Journalist and documentary filmmaker John Pilger opens this lecture with a brutally sarcastic anecdote from his service in Vietnam, where the US made a formal gift of Uncle Ben's Rice and electric-flush toilets to a village in order to "win their hearts and minds". From there, Pilger fast-forwards to the present where he lays out a rather sweeping condemnation of Barack Obama's policies and opiate public relations message of "Hope".

I should first state that I am in no way an unbiased reviewer for this lecture. I hold an extremely unfavorable view of Barack Obama, beginning from when I heard him say, in the Democratic primary debates, that "all options" were on the table for dealing with Iran, and continuing to this day as I observe his rather abhorrent policy decisions.

In this past Presidential election, I voted for him at the last minute, despite my reservations. Normally I will either write in a candidate or vote for a decent progressive candidate if they are fortunate enough to make it onto the ballot. But the McCain campaign had become so insulting to me by election day, for some reason I decided it was better to have as strong a Democratic victory as possible. That's the last time I ever make that mistake. I would not be surprised if my vote for Obama is the last vote I ever cast for a Democrat. In hindsight, it's one of the few black marks on my voting record since I began to actively follow politics, and that is rather shameful to me.

Which brings me to this wonderful lecture by John Pilger. It is essentially a soapbox lecture, condemning Obama for perpetuating essentially the same imperialistic foreign policies as George W. Bush, while simultaneously placating his predecessor's left-wing opponents with one of modern politics' best dog-and-pony shows. I think my favorable reaction to Pilger's lecture is due largely to the fact that I hear so much stumping and demagoguery that is patently false and blatantly misleading, it's good to hear a passionate speaker give an emotional lecture on something with which I actually agree. I just wish more people would listen, and actually consider the possibility that we really do cause massive damage throughout the world by our policies, and that a little bit of demilitarization on our part might go a very long way towards a better world.

Pilger employs a wonderful quote from Milan Kundera: "The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." With this framework in mind, I believe it is no exaggeration to say that Barack Obama is today's most powerful weapon on the side of forgetting. In many ways he parallels John F. Kennedy: a young (by presidential standards), attractive, charismatic, powerful speaker who has a lot of grandiose things to say about what America could be, who simultaneously allows all of the worst of American imperialism to thrive under his command.

With Bush, there may have been a limit to the nefarious doings of the United States, because he began with a large percentage of citizens disapproving of him, and that percentage continued to grow over time. With Barack Obama, will the same be true? I can only hope that actions speak louder than words.

Recommended.

Links: http://www.alternativeradio.org/programs/PILJ003.shtml

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