Peace?

"For true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from want." - President Barack Obama, in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.

I do have to give President Obama credit for writing a good speech (or at least hiring a good speech writer), but I do have to take exception to the above line because of the message that it sends ... and the message that I believe that Obama fully intended for it to send.

Setting aside for a moment the whole impropriety of the award going to President Obama in the first place, a point that he actually brings up at the beginning of his speech, we have to look into what he said.

I'm picking on this particular line because it lies at what I consider to be the heart of Obama's philosophy ... and his problem as a President.

The problem ... of course ... is his choice of wording. To be alive is to want ... there is no real way around that. A tree 'wants' air and sun and water ... it may not have a conscious understanding of that as we do, but it still wants them. Likewise ... even if you gave me everything I wanted right now, I'd want something else once you were done.

"Freedom from want" is impossible ... and if you could somehow free someone from 'want' you will have taken away from them any possible motivation to improve ... or even live. Because at the heart of all motivation there must be a 'want' to drive it ... you strive to improve your income because you 'want' nicer things, you work out because you 'want' to look/feel better, you go out to a party with your friends because you 'want' to have fun.

Everything that you do in life, you do because of a want. Hell, you could say that you continue breathing because you want to live!

Now ... I hear it already ... 'well he meant freedom from the want of necessities, you're taking it too literally.'

No ... Obama is not dumb, he knows that there is a word for the want of necessities ... it's a very simple one in fact ... 'needs'. He choose to use 'wants' for a reason, and that is, in fact, the problem.

Had he choose to say that 'For true peace is not just freedom from fear, but freedom from need.' I would have accepted and even agreed with him. It is true that anyone that lacks what they 'need' to survive will in fact fight to obtain it ... that is part of our basic animalistic nature ... so yes, while there is need in the world we will not see any true and lasting peace. But that isn't what he choose to say ... that isn't the message that he choose to convey with his language. Because, in the end, it's not what he believes.

More and more I believe that Obama believes in a government that sees to and manages every persons wants and desires. A government that wraps you in a blanket as you come out of the womb and buries you in the grave when you die ... a government that controls your life in every aspect.

Don't get me wrong ... I don't believe that Obama is himself an evil man, I don't believe that he is doing this with evil or malicious intent. I do, however, believe that he is doing it because he believes that it is what is the right thing to do, and that it is good ... the problem is that there is an old saying that may prove very very true:

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Now I'm going to ramble a bit ... but it does have a point:

As I'm sure that by now you all know that I'm a gamer ... I love playing computer and video games ... and there was something in the game 'Jade Empire' that I think is relavant here, and it has to do with philosophy. No doubt my summery of it will not do justice to the concept but I'll at least try to get the basics across.

I have heard, both in the game and elsewhere, of the eastern philosophies of the 'Path of the Open Palm' and the 'Path of the Closed Fist' ... The first is often seen and depicted as the philosophy of the benevolent protector, while the latter is portrayed as the overbearing tyrant. As the game made a point to remark on, however, the follower of the 'Open Palm' must be vigilant lest his benevolence itself oppress those he seeks to help, making him a tyrant in his own right.

In other words ... it's possible to help people too much. Sometimes people need to fall, sometimes people need to fail, sometimes helping someone is really just holding them down with a smiling face, enslaving them with silken whips.

And that, I believe is the mistake Obama is making in his personal philosophy and political decisions ... he is trying to help people ... out of a true desire to help people ... to such an extent that in the end they end up totally dependent and enslaved to government. A position, it seems, that all too many Americans are willing to accept.