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~ Tarot inspired essays and more

moderndayruth

Tag Archives: Obama

A Confession: Why I Love Obama

03 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Essay

≈ 23 Comments

Tags

Ann Dunham, Barack Obama, HBO, Mitt Romney, New York Times, Obama, Romney, United States

Sylvia, a dear friend of mine, has sent me last night this message and i promised her to reply as soon as i wake up, so here it is (bit shortened): “You posted that our choice of President in the US affects  you all, and other countries. So, a question… how? Secondly I’m curious why Obama, and why not Romney. So, if you feel up to either a short answer of food for thought for a blog post that would be great.
I personally am curious as well. ”

I think i wrote before on my educational background, anyway it’s in ‘About me’ section here; i am a schooled diplomat and i have over a decade of related work experience, it’s a piece of cake for me to write a paper on advantages of Euro-Atlantic integrations as the main course of foreign politics of my own country, Montenegro, and the positive impact the foreign politics implemented by the administration of President Obama has on the process; the truth is that with me it is way more personal than that.

Not only diplomats in career, but any socialized human being needs to have at least some  theoretical background so to explain and if needed – justify – their choices; that’s where logic’s fruits kick in and that’s why we still need to know at least some history, but the truth is that most of our choices are still made on subconscious, intuitive level and it’s only later that we come up with perfectly reasonable and sound explanation for it all.

We could focus on the overall advantages of the liberal agenda, on the incalculable value  of the fight against the extreme economic inequality; having grown up behind the iron curtain i could write pages on importance of the civil rights and the rule of law, last but not the least, as a woman, i naturally believe that choices regarding procreation are to remain with me – and not with clergy or administration – as it is i who is giving birth and it is i who is responsible for my children’s well-being, not them.

You see, the world is not divided anymore. When i wake up and go to my bedroom’s balcony to breath in fresh air – i first hear my American neighbor’s kids playing in the backyard, in our street, out of eight buildings , three are inhabited by Americans who live and/or work in Montenegro.

After a stretch and a yawn on a balcony,  i check out daily newspapers –  besides local ones i read The New York Times.

I don’t watch tv that much, but when i do – it’s HBO and HBO comedy, which, of course is mostly American movies and series.

Kabbalah, Tarot and even I Ching – all i am interested in, i study in English – and except couple of schools of thought in Israel and one I Ching scholar in UK, the sources from which i study are US based.

So, it’s not the proverbial ‘butterfly effect’, i and everyone else do feel the shifts across the Atlantic and are affected by those profoundly.

I remember Bush’s presidency well and i do remember how it was reflected here, i hated it. As much as Conservatives like to come across as God fearing Christians, i call it BS and i  don’t believe them, not a single bit, more so – i see them using God’s name in vain.

What does modern feudalism that Romney is pushing have to do with the Bible is beyond me and so is his – as i see it – arrogance to present the interest of the gun industry under the religious agenda.

He is a Mormon, is he not? And yet he is monogamous?! How come? If the polygamy is a base of your religious believes, how can you still be a Mormon – and be married to only one woman? I get the doctrine of the Latter Day Saint Church, but i do not get the hypocrisy to renounce polygamy and still call yourself a Mormon, that’s beyond my comprehension.

And you know, all about Mitt makes the tune from my fav American surrealist –  David Lynch’s Twin Peaks play repeatedly in my head, he simply gives me the creeps:

It’s almost as if i can smell violence, drugs and bondage; all thoroughly tucked in under the clean-cut appearance… overly clean-cut, if you ask me.

You know the moment when i knew i really love Obama? It’s this one:

One can fake almost everything, but not dancing, Obama is cool.

Have you ever seen Mitt dancing? Neither have i, except for that parody clip on Leno of course ( Romney’s head was digitally projected over a dancer’s body, entering the Republican National Convention to ‘Gangnam Style’).

Obama is biracial and having a complex ethnic and religious background myself i do know the rule of thumb is for people who are not  of “ethnically clean” background to be more comprehensive and inclusive of other denominations and ethnicities, it is so by default. Of course that many (most?) of people whose parents are of same ethnicity and religious affiliation are tolerant and accepting as well, but, being a part of majority, it does take a conscious effort to connect to those of us who are in minority – never mind whether religious or sexual.

Romney never knew that kind of anxiety. He never knew lack. He never knew unprivileged childhood. How can he possibly relate to us?

Only several years prior to Ann Dunham’s giving birth to Barack Obama in 1961, biracial  love story was still one of the only two taboo subjects in American literature (the other being pedophilia); can you imagine what guts it took this woman of blessed memory?

Everyone loves watching ‘Modern Family’ nowadays, Dunham’s lived it – an outstandingly progressive way of life – back in 70ies:

I like him because he doesn’t try to come across as holier than though – he is human and is not perfect, he smokes ciggies – albeit not more than five a day and in his memoir “Dreams from My Father’ he openly writes about smoking pot while a teenager.

Last but not the least, i respect Obama because he married a strong woman and not a bimbo.

His spouse, the first lady, has impeccable dressing style and promotes American designers, it’s maybe a detail – but you know, the bigger picture at the end of things is threaded out of the small pieces – she is proud to belong to American nation and doesn’t feel it inferior to any other nation, she expresses that attitude even in her selection of clothes and i applaud to that.

