It's nearly 4 am here so a quick note: The whole thing looked and sounded like a very twee Protestant church service, including the "Lord of the Dance" crapola barely redeemed by the performers.I was waiting for the puppet show for the kids...
[Later note] Okay, maybe I was a bit jaded. I find the Protestant trappings rather distasteful - don't they have churches for that kind of thing? And the "and nonbelievers" thing - why is that an advance? A significant segment of the American population is being defined solely as what they are not. PZ Mosspit is right that something like "freethinkers" would have been better.
To those who mention Copland - I love that guy, and that symphony in particular. That is American culture at its best, up there with Mississippi blues and the best of jazz.
That poem. That "prayer" (which seemed to me more an assertion of what Real Americans believe). Oy.
Obama's speech was not, I think, his best, although he hit the right note pretty consistently (and had a few really subtle digs at the outgoing administration - must have sucked to be Dubya and the Evil Demon during that ceremony). I was taken by his reaching out to the rest of the world. I remain suspicious of his ultimate policies, though. And while he said that security and ideals are mutually coherent, he did not say that the ideal being abused by the last administration was the rule of law. As a brilliant scholar of the law, I am sure he'll act accordingly, but I think the American people needed to hear that. Still, I doubt I could write or deliver that speech, so who am I to comment?
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Hey! It was light years ahead of our other great national ceremony ...
the Super Bowl.
Hey, you furrin types have no appreciation of good American culture.
"Simple Gifts" is a nice Shaker hymn, but it's much better known from it's use in Copeland's "Appalachian Spring". And they could have used something from "Fanfare for the Common Man" instead, so count your blessings.
"Fanfare for the Common Man" was on Sunday.
Although I am a cynic through and through (I ignored this event, and decided to listen to Who's Next instead) I take umbrage at the disrespect for Copeland's Fanfare for the Common Man. I agree that in contemporary times it is overused and overwrought. However, its inception and history is the best America offers. It was not conceived to honor puffed up orators, but instead lauded the true heroes of this nation.
The puppet show for the kiddies starts tomorrow, we call them confirmation hearings. Meet the new boss, same as the boss. Alas that killer Townshend guitar riff is missing.
Evidently you haven't seen many previous American inaugural ceremonies, John. The music was great; Yo Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, and Aretha Franklin -- what more could you ask for? Obama's speech was of course a vague attempt at inspiration, but they have to be that way (there are rules, after all!), but given that limitation, it surpassed most recent examples of the genre.
Mein Gott, you stayed up to watch the thing? And here I couldn't even be bothered going down to the TV in the cafeteria with my (American ex-pat) colleague. You really are a junky.
Uh,yah, what inauguration were you watching?
Someone cut Cheney's strings. Thus, no puppet show.
Good one, abb3w.
Eight years of puppet theater is enough. Now maybe we'll see what happens when real people run the country.
Maybe.
Rt
After you stop pledging your loyalty to a monarch who lives in another country and isn't even Australian, then you get to make fun of our puppet show. Meantime we make fun of our own puppets. Particularly the Fox news controlled ones. Ok, well you get to make fun of them too.
Copeland is as American as composers get, and 'Appalachian Spring' is a wonderful piece of music. The melody is also used in a Shaker hymn, as far removed from jingoistic megachurch as Sean Hannity is from Martin Luther King.
Wingnuts have been harping on how Obama was going to have Snoop Dogg provide the music.
The inauguration wasn't perfect, but how could anyone not enjoy welcoming Obama and bidding King George good riddance? I enjoyed the obvious shots at Bush too, and I can just picture the strutting bubble-head angrily thinking "He's talkin' 'bout me, ain't he?" Goodbye, Smirky McFlightsuit, and may you live in infamy from this day foreward.
Just to get things straight here, the original is the Shaker hymn.
Copland used the Shaker tune in Appalachian Spring, and Sydney Carter used it in his hymn Lord of the Dance.
My modest hope is for an administration which makes different mistkes. I've gotten bored with the old ones. Obama will disappoint his most ardent supporters, and not be as bad as expected by his most ardent critics. In any case, one cannot help but feel that we have a chance to make things better in the future.
And what does the inauguration of the President of Australia consist of? Oh dear, you don't have one?
Never mind, the Governor-General has a nice hat, and your Generalissima Presidente for Life, Mrs E. Windsor of 1, The Mall, London, has some shiny baubles. Does her oratory compare with Mr Obama's? Perhaps you hear her Christmas Message to the Oiks each year?
In 1997, power in the UK transferred from the outgoing Conservative administration to Tony Blair's New Labour administration. The transition happens on the morning after the General Election (we can do some things quickly). As the television helicopters followed the limos whizzing around central London transferring the levers of power, one commentator made the point that we should think for a moment how wonderful this is, that we can have an entirely peaceful transfer of power, no intimidation, no bloodshed, no coup, no armed forces anywhere.
If that means we have some kitsch moments in naff ceremonies, I say, stuff the cynicism, appreciate it.
A peaceful transfer of power is to be celebrated. This one in particular is brilliant. Mr Obama might disappoint in the future in these difficult times, but, hey, what's wrong with a bit of happiness and optimism for a few days?
Actually I agree with you, but we do have pomp and circumstance and yes it has Protestant prayers and all but we don't really take much interest in it. I couldn't imagine 1% of the population going to Canberra to see the inauguration of the new Parliament. Comes of having a state church and inarticulate politicians.
