As an aspiring critical thinker, a person on a personal mission to continue growing and becoming, I strive to utilize all the faculties given to me to understand the how and why of human nature; why we do what do, what’s the meaning of our actions?  What is our purpose?  In order to aspire to be a critical thinker I have to remind myself that perspective is important, just as important as asking questions, because it is the questions that inform and elucidate perspective.  I am forced often in these critical times to remember my own personal credo, “The path to wisdom is brightly illuminated by the light of perspective. “  I remember my credo and endeavor to remain true to its mandate.  I continuously strive to walk the path.

I strived to walk the path as I considered the reactions of Americans upon hearing that President Barack Hussein Obama II had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.  I strived to remember to consider perspective, as it is fundamental in applying a critical thinking approach to understanding human nature, the how and why. 

First, I want to consider my own perspective.  Let me start by saying my first response was, “WOW!”  Then, I smiled, nodding, innately understanding the importance of the award, the gesture, and knowing without having to delve deeply the whys of the decision.  After all, when one considers it critically, it is not so complex as many try to make it seem.  Please allow me to explain why. 

I voted for Barack Obama.  

Unlike some I took the time to really consider what I was getting for my vote.  As I’ve asked others to do, I read the platform of the candidates, both McCain and Obama.  I compared them to each other.  I voted what I personally thought was best for me, my family, my community, and my nation.  As he moved into the White House, making promises many of which I knew he would not be able to keep, I was still buoyed by his sincere effort to try and keep them.  Not once, has he let me down in terms of displaying critical thinking skills … when it really mattered.  He is measured.  He is proving himself to be a master at brinkmanship.  You don’t agree?  Just be patient and watch as the healthcare debate unfolds.  He continues to surprise me even in the face of clearly unreasonable and irrational opposition.  

However, though his composure and steadfastness impress and surprise me, the irrational opposition from many of his detractors does not.  This opposition of spoon mentality and complete irrationality was expected and has presented itself in grand fashion.  It is so far over the top as to almost defy reason, causing critical thinkers both liberal and conservative, democrat and republican, to take pause and ask, “are they crazy?”  It is an irrational movement working to form alliances, move minds, manipulate masses, and ensure the prosperity of select interests.   It is against this movement that we must remain vigilant, critical thinking, and engaged.

Into this whirlwind of opposition the President has extended a hand in peace to the Muslim world.  He has done as I would like and pressed against the lack of critical thinking in regard to how we combat terrorism.  A War on Terror is a never-ending proposition.  The creation of peace and prosperity in response to Terror, or as I like to call it, The Abrogation of Terror, is a goal that shows sincere cognition at work in the halls of power.  

He has acknowledged the need for innovation, and supports stem cell research, green technology, and the need to lessen and eventually remove our dependence on foreign oil.  He continues the work as he did as a Senator in halting nuclear proliferation.  He has promised to end, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, and supports Homosexual Rights, a true vote for rationality and an understanding and acknowledgement of the inevitability of the future.   He is not narrow in vision, and clearly sees accountability by parents as necessary in order to ensure prosperity for our children.  To this end he seeks to change our educational system.  He also offered me, a middle-class man, a tax cut.  All this is the CHANGE I voted for.  All this is the HOPE I still maintain, and speak about, in order to aid in achieving success. 

However, allow me to clearly clarify why I think he won the Nobel Peace Prize, and why I smiled so readily when it was announced.

 

President Barack Hussein Obama II represents a paradigm shift in the world order, and not just for the obvious reason.   The peoples of the world recognize this.  They see in him the promise of an America that is not so preoccupied with empire and dominance.   They see cooperation.  They see multilateral decisions and actions, as opposed to unilateral decisions and derision.  They recognize America as a super power, and acknowledge her strength, and still very much rely on her strength.  In fact many of them hope that the American strength will be fortified by this shift, and that we will utilize the power of our critical thinking intellect and the will that drives it to utilize every tool at our nation’s disposal, not just our tanks and guns, jeeps and trucks, all with substandard armor and a commitment to profit, as opposed to critical success for our soldiers and our interests.   No, they see us utilizing all our tools to ensure a better tomorrow for the entire globe.  

Those that see this paradigm shift as a weakening of America only do so because they lack vision.  The sincere utilization of all at our disposal: cooperation, dialogue, diplomacy, as well as cruise missiles, special warfare operatives, and the blunt force trauma of an Army brigade is what the world believes we can and should bring to bear.  It is peace and peace-keeping.  It is the hope that we can bring change to parts of the world where positive productive change is nonexistent and hope is a rare commodity.  This is the paradigm shift.  This is the promise of an Obama Presidency.  It is a weighty responsibility, one the man and his administration in all likelihood will not be able to bear.  However, it is what the world sees, believes, and hopes for.  

