I’m going to give you a great example of taking one line out context. Do you remember the single sentence out of this speech that got a lot of play?
(L)ook, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something — there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there. (Applause.)
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.
The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together. There are some things, just like fighting fires, we don’t do on our own. I mean, imagine if everybody had their own fire service. That would be a hard way to organize fighting fires.
So we say to ourselves, ever since the founding of this country, you know what, there are some things we do better together. That’s how we funded the GI Bill. That’s how we created the middle class. That’s how we built the Golden Gate Bridge or the Hoover Dam. That’s how we invented the Internet. That’s how we sent a man to the moon. We rise or fall together as one nation and as one people, and that’s the reason I’m running for President — because I still believe in that idea. You’re not on your own, we’re in this together. (Applause.)
I think Mr. Obama is absolutely right. There have been many things we, as Americans, are very proud of, but we’re blinded by the ideology of every person for themselves.
I’ve been reminded of this speech by Mr. Obama because of this very insightful essay by Umair Haque.
Americans really believe. A certain ideology. Every person for themselves. Society stops at the boundaries of the family, which is about the only form of collective action or public good allowed. Beyond that, sure, maybe there should be public roads and schools, and that’s about it. I won’t “take responsibility” for that person, because they might be a layabout, a liability, a parasite, who costs me money, and I don’t have enough of that to begin with. The strong survive, and the weak perish, and that’s how we advance as a society.
And yet, in his final paragraph…
The old myths aren’t working. It’s time for a new identity, a new form of self-belief. Hey, if we’re not just rugged, manly individualists, who are we? We could also be the America that saved the world, went to the moon, freed the slaves, and lives up to its ideals. None of those, after all, which shine like a beacon, even in these dark times, to the world and to history and to you and me — democracy, freedom, justice, truth — say anything about “only the strong survive,” do they?
It’s something to yearn for, anyway.
(There are other things in Mr. Haque’s essay having to do with economics, but it’s a diversion from these points. Maybe later.)