Either way, I like having a nonviolent transfer of power from time to time. And I am quite optimistic that Obama will be one of the best presidents the US has ever had, by which I mean he will stuff up the least amount and overall inspire Americans to be better than they otherwise would be.
That doesn't normally happen in the States either. But this is our first black president, and the previous president was widely reviled, so people are perhaps more excited about the inauguration than they normally would be.
Frankly, I didn't bother watching any of it. I don't really give a damn what speeches Obama gave about "hope" and "change". I'm just glad Bush is gone, and has been replaced by someone who appears to be competent.
Aretha Franklin sang.
TOP THAT!!!1111ooneoneone
fusilier
James 2:24
Dr. Wilkins wrote:
I think you've hit the nail on the head. In democracies, the leaders we remember as the best are those that inspired the nations they lead to greater heights, or to overcome some seemingly insurmountable goal.
Obama is going to be president through the hardest time that any president has had to lead the US since the Great Depression. Unlike FDR, who for at least a portion of it, could concentrate mainly on domestic matters, Obama also has important issues on the world scene. The economic collapse isn't just American, and is going to require gaining co-operation with other world leaders. Obama is also going to have meaningfully deal with a re-ascendant and decidedly imperialistic Russia, with the never-ending Middle East peace "process", with pulling out of Iraq in such a fashion as to not leave a gaping crater there, troubles in Iran and instability in the rest of Central Asia. And he's going to have to do all of this one way or the other way with the economic engine stalled and still potentially in a nosedive.
I hope he's up to the challenge, and that he can keep his moral compass, which seems to be the first thing that gets dispensed with once in power.
I stayed up to watch the inauguration. Just one of those things. I'm rather optimistic about Obama's presidency, and his speech has me feeling more optimistic. Sure, the vision he has for the US and reality of what he can achieve may be two different things, but at least he is providing a vision that I as a non-American can believe in.
I quite liked the poem. At first I was a little dismissive, but as I listened to it, the poem outlined quite a powerful message.
At 33 years of age I am a young 'un. And though Obama's speech was nowhere near the quality of Kennedy's inauguration speech, I do feel inspired. And hopeful. And excited about the future. Obama may not be Kennedy (at least the idealised version we have of Kennedy that I have been provided), but I do feel as though we are entering a new age. It is early days yet, but I am glad I am old enough to have hope of it, to experience it, and perhaps even, as an Australian, to contribute to it.
Ok, its not up there with Lincoln's two inaugural speeches, or even Kennedy's or FDR's, but I suppose that script was just too predictable to live up to. Any speech would have been a bit of a let-down.
However, we did get pure, unadulterated Obama and that is hopeful.
It seems silly to object to accurate depictions, and being defined by what you are not is perfectly acceptable if it's a good definition - darkness is defined as the absence of light, which is perfectly fine. Atheism is the absence of a certain belief. The set of things not in B is the complement of B - we don't bother coming up with another word for it, as it's unecessary.
Heck, when I label my kids' cups I typically only bother labelling the first 2, since the third can be identified by the absence of any symbol. I suppose in my weird way I'm unintentionally teaching them that having a label is unecessary.
The point being, nonbelievers is a fine term, and it is inclusive, catching those who are agnostic (and thus don't believe), atheist (whether weak or strong). Freethinkers is a self-aggrandising term, and one practically designed to ruffle feathers. I'm happy to be referred to as a non-believer, as non-female, as a non-bachelor - whatever - they're dichotomies. You are or you aren't, and it's somewhat pointless to have a word that specifies both when you can use a word that means the complement of the former.
Heck, even the word atheist is precisely a negation - it means non-theistic.
Asexual, anaerobic, anorexia, anechoic, alexia, agraphia, aphasia, apraxia, atypical, apathetic, abiogenesis, anesthesia, analgesic, amoral, anemia ... I have no issues with these words. Why should I?
Just to get into full pedantic mode with the chamber-musical offering, it was not the Copland dressing-up of the Shaker hymn (which I also love - first music I ever listened to through a pair of headphones), but a John Williams (composer of Star Wars theme) take-off on it/them.
I must admit that I thought the poem was weird and, ultimately, sucked. Also, I didn't think Aretha was in very good form that day.
"And the "and nonbelievers" thing - why is that an advance?"
Because as a god believer, a person has additional reasons to be dangerous. A Christian, for instance, has an additional reason (besides not liking them) to kill gay people: the Bible says homosexuals should be stoned to death. He also has an additional reason to kill his neighbour's 17-year-old wiccan daughter: the Bible says 'thou shalt not suffer a witch to live'. Whether or not all Christians agree with this is irrelevant - the possibility is there. One Christian can argue that the gay or witch killing thing is out of context, but another Christian can disagree. At the end of the day, each god believer chooses his own interpretation.
Atheism provides no reason to kill - it is merely descriptive (while religions are prescriptive) and so any prescription derived from atheism is a non-sequitur. For example, it does not follow that if there are no gods, one should kill people.
"A significant segment of the American population is being defined solely as what they are not."
Sometimes, what you're not is more important than what you are. Would you let young children in the care of someone who is not moral?
"And the "and nonbelievers" thing - why is that an advance?"
I just realised that you meant 'why is it an advance to acknowledge the existence of non-believers'. I read your post a little too quickly - sorry! At first, I thought you meant 'why is it an improvement to be a non-believer as opposed to a believer'.
Again, sorry!
It's an advance back to the ideals of the Enlightenment on which the US was founded - that everyone irrespective of religious opinions has a place in civil society.