The destruction of Barack Obama

In another incident during his life in Indonesia, Obama mentions his mother's generosity in giving money to beggars: a generosity which the young Barack copied despite 'the few coins' in his possession. However, his stepfather regarded this behaviour as 'endearing but silly': he encouraged the boy to ignore beggars and 'make sure you don't end up on the street yourself'. Given Obama's later work as a community organiser, in which he apparently displayed concern for those who were 'less fortunate', his subsequent behaviour as president, in which he has overseen the continuing impoverishment of working and middle class Americans, appears inconsistent. How can we account for this?

The adult Obama lacks integrity: his mind is not integrated in such a way that memories, thoughts, feelings and conscience function seamlessly to drive his behaviour in a consistent direction. And this is why he is such a useful tool of those corporate elites who selected him to govern the United States. Like most people who (unconsciously) feel unloved (an outcome of the fact that loving his father didn't gain him love in return), he now has the unconscious desire to please and to gain approval.

And Obama wants this approval from his corporate masters (not merely American voters); it's not love but it's better than nothing. In turn, he has the pleasant face and oratory which they can use to both mask and 'sell' their ruthless exploitation of the people of America and elsewhere around the world, including when he must lie outright to do so (as he did when he denied that the NSA spies on US citizens).

Obama makes it clear that his mother wanted him to have 'values'. What his mother, like most parents, did not realize is that socially positive values are deeply anchored in certain emotions and that these emotions and the values they generate can only emerge as a result of childhood experience (not including lectures and admonishments from adults). The reason that the adult Obama has no conscience and feels little or no love, compassion, empathy and/or sympathy for the victims of his government's violence is simply the logical outcome of his own childhood which was largely devoid of genuine love, compassion, empathy and sympathy. This is another reason why the adult Obama is so violent, both internationally and even domestically. As Obama oversees the increasing militarization of US society and the systematic dismantling of the social contract – the removal of centuries-old constitutional protections and the ongoing encroachments on human rights and civil liberties (including those which protected American citizens from arbitrary detention or execution by their own government), the dramatic expansion of poverty and homelessness, the spying on fellow Americans, the ongoing consolidation of predatory corporate governance – we are simply witnessing the logical outcome of the violence he suffered as a child.

At a personal level, we must understand why Barack Obama is violent and support him to find the courage to travel the journey of emotional healing because, like all perpetrators of violence, he was terrorised and brutalised as a child. At a political level, those of us committed to ending human violence must nonviolently resist his killing and his exploitation. There is a better world for all of us but violence by anyone, for any purpose – even when referred to as 'punishment' – cannot bring it forth.