We are all products of our pasts. Our perceptions of the world and people are shaped by our personal histories, our family relationships and interactions, our genetically determined physical and emotional health and life's random good and bad fortunes that befall us all.
If we grow up seeing the adults around us face the inevitable problems of life with a mature understanding that all people face hardships and setbacks at some time; that life can be both fair and unfair; that the world owes us nothing; that the best approach is not to wallow in self-pity, but to attempt to plow through the bad times, find solutions that will help us through the harsh winters, while reaching out for and seeking the support and help from family, friends and others around us that care, then we realize we are responsible for our own lives, and there are others who will help us if they can when we are in need.
If our upbringing and family are competitive, unfair and unsupportive, we will grow up jealous of others' successes and feel that there is nothing we can do to win because the cards are stacked against us and we are alone in our battles with life.
Obama is a smart, well-educated individual with weaknesses, like all of us, in some critical intellectual areas. He is particularly weak in economics, and I am sure there are other areas, but that knowledge lack does not limit his ability to be a good president.
He, and his 2008 presidential election team, ran a masterful election campaign that won him the Democratic party nomination over Hillary Clinton, the presumptive party candidate at the time. Obama also surpassed McCain who was leading in the polls until just a few weeks before the 2008 election.
Despite his tour de force 2008 presidential win, his previous Illinois State Senate and Illinois US Senate seat wins, it is clear, at least to me, that Obama's "You Did Not Build That Speech" is a statement that he feels he did not win based on his merits.
Some of his feelings are normal. Some successful individuals will feel their success is undeserved and only due to good luck. It is the common "pinch me so I wake up from this dream" response to something good, or the feeling that some have that good times must be followed by bad times.
Obama not only feels his personal success is undeserved, but he sees the government, may be as part of his childhood or as part of his admissions to a private preparatory school and then Occidental and Columbia Colleges, as responsible for his political success.
Obama's upbringing is unusual for an American. His rearing included an early childhood education in Jakarta, an absentee father, long periods of separation from his mother, little contact with his paternal relatives and a mixed race parentage when it was much less common than it is today.
When Obama talks of society's fairness, the need for government intervention, his resentment and jealousy of those more economically successful on their own merit than himself, he is reacting to his insecurities and his somewhat unique past. Without strong and supportive parental relationships and family support, government becomes your family, your protector and your provider.
Obama's "You Did Not Build That" speech reflects the world he knew growing up. It is his perception of the world and how people and families deal with life's successes and failures and who they can turn to in times of need.
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