The quoted paragraph shows that Obama adequately covers problematic of the first-tier priority of universal instruments of ruling, and the only question is – how effective is his individual culture of dialectic cognition and creativity.
At the same time in the given section he answered the question on the reasons for such historically proven stable capacity of USA statehood (in comparison with other contemporary states) both in defining and solving their issues and in implementing their political views: the U.S. Constitution has programmed procedures, that express dialectic in its essence - culture of cognition and creativity.
And according to its pre-programmed procedures, expressing dialectical essence of cognitive and creative culture, the Unites States have an advantage on the matters of first tier priority, and, as consequence, on other lower priorities of the universal instruments of ruling/weapons in comparison to other cultures of self-governing societies, in which dialectic of perception and understanding of life and creativity is suppressed in the operations of state apparatus as well as in life of the rest of society.
But above mentioned issues, regarding problematic of first tier priority of universal instruments of ruling/weapons, stated by B. Obama in a way, that can be understood only on the basis of the principle: those who know and master dialectic will understand what it’s all about, and as for those who doesn’t know – it’s their problem…
And evidently, Russian ruling ‘elite’ and as consequence – all people of Russia, have and in the coming future will have many problems coming from the fact, that they do not master first tier priority of the universal instruments or ruling, and therefore they do not master lover priorities as well.
But there is still a huge paradox – even taken into account above mentioned advantage of the USA over other cultures the root of all their problems lies in the same fact that, in the States neither public-political ‘elite’, nor ‘elite’ in general, nor common people do consciously master the instruments of ruling of first-tier priority; everything, that’s going on the first level of priorities of universal instruments of ruling/weapons, is just unconsciously automatic activity.
As can be seen from quoted reasoning of Obama on general methodological-creative-cognitive level, programmed by U.S. Constitution – hardly he knows what sort of issues he had touched, and therefore his understanding of it is quite superficiaclass="underline" most probably in the sense that results, given by dialectic, are useful for the society, rather than in the sense of the core of cognitive-creative processes.
Some more quotes from the book:
“We have no authoritative figure, no Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow whom we all listen to and trust to sort out contradictory claims. Instead, the media is splintered into a thousand fragments, each with its own version of reality, each claiming the loyalty of a splintered nation, Depending on your viewing preferences, global climate change is or is not dangerously accelerating; the budget deficit is going down of going up.” (p.126)
We underlined phrases that are key to understanding the core of the issue. If a culture is based on the foundation of cognitive methodology, dialectic, then:
Its society doesn’t need authoritative figures, that are though to be unerring in all their judgments and recommendations
The world and its development trends, although versatile, can not be unambiguously cognized, therefore such nation cannot be split by ‘pluralism of opinions’, which can exist only as an intermediary half-raw product in the process of development of common for everyone, adequate, and therefore well functioning opinion on any matter, be it global climate change and environmental catastrophe or problems of corporate budget.
In this “plurality of opinions” only few are concerned by which one is true, and even less are preoccupied by the need for methodology of dialectic cognition and creativity to form the foundation of individual culture of each man. And such plurality is dangerous for Obama, and for the U.S., and makes this country a source of danger for the rest of the world, because ambiguity of the answer to the question on differences of a man in fullness of his dignity from a highly civilized man-like , that’s not established culturally because of different circumstances, but still dangerously self-assured and certain of his rights as highly-civilized man-like – such ambiguity is fraught with disastrous consequences.
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Soon after publication of Russian translation of “The Audacity of hope” internet burst with accusations of this book being just an ordinary populism and election propaganda of those powers, that pre-approved Obama for the president of the United States.
Indeed, in crowd-‘elitist’ society politics cannot do without attempts of ‘selling’ a charming and appealing ‘cutie’ candidate to the crowd, with intention of making policies on his behalf, and in worst case scenario either make him the scapegoat or start brainwashing the crowd saying that “the 'cutie' is an outstanding politician and you, the illiterate crowd, just don’t appreciate the fact that in tames of crisis he spared you of even worse disasters”. However there is a difference between two different PR techniques:
In our case “The Audacity of hope” is a campaign for happiness, which (happiness) requires a lot of effort from the nation, in which (nation) people believe in themselves and in their leaders.
If Barack Obama will succeed in mobilizing creative potential of Americans from different social classes and unite them in this work, then many of the problems discussed in the book will be solved, and dealing with the rest of them will be just a matter of time, because the United States (as a state and as a society) will stay on political course, that leads to guaranteed solution.
And to unite the nation and mobilize its creative potential “The Audacity of hope” presents as a dramatically more efficient remedy, than introduction of meaningless public holidays (e.g. Day of national unity) by Russian post-soviet ‘elite’, which (introduction) in its essence is just a means to distract people and thus “unite the nation” outside any concept of solving actually critical problems.
However the principle, that “everyone works for himself to the extent of his understanding, in the lack of thereof – for someone who understands more”, is also valid for B.Obama and his team, as well as for those who actually pre-elected B.Obama.
And therefore, even if Obama will be able to mobilize the creative potential of his nation, this will be followed with some side effects. And the question is – what sort of effects will those be – because some of side effects can be harmful… But such kind of effects do not result from anything: they have their own causes, that lie in some flaw of the culture of thinking and worldview based on it.
2.4. Barack Obama is not free…
2.4.1. Obama and Freedom
In Russian language word ‘freedom’ (“свобода”) derives from abbreviation of “conscious leadership given by God” (С(овестью)ВО(дительство)БО(гом)ДА(нное)).
And the problem of both Obama and the U.S. (and possible of the world in prospective future as well) is in that fact that:
B. Obama is not a “sower of freedom” but a captive of general American culture, in which he was brought up like the rest of Americans, as well as of that special political sub-culture of the USA, based on which U.S. politics is developed and implemented.