"Hope" Is Not a Buzz Word
I was 23 years old when the nation was attacked on September 11, 2001. I can remember hearing pundits say "this changes everything" and "things will never be the same." Obviously it was a tragic and traumatic event, but that sentiment has carried on through the better part of my twenties. If you were 43 years old on that day, I would imagine it was a difficult concept to get your head around as well, but if you were a young adult just entering his or her individual life, there was an added twist; how can you process the idea of everything changing and things never being the same when you have no point of reference for what "everything" and "the same" is? I was just beginning to put my hands on the world around me, to interact and engage with it, and to actualize the dream of being an adult in a free society. To wait in line for 23 years only to have the "sorry, future canceled" sign flipped in my face was depressing, to say the least.
The social and political narrative of the last eight years, if you're a young adult, has been "you are the first generation of the second half of the rest of human existence." That's a huge psychological undertaking, and I believe it's one that will someday be diagnosed on a massive scale as having led to a kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (Something has to explain away our premature obsession with 1980s nostalgia.) My generation has come to know itself as the generation that should have seen the good days, my, were they spectacular, now take off your shoes and place them on the belt.
What Barack Obama says to me is these days are good for something. Just when I'd thought my only role as an adult was to help shoulder the nation through its darkest days (known to us as "the rest of them"), Obama gives me the feeling that I could be alive to witness one of the most brilliant upturns in a country's history. Imagine that -- a young adult in this day and age being given something to someday brag to his children about having being alive to witness. What a concept.
That's why hope is a worthwhile commodity. To those who question whether hope is a tangible product worth building a campaign around, I'd say take a look at despair and how powerful that has been in reshaping how people think and live. I believe the definition of the "hope" that Barack Obama enthuses operates on the unspoken thesis that there has to be a polar opposite to the despair of 9/11. Because if we accept that there's not, the will to live becomes forever altered. To adults who will vote for him, Barack Obama represents a return to prosperity. To the youth, he represents an introduction to it.
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Wonderfully said. I know people in all generations alive today and each generational person feels hopeful about what a Barack Obama presidency will mean to the US and the world. I remember when I "got it" while watching Barack Obama speak on TV during the primary race. (And I got it in time to vote for him in the primary, thank goodness). The change from us vs them to let's all figure this thing out. gave me hope. Now the fact that many other people are also experiencing that feeling of hope, gives me even more hope. I just hope he is elected!
John Mayer, great article!
I am in my early 60s, and I can tell you from my own experience that from 9/11 until now, you have been a witness to the worst economic, political, and cultural depravities, all embodied in the failed Bush administration. So when you heard "this changes everything" and "things will never be the same," it was tragically true, at least for the last long eight years.
Until Barack Obama, I had not seen a shred of hope such as that embodied by JFK in his "We Choose to Go to the Moon" speech. Text and audio is here: http://www
I hope that you and your generation remain optimistic. While you have seen and experienced the nation in its darkest days (and you have), and while your Post Traumatic Stress Disorder metaphor is entirely appropriate, like you, I believe Barack Obama represents a return to prosperity (for my generation), and to your generation, he represents an introduction to it.
That's why I am voting for Obama
"waiting on the world to change" is THE theme song of our times.
"when you trust your television, what you get is what you got.
'cause when they own the information, they can bend it all they want."
Brilliant!
Shared this with my own email group -- all well over 40 and they have ALL responded, positively.
THANK YOU JOHN MAYER.
I was 7 years old on 9/11, so I've grown up entirely in this kind of world that you describe. I've mostly grown out of my nightmares, but up until about a year ago, every couple of months, I would have a terrible, all-consuming nightmare of another terrorist attack. Even having not known anything different from this post-9/11 state of mind, and although I can't yet vote, I know it is definitely time for a change.
Thank you for this John- as someone who owns every single one of your songs and being able to find more comfort and reassurance in your music than anywhere else, it's good to see that you feel the same way about Obama and exactly what he stands for as I do. (:
"Obama gives me the feeling that I could be alive to witness one of the most brilliant upturns in a country's history. Imagine that...."
Did he give you that feeling when he voted for FISA, telcom immunity and domestic spying?
Did he give you that feeling when he voted to approve torture advocate Mukasey for AG?
Did he give you that feeling every time impeachment was shot down by Democratic party leaders and he agreed with them?
Did he give you that feeling when he supported Pelosi and the end of a moratorium on offshore oil drilling in our beautiful coastal waters?
Did he give you that feeling when he supported Bush, McCain and Wall street robber barons when the stole our $700 billion?
I strongly agree with the way you identify the despair that permeates our nation.
Our political masters are miles ahead of us in taking the pulse of the nation, and they know the cure for despair.
It is hope. HOPE. This does not mean they will deliver it, but they surely know they must promise it to us. I look at Obama's record and I see false advertising.
It is not necessary to agree on every Obama policy decision to support Obama. On balance, he represents a set of policies and proposals that are quite sensible and exciting. If you're looking for someone who's going to always vote exactly as you would - then - run for office.
