MY understanding of the term “empty suit” includes not only a person but also a thing that can have good appearance but actually does not have substance. The term came to my mind as I read President Obama’s commencement speech in Notre Dame University in the US last May 17.
As to style and other external elements, the speech deserves to be praised to high heavens. It was charming, with the right blend of the light and the heavy, the prose and the poetry. It was entirely politically correct. As the young would say it, it was simply cool and gorgeous.
I would strongly recommend it as a model of how a speech should be. Every word was weighed and given its proper place. The flow of thought approximated that of a person in harmony and at peace with the world, in good control of the situation despite problems, and brimming with confidence.
It’s a speech that can have immediate soothing effect. I think this is what the Americans and the others in the world need now, gripped as we are with all sorts of horrifying problems. It’s this Obama capability that contributes greatly to his immense popularity. He is a good sweet talker.
It effectively shows Obama as a reasonable man, trying to be fair and balanced, open-minded and open-hearted—qualities which he is now busy trying to market to everyone. And these are even more highlighted by the fact that Obama is different, being black for one thing. He projects a Messiah image.
There’s nothing wrong with aspiring to have these good qualities. I marvel at the level of expertise speech writers have reached to come out with a real good speech. Let’s have more of this kind of speeches.
I applaud and congratulate Obama for that speech, and I wish him luck in his efforts to convince the world to think the way he thinks.
But I’m afraid I can’t go all the way with him. In fact, given those excellent virtues of his speech and his character, I get more terrified, knowing that evil can be in its worst when covered precisely with an armor of good things.
It’s like the wolf in sheep’s clothing all over again. Sorry for that jolting expression. But at this time, when everyone seems to be nice and correct at the expense of telling the plain if painful truth and issuing warnings of potential dangers, I feel I have to say it, and quite strongly.
Yes, the speech was terrific. But it terribly missed the point!
At bottom, President Obama’s position on abortion and other life and moral issues indicates a dangerous fence-sitting posture regarding an issue that actually is not anymore a matter of personal taste and opinion, or cultural character of a people.
The issue boils down to the very nature of man that is supposed to be objective, universal and immutable, in spite of its subjective, historical and cultural conditionings, given the way we are.
Of course, we have to learn how to handle the peculiarities of these latter factors in our pursuit to know and define what human nature is and what its objective requirements are. We have to learn how to affirm and defend the truth always with charity.
This is going to be a very dynamic affair, with its twists and turns, ups and downs, gains and losses. We have to be quick to identify the good and the evil that often go together, mixed and confused almost to the point of rendering the task of distinguishing impossible.
In that Obama speech, abortion is assured of its legal rights. What for centuries has always been regarded as nothing other than killing an innocent child is now given a right to be practiced by anyone who desires it.
Obama does not want to resolve the issue one way or the other. In a previous occasion, he said it is something above his pay grade. He wants it to leave it the way it is now. He is simply asking that everyone respects each other’s position. He is parading this kind of attitude as the right one everyone should have.
But this position will bring us nowhere other than deepening conflict and chaos. The problem, I think, is that some leaders just do not want to make hard decisions, the kind that surely will not be liked by many.
This is when we can truly have a crisis of leadership.
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