I didn't hear anything. On the bus I started wondering whether I had dreamt it all until two guys started talking about it.
No awkward euphoria or anything.

Good to know that people are actually moved in other parts of this country, though.