This is why I smiled without question.  This is why I felt sincere admiration for the man I voted for.  This is why I viewed the awarding of the Peace Prize as right and appropriate, a vote of confidence from the world, a reminder of why they all come to America, and hope beyond hope that America can perhaps bring a little of what she is to them. 

Then, I frowned.  I knew what was coming.  I could feel the detractors, before even seeing or hearing them.  For me, it started when I turned on the television to watch Morning Joe on MSNBC.   After all the vitriol behind the Olympic Bid (pure asininity), I knew this was going to be a colossal, derisive, pin the tail on the messianic President bash and name-slash parade.  I was glad to be going in to work a bit early.  

The Morning Joe crew called it a disaster.  They saw themselves as trying to find any good in the President winning this award.  The said it was difficult.  They supposedly tried valiantly to see what I so readily saw clearly.  They offered suggestions as to how the President could deal with the situation, much of which would be echoed later in the day by other so-called pundits, experts, and world watchers.  

In my humble common-man’s opinion all of these people have become lost in their own perspective.  Some are ideologues, like Limbaugh, and get paid to BE their perspective, and move the minds of others.  Others are simply narrow of vision, and lack the skill to think critically.  They are unable to question what they see and hear, to consider the differing perspective, to perhaps divest themselves of what has become common and easy in their lives, and perhaps, just perhaps, work hard at trying to divine a different solution when considering human behavior, motivation, decisions, and beliefs.  What they are, and what they lack is quite clear.  The Morning Joe crew and so many others … are not thinking critically. 

It continued into the weekend.  As a person that loves information I could not avoid the flow.  By the time the Sunday morning shows were on, I had almost had enough.  Then, Bill Kristol was on Chris Wallace’s show, and I was almost sad to utter despair as he smiled, chuckled, and reveled in his sincere and forthright myopic ignorance, an ignorance that is even more devastating because it is a state of being that he so readily chooses. 

Bill Kristol said he was disappointed … and chuckled.  Why?  He said he had written a few articles, which he equated to President Obama’s speeches.  I’m assuming he’s making a comparison between his articles and the speech Obama gave to thousands in Europe, a speech that was startling, motivating, and historic.  He said he didn’t get the call.  By making the point that he was qualified to win the Nobel Prize, he intimates that Obama is by no means qualified.  Not only is it premature, but he quite simply fails to qualify.  The arrogance is mind-boggling.  I would also suggest he reread the prize qualifications.  

He went on to talk about the prize going to Kofi Anaann and the UN in December of 2001 right after 9/11.  He was still smiling.  He talked about how the committee did not give it to an American, some American, perhaps a fire fighter, or even to one of the people who led the initiative to intervene in Afghanistan and stop the Taliban.   He said the Norwegians who award the prize are anti-American.  In closing he said Obama should have refused the prize.  To round it out he thought Obama should go over and give a pro-American acceptance speech.  

Personally, in my opinion, whenever the President takes to the world stage and speaks, he’s being powerfully pro-American.  His very presence is indicative of the American Ideal.  Just by being there he’s being pro-America.  The myopic miss this clear fact. 

The dialogue continued, controlled by Chris Wallace.

 

Nina Easton of Fortune magazine clarified for me the fact that spoonishness dwells up and down the socio-economic strata.  She explained with conciseness and anti-intellectual confidence how the committee’s nomination was pretty destructive to the youth because it would teach them that one can receive honors without work. 

… receive honors without work … yes, that’s what she said.  I’m still trying to figure out who she’s talking about.  She is, of course, referring to the President.  However, one has to pause and think, she can’t really mean President Obama, right?  I mean, that’s willfully ignorant and conscientiously stupid, right?  Okay, I get it, she didn’t really mean it.  It was simply histrionics and noise to move minds, the minds of the devoted crowd.  I was watching FOX after all. 

She then went on to say the award would be destructive politically in America because it feeds into the storyline that the President is a show horse (show horse?) and not a work horse.  Indeed, there are liberals who support this position.  Narrow vision is not isolated to the left or right.   Miss Easton believes the award will only expose him to ridicule.  Then, she closed stating that it was difficult to find anyone, anyone who supports President Obama being awarded the Peace Prize.

I wonder, where was she looking?  Oh yeah, I was watching FOX.    

