> Obama is responsible for his actions, like everybody else
> should be. Arguments from intention don`t count, as in the
> childish excuse, Johnny made me do it, Dad, honest.
No argument on this. Structural constraints don't relieve us from making choices. We are all constrained by nature and by one another's actions -- which appear to us as economic, legal, political, ethical, and even aesthetic constraints. Yet, within those constraints, we humans are known to make choices.
Jordan Hayes wrote:
> It seems unlikely that you could point out this pressure at
> any given point in time and engender sympathy for the losing
> side.
I think I got it now.
I didn't mean to engender sympathy for Obama. Actually, perhaps pity -- because it's pitiful that so much potential can get wasted because a human being doesn't manage to do what the times demand from her/him.
And because we are all humans and we can see how that can happen to any of us. As I said, aside from its broader social and political dimensions, I view it as a tragic personal failure. I replied to Jordan's initial query on this, because it seemed to me as if we were losing sight of something very basic -- the fact that people can be intimidated and made behave out of fear of losing life, and that such tacit (or overt) threat is always there when dealing with material interest at this scale.
That I do not mean to excuse Obama's personal behavior can also be inferred from my reference to Michael Moore's or Paul Krugman's cases.
Those guys were also rocking the boat on their own ways, and they were forewarned, and they pushed on. That's where my admiration lies.
Not with Obama. I thought that was clear.