One of the big disappointments I have encountered in politics has been the Presidency of Barak Obama. From my perspective he has been a failure. I feel that one explanation for this can be found in an interview I read that his wife Michelle had given in which she stated that
"Whether you come from a council estate or a country estate, your success in life will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude".
This is so painfully wrong and hopelessly idealistic that I despair that the President of the United States may share such a grotesque view of the real world. I feel that he probably does as his wife is so confident that she can make such public statements without being contradicted by her husband. If that is so, is it any wonder that his Presidency can be such a disappointment if he carries such a blinkered individualist philosophy into his political life and utilises it for the basis of his public policy making. It is even more remarkable coming from an African-American who must witness daily that the determining influence on the vast majority of his fellow African-Americans is race, regardless of their individual self-confidence and fortitude. Of course some individuals will succeed in life through their own confidence and fortitude, but these are the exceptions, those that are lucky enough to be able to exploit the chinks in the armour of the bourgeois elite who govern our western society and erect formidable barriers to the majority of society who are not part of their elite circle. There are ways by which many people can make it up the ladder such as sport, music, or, too often crime. But for the most of us in society who are not born into a more privileged milieu there are ceilings and barriers to any form of meaningful advancement. At the present time I wonder how many American Muslims would agree with Mrs Obama?
In the UK the most obvious barrier is class. Britain is a quite ferociously class ridden society. Class permeates Britain like a blanket, smothering talent and opportunity. The Westminster party system is a classic example of that with working class MPs almost invisible. All you need to do is listen to the accents of people at the top, and look at their background. Britain is also bedevilled by gender and racial discrimination because of the Eton/Harrow type of white male Tory mentality that dominates progress in this sorry nation. If you consider the political class in modern Britain it is characterised by mediocrity and buffoonery. It is the same in the media with presenters and commentators who are chosen for their looks and their accents rather than any meaningful knowledge or talent. I have written before and I repeat, if you had the ability to combine the intellects of the Conservative government in this country you would struggle to produce a halfwit.
The phenomenon of Donald Trump is a reflection of the exclusion of the majority of the American people and their effective disenfranchisement. What did Obama's election do for African-Americans? Well from this side of the Atlantic is doesn't seem to be very much. It hasn't stopped them from being shot and imprisoned. It hasn't seen any meaningful rise in their employment prospects and life chances. From Mrs Obama's perspective this must only mean that they have no self-confidence or inner fortitude and that their lack of success must be a result of inherent character flaws. This is exactly the same kind of poisonous nonsense we get from the Westminster pigsty. There are no causal social factors producing poverty and social exclusion, it is all the result of personal failure. Until we address the social causes of failure, class, race, gender, ethnicity etc. we will never begin to understand the root causes of the serious problems that exist in our societies, never mind beginning to solve them. This dominant neoliberal political and economic filth must be confronted and exposed. You have been warned
Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat
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