2016: Obama's America Review on HULU

 
This documentary (you can watch it here for free) made by Dinesh D'Souza released in 2012 takes us on a journey following both the filmmaker and the US President, Barack Obama, from their roots and at that time, into the future.  The future is now as we approach 2016.

I am sure Mr. D'Souza never thought he would go to jail and I am more sure that Mr. Obama should.

But I doubt it will ever happen.

The film ends with predictions about what will happen by 2016 if Mr. Obama got re-elected.  Well, he did and most of the predictions came true.

But that isn't what I found most interesting as I watched this movie.

In many ways I am very late to this game of geopolitics and manipulation.  Let's be honest, most of us are powerless to make big changes.  That is why I focus on what I can do and what you can do.

But watching this documentary hit on several points worth highlighting for our own journey as we watch the world around us continue to burn before our eyes.

PERSPECTIVE IS UNIQUE TO EACH OF US

The first is how important it is to remember we all have our own perspective.  Mr. D'Souza came from India.  He lived under and with colonization and its effects and so has a perspective those of us in the West do not.

I hadn't even thought about this subject or how it applies to what is happening today.  Have you?

And as he points out, has Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton as they cry out about prejudice, racism, and repression?

Have you ever lived in another country and then come to the US to compare?

Whether you agree or not on the idea of Obama and anti-colonialism or not, it is important to take the time to listen, think about and consider.

The reason this is so important is because most humans believe that their world view is the RIGHT world view and the ONLY world view.

We get lost in this idea that others think, believe, and value as we do.  That is why we have so much trouble understanding why certain things happen when they make NO LOGICAL SENSE.

Which is how I felt observing the long list of choices and actions laid out in this documentary.

Why would Obama DO that as PRESIDENT of the United States?  It makes no sense from the perspective of someone who grew up here with the values this country was built on.

But Obama didn't, did he.

MANIPULATION GOES EXTREME

Next was the in your face revelation of the level of manipulation by Obama and his marketing forces to become elected.

This is a topic I am getting more aware of and less comfortable with.  The level with which humanity is being manipulated by has grown so exponentially over the last 100 years it takes my breath away.

The effects of this manipulation have literally knocked me down and taken everything I had.

I am awake now.  Are you?

But at the time of the first election I still had a house, a belief there was an American Dream, and fell hook, line, and sinker when I saw a woman and an African-American eligible for the highest office in the US.

It represented an idea that I had held on to for so long.  Hope.  Silly me.

When I was younger I wanted to be the first female president.  Here were two people roughly my age, poised to do just that.

It felt important.

Now I just feel ashamed as I've learned more about both Obama and Sarah Palin.  I feel stupid, silly, and embaressed I was so naive.

Oh well.  The past is the past.  Time to move on.

MOVIE TAKEAWAYS

Lastly, I recommend watching this movie now even though it too is from the past because we all need to be reminded of what is happening.

We need to see that when a filmmaker digs in deep about a president, he goes to jail.

We need to see the list of choices all in one place to get focused on what actually happened and not distracted by future choices that could happen.

We need to see and hear that our perspective is not the only perspective and when we fail to understand this, bad things happen.

We need to be willing to listen and watch ideas that may not sync up to our own without becoming violent in our rejection (just read some of the comments).

And most of all, we need to grow up.

What is happening in our world is not an accident.  It is not because we are weak and powerless to stop it.

It is happening because we are allowing it.

There have not been enough of us awake and paying attention.

Slowly that is changing.

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

And while it may be too late to keep the old systems in place, it is not too late to focus on building the kind of systems we want.

And that doesn't happen by waiting for someone else to do it for us.  It happens when we decide to be the person we need to be to build it for our self.

If we focus on who we want to be, then there is less chance we will be manipulated into becoming who someone else wants us to be.

We need to let go of this idea we are right about everything and become willing to allow for different perspectives.  When the focus in on shared values and not shared beliefs, we can work toward a shared goal.

A goal that lifts us all up and not one that drags us all down.

Simple yes.  Easy no.

Nothing about living in today's world feels easy.  Yet there is nothing more important than choosing both to live and how we want to live.

Will you walk with me on this Survival Road?  I am always seeking fellow travelers!

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