People Starving in Africa

It seems the press is forever caught flat-footed. During most of the Bush administration, major media types practically wore out the once legitimate word, 'unexpected'. Every positive development (and there were many) re the economy was 'unexpected' - the subtext, of course, being always the same: How can things be going so well with an absolute moron in the White House?

Now with Obama safely ensconced and wielding ultimate power, the press still hasn't been cleared to jettison the word 'unexpected'. Every measurable weekly, monthly, quarterly tally since Obama took office is cratering, obvious proof of a systemic failure in government policy. It is consistently reported as 'unexpected' – subtext, again, being: How can economic data be so dismal with our boy genius in the White House?

It’s an interesting tactic by the White House to blame everything on people who would want the POTUS to look bad. This sets up all kinds of possibilities for Obama: War against talk radio; internet; bloggers; returning veterans of foreign (lost) wars, legal immigrants; tea party revelers; emigrants; people with money, people with jobs, people with families; meat eaters; accomplished people; people with talent; private sector people; anybody even a smidgeon to the right of Karl Marx; non-union people; people who exhale more than their allotted share of CO2; etc.

There is of course the lingering possibility – gaining in credibility every time Congress meets with the president’s blessing – that what we view as failure, he views as success. After the back of the Great Satan is broken, who will take credit; who’ll get the blame? It’ll be interesting to see how the greatest train wreck in human history will be evaluated after everything is said and done.

This puts me in mind of the very first lie I was subjected to as a child. “Clean your plate,” I was told. “There are people starving in Africa.”. It was a veiled threat by which I was made to feel somehow guilty. Today I know that the lack of food in Africa or anywhere was not because I might have eaten more (or less) than my share, but because food in the affected areas was used as a weapon by ruthless dictators who wanted to keep their populations in check.