The former President of France, Monsieur Jacques Chirac, has claimed that the election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America has occasioned much emotion and hope. Here are Chirac’s exact words written in a letter to Obama:
Alors que votre élection suscite dans le monde émotion et espoir en ces temps difficiles, je ne doute pas que la France et le peuple français auront à coeur d’entretenir et d’approfondir avec votre pays et le peuple américain, les liens d’amitié et de coopération si intenses qu’une longue histoire commune a forgés
translation. Whereas your election has occasioned much emotion and hope throughout the world in these difficult times, let there be no doubt that France and the French people are eager to maintain and deepen their ties with the United States and the American people—to nourish the extraordinary ties of friendship and cooperation that have been forged through the long common history that we have shared.
Chirac’s letter concludes with the following words:
félicitations les plus vives et les plus chaleureuses pour cette très brillante victoire
translation. My heartiest and warmest congratulations on this brilliant victory.
These words, coming from the former President of France, are not just a note of congratulations. They reflect a depth of admiration that I have rarely seen so early on at this level. The hope expressed by Mr. Chirac has been the inspiration for this blog-entry.
Quite simply: Barack Obama can choose to inspire excellence or he can choose to inspire a host of untoward expectations. Insofar as the world is to become a better place, this will happen because we all make the sacrifices necessary in order to make it happen; it will be because we all exercise the self-discipline that is necessary in order to make it happen; it will because we all look beyond our meager differences to the richness that have in common in order to make it happen. Barack Obama can choose to inspire Americans so to behave. He can choose to inspire the world so to behave.
Alternatively, Barack Obama can choose to inspire a most fulsome set of untoward expectations. The following YouTube link speaks to my worry:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36x8rTb3jI
This woman, Ms. Peggy Joseph, thinks that with Obama as president, she will not have to worry about putting gas in her car or paying her mortgage. Her final words are “If I help Obama, he is going to help me”.
Even if Peggy Joseph represents an extreme point of view, one can legitimately ask whether she reflects a mindset on the part of a great many people, namely that somehow if Obama is elected president, he is going to make life better for them.
It is anything but clear how Obama can do that. After all, what he cannot do is cause manna to fall from the heavens.
It is, of course, easy to talk about taxing the well-off, where by the well-off we mean those who earn $200,000 a year. This line of thought, though, loses sight of the fact that some people earn $200,000 a year because they actually work extremely hard. They earn that amount of money a year because they get up and put in their time whether they feel like it or not. They earn that much a year because they refuse to make excuses for themselves.
There are, of course, people who make much more than that. But shall we automatically suppose that they do not earn their salaries?
The deeper point here is that the untoward expectation of making everyone better-off comes with a very hefty price, namely that of burdening many—though perhaps not all—who have worked extremely hard to get where they are and so to earn what they make.
And this brings us to the very heart of the problem. The cultivation of untoward expectations can lead to enormous bitterness.
What is manifestly clear is that Obama is easily one of the most rhapsodic speakers that the world has seen in recent generations. The ability to speak well constitutes a most extraordinary power. It is indeed the power to inspire hope. However, there is a thin but very real line between inspiring hope and inspiring false hopes.
I shall not accuse Barack Obama of inspiring false hopes. But I will say that his presidency will be a tragedy unless he is extremely careful to make sure that he does not occasion false hopes. That is one way to make the United States worse-off by occasioning much hatred and animosity betweeen individuals.
Nothing has ever taken the place of hard work. Nothing has ever taken the place of diligence. Nothing has ever taken the place of persistence in the face of adversity. The presidency of Barack Obama will not change that reality.
The fact that the United States has elected its first black president make very well speak to a new reality—a new beginning, as they say. But that new reality may be none other than the old reality with a new lease on life. An Obama presidency could simply mean that everyone, whatever their ethnicity might be, has to reason to believe that hard-work, diligence, and persistence will receive their proper and just reward. This is an excellence. Or, an Obama presidency could mean none other than the immutable conviction on the part of many that they owed success. This is a most untoward expectation.
Barack Obama has been far less clear than he should be about the difference between cultivating excellence and cultivating untoward expectations. But he will have to get clear about this soon enough. It is my hope and prayer that clarity impels Obama to choose excellence over untoward expectations. It is my further hope and prayer that the American people are ready for precisely that choice.
