Obama: Everything You Want Him to be

Who is Barack Obama, where does he come from and where does he belong? These are questions that many have tried to answer, but that most fail to answer satisfactorily. There are questions about his nationality, religion, race which seem to remain open to most voters. And so far most commentators have described it as Obama’s weakness. After all how can a man who’s loyalty might be to the US, Kenya or Indonesia, who might be a Christian, Muslim or none of the above and who is neither really black nor really white find a solid base a group of people that identifies with him and rallies around him.

Well a group of people like that does actually exist. They are quite common in Europe and the US, but they do in fact exist all over the world, people who grew up with parents of mixed religions, race and nationality, the true citizens of the world. This group of people identifies with Obama, not because his mix is the same, but because like many them he is a minority of 1. And like all these other minorities of 1, he had to define himself, he had to pick the best elements of both cultures he grew up with and discard those elements he saw as tradition for tradition’s sake, xenophobic expressions of nationalism and outdated cultural rituals.

Like so many cultures of 1 he chose not to stay close to where his roots where. In fact he chose to ignore his Kenyan roots altogether until he finally established his own identity, his own personal culture. He did this by choosing to live in the least likely of places, forgoing the beauty of Hawaii, Indonesia and Kenya, he chose Altgelt in Chicago.

The largest part of Obama’s Biography is not devoted to his childhood or Kenya, it is devoted to his time working as a community organizer. Although it might be the most boring part for the reader, clearly this is the part where Obama felt that he came alive. In a sense you might say it is where he was reborn.

He first all of defined himself by creating his own morality, which I think what his organizing is all about. It clearly stems from the desire of all founding father’s to create a nation that is in essence a departure from the corrupt nations of old. A nation of ideals and idealism, because that is what Obama in essence is, a nation onto himself, newly founded with its own culture and ethics combining the lessons he learned growing up in many cultures taking only those things he thought had value.

So how did Obama define himself? Well first of all he defined himself as black, by identifying with the black struggle. This does not mean he denies that he is part white or denounces his white heritage. It is simply that the struggle of black Americans was and is a fight worth fighting and Obama identifies with the underdog.

Secondly he defined himself as an American by moving to the American heartland and relegating Kenya to the status of a place for vacations and family visits.

And lastly he defined himself as a Christian. He found a church and a pastor that inspired him. But the experience with that pastor after he became the presidential candidate shows again his ability to shake his identity and change it rapidly. This is again because his whole life he has been a lot of things to a lot of people and although he has defined himself to himself he still possesses the old reflex to be what he needs to be since he is many things.

Or to put it differently Obama is Obama first and last. His religion race and nationality are not really what define him, they are secondary. At times when these trappings express who he is he will don them and when they don’t he shakes them off.

So is it indeed Obamas weakness that he is so hard to define, that in fact he is fundamentally different from the vast majority of Americans? On the contrary. Obama’s appeal is that he not only talks about change, but that he embodies change, that what he is truely represents someting new, because he himself is something new. Obama presents people with a choice, to see him as either black or white, as American or world citizen as Christian or trancendental. No matter what you choose to see him as Obama is unlikely to disappoint you because he went and picked the best of all worlds and created a new world, a new nation, a new culture and a new religion.

People like Obama are becoming more common and they are a boon to the world. They have the opportunity to move beyond the past and be a gift to the future. Their backgrounds don’t define them. They define what of their background has meaning. And that in itself is progress.

And that in the end is why I think Obama will continue to appeal to people and lead to his presidency. He is a canvas for people’s hopes and ideas. His past is one no one can relate to, it’s mysterious and exotic like a beautifull dream. And it is this dream that inspires, that offers the hope of a mysterious exotic wonderful future for us all.