Political Science

In Obamas 2007 book Dreams from my father, there is a passage on pages 134-36 which calls attention to the idea of what it means to be a young man filled with inspiration about developing his own future.  Obama speaks about what is feels like to be pulled in the direction of financial success as opposed to civic success.  In speaking about community activism, he claims to have wanted from his college years to become involved in the development of a robust African American community, yet he was also tempted by the financial world of personal economic power.  This dichotomy of Obamas personality ties into the entire message of the book, where he straddles the wealthy white world as well as the poor black world, and eventually decides to plunge into making the dreams from his father, the dream of community activism for the poor, the dream of his own black heritage, a major goal in his life.

Obama describes himself coming out of college, using fancy theories and slogans which he attempted to use to highlight his own intelligence, bolstering his ego by elitist concepts.  However, he also had another side to his nature, a part of him which would allow the false sense of knowledge to float away to be replaced by a true and deep sense of spirituality, fashioned in part by his understanding of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the freedom fighters who emboldened the oppressed, the poor, and the sidelined individuals, who helped to salvage and build a sense of black community.  It was this dream of helping the poor and strengthened an own sense of community, a vibrant and thriving black community, which served to energize Obama in a spiritual way.  The fancy theories and slogans learned in college was a kind of an intellectual shell, which needed to be filled with the spiritual truth and connectedness of community engagement.

In Obamas early passion for civil rights, he wrote to every organization and leader he could think of, trying to throw himself immediately into the world of activism, however, he did not get any response.  In the face of rejection, Obama took a job as a research assistant in a multinational firm, the only black person in his office, and earning a considerable amount of money.  His first steps into the working world were not in the direction of helping the deprived and needy, but slowly moving in the direction of elitist power and personal financial success.  As usual, Obama was faced by two different worlds and was willing and able to work between the two.  However, his time spent as a financial professional did not thoroughly reward him on a spiritual level.  There were more important matters of which to attend, many people, especially black people, who were constantly being deprived of basic needs and basic respect.

This passage serves to illuminate Obamas personal struggle between two worlds, namely the world of the financially rich and the world of the financially poor, as Obama searches himself for wealth of spirit, which very often does not spring from a wallet.  Going against the advice of others, including his grandparents and coworkers, people who tried to persuade him that community activism was beneath him or a waste of time, Obama finally came to the recognition that his own happiness was tied to the idea of being spiritually wealthy, and began to make plans to ensure that his dream of promoting civil rights was not discarded.  He remained focused on his passion for helping the poor, and, in the same way, remained focused on his passion for helping himself to be the kind of man of which he could feel proud.