A friend of mine, professor Aleksandra Nikcevic Batricevic PhD, an amazingly stylish lady in her own right, shared on facebook the other day a link to an interview with someone Dubravka Djuric titled ‘We all belong to semi-marginal cultures’. I had the ‘honor’ of attending at the time a workshop of Ms Djuric and i wouldn’t say she considers her native culture (Serbian) to be marginal, not really – that’s how she sees ours, Montenegrin culture, because she doesn’t know it and doesn’t belong to it. Whatever Ms Djuric’s personal issues and inadequacies are – i would ask her NOT to make such sweeping generalizations, and especially NOT on behalf of MY NATION to which she is in no way connected; in the future, please, keep your own inferiority complex for yourself and spare us of your projections that have nothing to do with us and our culture.

There is no center, there is no periphery in culture and art – in politics, yes, there is US, the only remaining super power – and its first lady gives a good example what does it mean to be an individual, a patriot and a liberal cosmopolitan at the same time. And, you know, your 1st guy is married to her, so, among numerous other qualities, he obviously has exquisite taste in women as well.

In full honesty, that’s about it, dear Sylvia.

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To Hell With Common Sense

27 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Essay

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

Arts, Common (entertainer), Common sense, History, Imaginary friend, Kabbalah, Literature, Obama, Philippe Halsman, Philosophy, Real life

The Dali Atomicus, photo by Philippe Halsman (...

           Funny that while we were  raised under premise that it’s ‘inside that counts’ and given that most of the wars throughout written history were fought because of “imaginary friends”; nowadays it seems everyone is going to great lengths to persuade us that “real life” rocks and that your facebook friends and online romances are non-existent… Well, not really.

         Common sense is called common not because it will make one a torchbearer of the humanity and avant-garde – it will indeed keep you ‘common’ and it’s merely a know how for the masses – prone to entropy by definition – a working knowledge and a manual to navigate the uncommon territories of this rushing century… Those who are running in front of the rest of us and moving the time itself as they go, as they run –  they are never common and it’s us, who shclep behind them who need the “common sense” to explain to ourselves what the hell has just happened?!

        Just look at the history of science – or of the very religion, or fashion, and of course – the development of the technology; it’s always the unexpected, carried out by the most unusual folks, that constitutes the progress of the humanity; the rest is wallowing in the entropy of the common sense… Sense can’t be common, you see – because to be sound one has to think for themselves; what we can pick up from our surroundings and what we do get via socialization – is the working knowledge of life, how to adapt to the existing – and not how to create the new.

        It irks me when i read some self-righteous blockhead telling everyone their feelings are not real… Oh, really? It’s as if i know in person and went hiking or something with Clintons and Obamas, who did shape my actual life; it’s as if i know in person all the chemists and engineers who invented stuff that i now use in daily life… Neither have i met philosophers from the past, nor the classical writers – yet all of these folks together have shaped my life and made it what it is.

        I don’t get it where this obsession with the physical started –  we were thought it’s the spirit, you know, that makes the world go round… Now suddenly the rabbis are railing and psychologists are outdoing themselves to persuade you that what you get online is an illusion, while it’s the “real life” that counts… Sure, the “real life” – which at it’s core is equally fictional – only custom tailored according to the needs of governments, clergy and industrial lobbies.

         That would be my main rant of the day – i won’t even link to countless mediocre articles that sing praises to the “real life” vs online experience, it’s a waste of time – more so that these people would never get published, wasn’t it for www; it’s this very media – which they fail to appreciate – that gave them the possibility to voice their worn out ideas , in “real life” it takes much more than that to get published.

        By now you know i am for ever enchanted by Kabbalah – and i admire kabbalists for their use of internet too – i’ve never heard a kabbalist ranting against it; as they try to see the light in everything – they decided internet is a great opportunity to spread wisdom and started working hard; the result of it is that nowadays you get online for free knowledge and tools that only 50 or 70 years ago were  available only to the chosen few.

           In real life, personally, i interact with very few people on a regular bases – maybe it’s just the way i am wired, but i really don’t feel the need to spend extended periods of time in someone’s physical presence, in order to relate to them; i do have wonderful  neighbors and friends whom i know all my life, not to forget my extended family – i am part of their lives and they – of mine; but as genius Churchill put it: small minds are busy with other people, mediocre – with events, great ones – with ideas.

          I don’t really care what you had for lunch and with whom do you sleep, but i do care and would love to share the magic of your life, the extraordinary that you live in the ordinary – and that’s what i am willing to share of myself too; i follow numerous blogs and have numerous online friends – you, guys, make me happy and fulfilled by sharing your thoughts and artwork and sometimes just ramblings and miniature sketches of lives i otherwise wouldn’t get to know; in this dimension it’s highly unrealistic all of us will get together  in the same time at the same place – but, you know, it’s ok with me, the feelings i experience and the inspiration i get from you is real – and that’s just about all i need.

          For art is anyway deprived of the casual – in movies you don’t normally get to see the actors emptying their bowels and in books you’d hardly focus on food that didn’t turn out right or on days in which nothing special happens… Right, real life is made of hours and hours of maintenance of the physical, but i don’t need to share that part with you – in order to relate to your magic, or to your pain per that matter… And posting text after text on the subject of presumed illusion of the internet vs the reality … Sure, it’s as if these bores are historical Buddha himself and it’s as if they get to see the reality as it is… They don’t – and with their lack of imagination they can’t even enjoy the online experience, poor dahlings ( i do feel sorry for them, i just wish they stopped bombarding my inbox and my fb wall with their views as i find them utterly uninspiring, ’tis all.)

If you happen to be one of those people – please go back to watching reality tv or whatever you find a realistic and empowering thing to do, and let the rest of us enjoy what we find pleasurable and fulfilling, kay?

Photo credit: Philippe Halsman ‘s Dali Atomicus (1948), public domain

Visual archive of this picture taken by Philippe Halsman -28 jumps were necessary and a room full of assistants, cats and buckets of water

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