Obama's Youthful Idealism Comes to Fruition

President Obama was ahead of his time (photo courtesy: NY Times)

Sunday's NY Times paper was chock full of really great articles. It is during this time that I physically miss having the newspaper in my hands with my morning glass of milk and OJ, under the warm sun. But I'm not complaining. 

(watching Ecotrip yesterday...the episode about what goes into making a paper napkin, I'm not going to cut down yet another tree to get my paper fix!)

Reading this article yesterday again confirmed for me that Obama started training for his critical leadership role as a kid. Obama was way ahead of his time in terms of his thinking (making him an idealist at that age...I wonder how lonely he was as a kid!). Coming of age in the greedy 80's, he formed ideas about nuclear issues that he had no business having even then.

“I personally came of age,” Mr. Obama wrote in “The Audacity of Hope,” his second memoir, “during the Reagan presidency.”

It was a time when President Ronald Reagan began a trillion-dollar arms buildup, called the Soviet Union “an evil empire” and ordered scores of atomic detonations under the Nevada desert. Some Reagan aides talked of fighting and winning a nuclear war.

The popular response was the nuclear freeze movement. Dozens of books warned that Mr. Reagan’s policies threatened to end civilization and most life on Earth. In June 1982, a million protesters gathered in Central Park, their placards reading “Bread Not Bombs” and “Freeze or Burn.” The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops issued a pastoral letter denouncing nuclear war.

Many Columbia students campaigned for the freeze movement, which sought a halt to additional nuclear arms deployments. Mr. Obama explored going further.

At that point the President, then a 21 y/o senior at Columbia University, wrote about disarming our nuclear stockpiles. Not only did he write about it in his report for his class (which got an "A"), but he also went on to pen a lengthy article on the same in the school newspaper. Twenty plus years later, just as he was being elected into the highest political office, the article surfaced again and blew people away. He was way ahead of his time. (see the Conservatives' take on this article) 

Recently the President said this, which forms the crux of his thesis:

“It’s naïve for us to think,” he said, “that we can grow our nuclear stockpiles, the Russians continue to grow their nuclear stockpiles, and our allies grow their nuclear stockpiles, and that in that environment we’re going to be able to pressure countries like Iran and North Korea not to pursue nuclear weapons themselves.”

Thank you Mr President!!

The Case for Idealism...an Ode to Idealists!

Three young idealists, who blew away their competition: (L-R) Gandhi, Obama with his high school basketball team, and Walt Disney, all in their teens.


I often wonder about the difference between great idealism, great ambition, and great stupidity. It is a fine line indeed. Idealism has always been scoffed at. But where would we be without it?? Failed idealism is often termed as stupidity. But is it really??

I like the quote "Aim for the moon; if you miss it, you will still land among the stars." It is only when you aim high that you can soar high.

George Bernard Shaw once famously said, "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

And indeed so. Its very easy to forget that the people who have been the greatest visionaries were also termed as idiots and idealists. While everyone now might laugh at the thought, Americans have been quick to forget that the president they now adore would not have been but for a healthy dose of idealism on his part. Barack Obama for all given purposes had no business even thinking he would be President. He was of mixed parentage, with a white mother and African (different from African American) father; grew up in Hawaii (a state that has produced zero presidents before this one) with no proper religious background; had a muslim middle name sandwiched between strong Kenyan names; had a Harvard degree, no military service, very little public service, and was of modest means. Add onto that, that he was running against a Clinton. Yet he ran, and he won. And hopefully, he will be the change we all want to see among leaders of our world.

Speaking of "be the change," think of Gandhi, a softspoken, slight Indian man who thought that he could take down the mighty British empire, with a grand total of, well, no weapons. Even fist fights weren't allowed!! If he had told you in the early 1900's that the non-violence movement would not only encompass India and topple the British empire, but bring civil rights to African Americans in the US, reverse apartheid in one of the most racist regimes in the world - South Africa, bring the Chinese military to its knees in Tianenman Square, and become the mainstay of EVERY modern demonstration in the world, you would have laughed!! Many did; yet all those things happened and the movement still endures.

A few days ago, I found myself in another mecca of idealism - Disneyland. Riding some of the rides I had loved as a kid, I was struck by how timeless they were. Disney was SO ahead of his time. To think that much of Disneyland and Disney World's layouts have scarcely changed since they were built, inspite of the massive changes in technology in the recent past; that the most popular rides then still endure, and they continue to "make dreams come true" everyday is mindboggling. I'm sure if Disney had told you in the 30's that people would pay an-arm-and-a-leg to watch talking robot animals in the 21st century, we would have laughed. Yet here we are, years later doing exactly that.

Probably the biggest and powerful idealists are parents and teachers - moms, especially.

I think we need more idealism. Balanced with pragmatism, an unrelenting idealist with clear vision is capable of great change. Rather than laughing at them, maybe we should support them with our pragmatism. That while they soar high, we can be the tails on their kites to guide them, while also enjoying the ride.

Here's to the idealists amongst us!!