Gary Hart - Politics as Transcendence

[Inuca]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart/politics-as-transcendence_b_86490.html

Beautifully written.

Through some miracle of timing, luck, and good fortune Barack Obama has seized the moment. His mantra of "change" has been largely co-opted by lesser figures. He is in fact an agent of transformation. He is not operating on the same plane as ordinary politicians, and this makes him seem elusive to the conventional press and the traditional politicians. His instinct for the moment and the times is orders of magnitude more powerful than the experience claimed by others. Experience in the old ways is irrelevant experience.

In an age of great transformation, experience of the past is worthless because it is a barrier to the breakthrough gesture, the instant response in crisis, the instinctive bold decision in the face of totally new circumstances.

If the same words were written by somebody else, I may discard them as irrational exaltation. But when written by somebody with Hart's intellect, perspective, and experience, I think they carry weight. And a unique poignancy.