Let me make it clear, and no I don’t have a global voice, or television airtime, however, I do know that I matter.  I matter and I fully support the nomination and awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to our President.  I’m not hiding.  I’m online.  My name is D.S. Brown.  Come find me if you need a quote.   

I continued to watch and listen as Liz Cheney waxed inanely about appeasement.  What fantasy country is she living in where she is referenced as a political pundit, and expert?  Oh yeah, I was watching FOX.  

What is Miss Cheney’s day job?  Surely, it’s time she went back to it.  Am I wrong in this?  I sincerely don’t think so.  She stated the President has nothing to show for his shift in foreign policy.   Understand my friends, this is what comes out of your mouth when you are an unfortunate compassionless conservative, a power broker for your side without regard for any other perspective, a rhetorician, an ideologue, someone who is completely narrow of vision, looks out at the world, both left and right, and simply refuses to see.   

Hope can make mighty change.  Hope inspires, moves minds.  Miss Cheney should take a moment to listen to the people of the world, what they think, what they desire, and what kind of impact that can have on politics in their respective parts of the world.  Obama’s views, his aspirations and plans for foreign policy bolster hope, inspires change, moves minds and hearts, bringing people to the table, in hopes of paying real dividends in the fight for peace.  I’m not so stubbornly, willfully blind as to not see this.  She should take a moment to see and listen.  Or better yet, she should just go back to her day job. 

I must stop for a moment after my own written diatribe concerning the comments of others and pace myself.   What I’ve written is fraught with emotion, and belies my desire to remain critical, logical, common in how I utilize my senses, rational and pragmatic, as opposed to bombastic.  But so many say and do so much, which in regard to how I view them, makes it so difficult to eschew all emotion.  Sometimes, it simply makes you want to scream. 

However, I do think my being critical of their statements is warranted.   My opinion is just my opinion.  My perspective is my own.  After considering their perspective on this matter it seems that too many Americans seem to me to be completely unreasonable.  It makes no sense.  Well, actually it does … when I consider their perspective in terms of power, and the desire to re-quire it, to shift our focus, taking our country in the direction that the compassionless dictate, a unilateral world view without regard for others, even our own here in this country.  It does make sense when considering it from this perspective.

Though a portion of the American population decries President Obama’s global appeal, the world apparently does not.  Though some Americans cringe when considering his multicultural background, the blood and spirit that is the product of generations of disparate ethnicities, the larger part of the world apparently does not.  I firmly believe some Americans despise (or perhaps simply dislike) this aspect of the President.  They cannot abide his roots, which is why so many of them have taken to questioning its veracity.  Again, they display ignorance and narrow vision, a myopic worldview that they have become quite accustomed to, and wish to see predominate.  

Point of clarification, I’ve used the word ignorance quite a bit.  Let me explain my meaning.  By ignorance I mean lack of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.  All of us are ignorant to a certain degree.  Those who aspire to critical cognition readily admit this, and embrace this state of being as we move from ignorance to enlightenment in subsequent cycles.  

We all suffer from the ignorance of perception.  In terms of the Nobel Peace Prize, we have become accustomed to what the award is perceived to be, as opposed to what it is in fact. 

In an effort to dispel ignorance, and clearly understand the qualifications for the Nobel Peace Prize, and why President Barack Hussein Obama II is indeed qualified for this prestigious award, which despite the bombastic noise created by the detractors remains a high honor, let us clearly understand what Alfred Nobel, the founder of the Nobel Awards, listed as the qualification for being awarded the Peace Prize.

In his 1895 will, Nobel stipulated that the Peace Prize should go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses."

Consider what I listed as President Obama’s qualifications.  Consider critically what he has accomplished and why I did not think the award premature.  Consider a perspective where one takes into account his accomplishments, meager though they may be according to some.  Consider the hope he has engendered, the camaraderie he has created among nations.  Look up the definition of camaraderie.  Then, reread Alfred Nobel’s qualification for the Peace Prize.  

You will consider Afghanistan.  You will consider Iraq.  You will question.  That is fine.   However, again consider the Abrogation of Terror.  Consider the outreach to the Muslim world.  Consider the commitment to cooperation and diplomacy.   Consider the award as a vote of confidence, a tool to be utilized to further an agenda, yes an agenda that many Americans see as anti-American, but that the critical thinking see as an enlightened world view, CHANGE we can believe in.  Take a moment to stop and think.  Take a moment to truly consider the minds of men, women, and children of the world, who do not see President Obama as a messianic movement unto himself waiting to happen, but rather a real man, with real promise, who may just move America to change the world …. again.