Originally posted on sciy.org by Rich Carlson on Sat 08 Nov 2008 04:26 PM PST
As the United States stands poised to make history with the impending presidential election, it takes considerable courage for a very public black intellectual like Dr. Cornel West to refrain from jumping headlong onto the Obama bandwagon. But Professor West has opted to remain true to his core values by sharing the sage insight that an African-American occupying the White House will not automatically mean the struggle for equality is over or that we have realized Dr. King’s dream of a post-racial society where one is judged not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character.
"We are now in one of the most truly prophetic moments in the history of America. The poor and very poor are sleeping with self-destruction. The working and middle classes are struggling against paralyzing pessimism and privileged are swinging between cynicism and hedonism. Yes, these are the circumstances that people of conscience must operate under during this moment of national truth or consequences.
We have witnessed the breakdown of the social systems that nurture our children. Our rootless children… have no cultural armor to protect them while negotiating the terrors and traumas of daily life. Young people need a community to sustain them, so that they can look death in the face and deal with disease, dread and despair. These days we are in deep trouble.
The audacity of hope won the 2008 Democratic primary, yet we are still living in the shadow of the vicious realignment of the American electorate, provoked by the media’s negative appeals to race and gender and the right-wing propaganda that bashes vulnerable groups… Real hope is grounded in a particularly messy struggle and it can be betrayed by naïve projections of a better future that ignore the necessity of doing the real work. So what we are talking about is hope on a tightrope."
- Excerpted from the Introduction (pages 1-6)
“In Hope on a Tightrope , an eloquent collection of both audio (on CD) and printed meditations, West indirectly challenges Obama to prove that the “Audacity of Hope†is more than a campaign slogan West indirectly challenges Obama to prove that the “Audacity of Hope†is more than a campaign slogan “ asking, “What price are you willing to pay?†And the author goes on to warn that “American politics has a way of grinding the best out of a person†and that “it reduces their prudent judgment into opportunistic behavior.â€
Undoubtedly, there will be many folks who feel it is unfair to ask Obama to focus on the plight of the least of his brethren even before he’s had a chance be inaugurated, let alone revel in the euphoria of his stunning accomplishment. Yet, as implied by the Dr. King metaphor he’s been so fond of quoting on the stump, there is a “fierce urgency of now.†So I say, Dr. West must be commended for so lovingly and frankly reminding Barack of the meaning of that phrase while exploring a litany of themes in a heartfelt manner, topics ranging from leadership to faith to family to identity to education to spirituality to service to social justice.
A passionate appeal to Obama about his responsibility to the masses and the millions of modest contributors who helped put him in office, plus a timely message that “You can’t save the people if you don’t serve the people.â€
quotes from Hope on a Tight Rope
I’m a Christian, so I have Jesus in the temple. I have a martyr against the marketeers. (pg. 18)
The culture of advanced capitalist American society, the culture of consumption revolves around the market–around buying and selling this process turns everything into a commodity and undermines value and meaning in the name of ever-increasing profit.
This is dangerous because in a marketplace culture, commodification–the ability to put a price tag on everything–dominates more and more spheres of human life. This creates an addiction to stimulation, which is necessary to keep the consumer-culture economy going. (’Terrorist attack? We’ll show ‘em. We’ll protect the american way of life. We’ll go shopping!’)
The marketplace culture of consumption undermines community, undermines links to history and tradition, and undermines relationships. The very notion of commitment becomes more and more contested. Addictive bodily stimulation becomes the model for human relationships. We see it in the dehumanizing exploitation of women’s bodies in the advertising industry. We see it in TV sitcoms and reality TV shows that are fueled by orgiastic intensity. (pg. 30-31)
The vocation of the intellectual is to turn easy answers into critical questions and to put those critical questions to people with power.
The quest for truth, the quest for the good, the quest for the beautiful, all require us to let suffering speak, let victims be visible, and demand that social misery be put on the agenda of those with power. So to me, pursuing the life of the mind is inextricably linked witht he struggle of those on the margins of society who have been dehumanized. (pg. 37)
Humanistic intellectuals are being marginalized in our society by the technical intellectuals, such as physicists, computer scientists, and so on, because they receive funding from huge private enterprises, from the state, and from the military-industrial complex. Why? Because the products they provide are quite useful for a market-driven society. (pg. 38-39)
I am no way optimistic, but I remain a prisoner of hope. (pg. 41)
The very discovery that black people are human beings is a new one. This question of what it means to be human affects each and every one of us. Thats why all of us have so much at stake in black history. (pg. 43)
If you view America from the Jamestown Colony, America is a corporation before it’s a country. If it’s a corporation before it is a country, then white supremacy is married to capitalism. Therefore, white supremacy is something that is so deeply grounded in white greed, hatred, and fear that it constitutes the very foundation for what became a precious experiment in democracy called the U.S.A. … Brother Barak Obama refers to “…this nation’s original sin of slavery.†No, the original sin was the dispossession, subjugation, and near extermination of the indigenous people prior to the founding of the United States. We must never allow black suffering to blind us to other people’s suffering — in this case, our American Indian brothers and sisters, and especially their precious babies.
White supremacy — now that’s the real original sin that grounds American Indian and African oppression. That’s the precondition for a nation that could then be founded on the exploitation, subjugation, and hatred of African people. (pg. 45-46)
Any time you make the cross subordinate to the flag, you have idolatry. Americanized christianity is shot through with forms of idolatry, making it difficult for people to keep track of the blood at the cross, the need to love, sacrifice, and bear witness to something bigger than nation, race, or tribe. (pg. 80)
Dr. Cornel West Biography
Dr. Cornel West is currently the Class of 1943 University Professor of Religion at Princeton University. One of America’s most gifted and provocative public intellectuals, Dr. West has won numerous awards, including the American Book Award, and has received more than 20 honorary degrees. He received his BA from Harvard University and his MA and PhD from Princeton University.
Dr. West’s writing, speaking, and teaching weaves together the American traditions of the Church, transcendentalism, socialism, and pragmatism. His best-selling book, Race Matters, changed the course of America’s dialogue on race, justice, and democracy.
As a boy, Dr. West was greatly impressed by the Baptist church. He had been deeply touched by the stories of parishioners who, only two generations from slavery, told stories of Blacks maintaining their religious faith during the most trying of times. Dr. West was equally attracted to the commitment of the Black Panthers, and it was from them that he began to understand the importance of community-based political action. However, it was a biography of Teddy Roosevelt that Dr. West borrowed from a neighborhood bookmobile that influenced his academic future and led him to Harvard. After three years, Dr. West graduated magna cum laude. Martin Kilson, one of Dr. West’s professors, recalls him as “the most intellectually aggressive and highly cerebral student I have taught in my 30 years here.â€
Dr. West’s first book, Prophesy Deliverance!, advocates a socially concerned African American Christianity that draws from Marxism. Dr. West has authored several other books, most recently The African-American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Century (with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.,), and Cornel West: A Critical Reader. He also co-authored two important books on public policy issues: The Future of American Progressivism (with Roberto Unger) and The War Against Parents (with Sylvia Ann Hewlett).
Dr. West was an influential force in developing the storyline for the popular Matrix trilogy. Not only is he the spokesperson for this box-office hit series, Dr. West also had recurring roles in the final two volumes.
A long-time member, Dr. West now serves as an honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. He has worked with numerous political and social organizations, including co-chairing the National Parenting Organization’s Task Force on Parent Empowerment. Dr. West was also part of President Clinton’s National Conversation on Race, and has joined Al Sharpton's Presidential exploratory committee.
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