Being an analytical thought junkie, I can't just let this transition of presidential power go as is. There's this part of me that feels everything about this U.S. election was far too easy. I can't help but think about all the trillions of dollars that have gone into the military industrial complex in the past few years.. and where is that money now. Now that the huge power brokers behind Bush are sitting pretty with idle hands and nothing to do. Sure they'll continue to make billions off war, regardless of who is president, but I worry that there is something more to all this. Maybe I'm just so entrenched in the fear mindset of the last decade that I can't accept that everything is ok.

But for me.. it's far to simple.

I went to a BBQ last night and much of these ideas were being tossed about by people probably far more informed than I, and having been out in the desert for most of the campaign and the actual win on Tuesday night I was forced to take stock of how and what I feel these days.

Although I'm elated that a democrat is in power, I don't think it changes too much when it comes to the fact that the 51 largest economies on the planet are not nation states but are corporations. To this end I think the notion of the U.S as the center of the universe is slipping away only to be replaced by a hybrid China/U.S. big box corporate enterprise. I don't feel these new global interest care much about the American people or even who is president. I think in this new global corporate reality borders are becoming irrelevant except as lines that separates consumer wealth and labor pools. And I don't think that bodes to well for the U.S. a country heavily in debt with a standard of living that makes outsourcing to other nations ideal. I personally feel that the future may be anything but American Made.

It was all to easy... I don't think it really matters, since as someone said last night, it's not about who is president, it's about a shift in consciousness among the people. Even if Obama is simply another figurehead the people are inspired for change and the people hopefully will run with that new consciousness and build a better future. This consciousness shift also isn't held back by borders and seems to have spread around the globe, as my mother in Canada and family in Europe are brought to tears of relief every time they hear Obama speak.

I hope that hope is harnessed and directed into change and I hope that America does find a way out of the current mess it's gotten itself into. I hope a new economic bubble is created and I hope that bubble is built upon a vision of a sustainable future, non-linear thinking, and green innovation.

But again.. what I fear is how the idle hands with trillions of dollars will respond to this sea change. We must not forget that there are still two months before he is the actual President. Two months is a long time on a global playing field where money is no object and a war with Pakistan or another terrorist attack would change the game completely. People are too quick to assume victory, and as far as I'm concerned the battle has only just begun. I'm sure everything will actually be fine in the short term, but it doesn't mean that I have faith that all is ok in the world.

The true transfer of power has already taken place, it took place over the last eight years as the money went from the American people into the hands of those whose interests don't lay in America and it's future. I think this symbolic transfer of presidential power although very relevant to the world, is small change, and I feel Obama is up against something far larger and powerful than any nation state in the history of the world. It will take uniting the world and its people for real change to occur, and I'm frankly pessimistic in a world where most of us are more concerned with new consumer gadgets, celebrity rags, and our own navels to be mobilized in any real way.

But change in any direction never happens quickly and four years is nothing in the grand scheme of where we're headed. And I don't think it's about what we do in the next few years, but how we respond to the reality we're faced with, whether that reality is manufactured by idle hands or simply a product of the times. We have to react as Americans have in this past election, with a vision for a brighter future, with hope, with love, and with a positive energy that dismantles fear and repression by simply existing as the alternative.

peace,
d
An image taken with the permission of an elder at last years Sun Dance.. I don't know why I've included it here. Maybe because in the end I feel that this human dance of opinion, hope, fear, and inspiration is all rather irrelevant when it comes to true power, and it's important for us to remember that political parties, the left and the right, and the industrial military complex haven't really been around all that long... and all things come to pass.