Album: Hope Is Not a Strategy, Despair Is Not a Method
Category: BL's Songs without Words
On November 15th, 2006, the Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony from top US commander for the Middle East, General John Abizaid. Frustrated by repeated promises with discouraging results, New York senator and 2008 presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton admonished him, "Hope is not a strategy." Frustrated in turn with congress's pessimism, he reminded her, "Despair is not a method."
Though nominally among the most powerful people in the world, their power was non-transferable, as they were plainly impotent to change the behavior of a fledgling nation's most powerless. An entire nation's worth of power was up for grabs, and who was going to pursue it more desperately than those with nothing to lose?
Strengthening the power theme in the Capitol Hill testimony was that not two weeks before, in the US democracy, mid-term elections had arrived. The eager population had its own chance to exercise power, with its especially reserved right: the vote. Many who had up to then occupied powerful posts were instantly, peaceably replaced. It was a power-shift that was, to all US citizens, customary, expected. And yet, given the potential to limit the US executive branch's power, the election results were also, to many in the US and around the world, stunning and inspiring.
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