By the way, starting impeachment proceedings is purely a House issue (not Senate). Voting for the bailout was likely necessary (even if they had to hold their nose and vote). The FISA issue is not the cut-and-dried policy decision you make it out to be, and Obama issued a clear statement explaining his agonizing decision to vote in favor. I disagree with the offshore drilling decision (not necessary!). One clear point is this - if Obama ran on a far-left progressive platform, he wouldn't win, and nothing in that agenda would get done (and I'm a fairly extreme progressive speaking).
Don't throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater.
I embrace your idea of hope, but from someone whose been around I can tell you the quotes I also heard following 9-1-1, "'this changes everything'" and "'things will never be the same,'" can best be answered with "no, it doesn't" and "yes they will." We were spending unholy amounts of money on military exercises all the while professing our superior Christianity. We still are. We were destroying our Earth faster than any other country on the planet and although some are catching up, I'd argue we still are. We were throwing away whole generations into human refuse pits we call "our judicial system," rather than educating them. We still are. We were a world divided by petty bickering over inconsequential things and political ideologies. We still are.
The tragedy of 9-1-1, outside the incredible personal tragedies suffered by all the people who lost loved ones, is that the world stayed fundamentally the same at a tipping point in the world's history when we could have changed on a massive scale. When we not only could have recognized our shared humanity (which happened immediately following 9-1-1 until Bush, McCain and others exploited it to go to Iraq), but we could have embraced our shared humanity. That at least was the hope post 9-1-1 and to a large degree still the hope represented by an Obama Presidency.
John, I'm 55 (and a big fan). I've got two boys 12 and 15. They have grown up knowing only the America of the Bush Administration. I'm sorry to say, I think it is hard for them to see the greatness of America that I grew up with. When I was young we were the good guys. Sure, we got it wrong in Vietnam, and we lost JFK and MLK but we still did some good. For the last 8 years, we have been stomping around like we owned the world, and it was our job to bring folks democracy no matter how many of them we had to kill to do it.
I hope to see Barack Obama get elected and to see our standing in the world, and in the eyes of my boys get back to where it belongs. We can win over the world building schools and hospitals, much more effectively than we can building military bases.
Waiting on the World to Change. Obama 08!
Well said John, very well said. BTW, I am one of those over 55's looking for a chance, a hope for a brighter tomorrow.
Thanks, I've always enjoyed your music and now I know why - -you're obviously an intelligent, thoughtful young man. My teenage daughters were devastated when they weren't allowed into your show with BB King at the House of Blues/Chicago a few years back...but I got it without even needing to show ID. Sometimes age has its advantages. I wish I could apologize to all the young adults for foisting the mess that is America on them...but it is theirs to do with what they choose. I can only hope they make better choices than their parents have.
September 11 was America's wake up call that it is part of a globalised world. Unfortunately for the US and the rest of the world, Bush got out of the wrong side of the bed that day and his response was a disaster. Obama gives us all a chance to start again, not from the same point, but from a point where the US and the rest of the world understands its strengths and weaknesses and the importance of thoughtful and mature government.
I hope the USA gets it right this time....
if you can tank the worlds eco then im sure your able to Fix it with help from your friends "and yes you still have some but not many left" after GWB and CO shafted your nation with 2 wars insane tax cuts and the most important thing
your bill of rights....
Good look and see you on the other side "I HOPE"
I just turned 60, and I know it's not comparable to your experience but I had expected the last 8 years of my life to be a little more hopeful than they turned out to be. I heard the same thing from my brother the day of 9/11--"things have just changed forever" or something like that. I remember thinking--why? And I still can't answer that except that the punditry was paid well to make sure our expectations were lowered permanently. Personally--I really needed the last 8 years to be much better than this, and I personally understand why people are shooting themselves in despair. But there is...hope.
So I "hope" for you that the next several decades are free from this artificially induced vision of hell that we've been in. I know--I think most of us know--now that it was mostly lies designed to cover up the transfer of wealth. I think now that those of you just entering a long career are able to sort this out and keep it from happening againl. I hope.
My G O D, is it that bad? Since 9/11, now 28...I really havent seen the struggle that I guess most face, work hard, get an education and protect your family and friends...
Not much younger than John, but I guess I look at the more positive side of things...i
My G O D, is it that bad? Since 9 / 1 1, now 28...I really havent seen the struggle that I guess most face, work hard, get an education and protect your family and friends...
Not much younger than John, but I guess I look at the more positive side of things...i
AYE! AYE! Well said Mr. Mayer. We too are also " Waiting for the World to Change"!!!
Gosh.
I was always an eternal optimist and (being one of those embracing premature 1980's nostalgia,) I have wondered over the past 6-8 years what could have turned me so cynical...
...I mean, aren't I a spiritual person? Aren't I talented and educated? Doesn't that mean that, of course, I can do anything? That the world is at my feet?
And yet, I no longer felt that.
My tankful of eternal optimism had run dry without me noticing. And, try as I might, I couldn't put my finger on why. How did that change? What happened?
I just figured it out while reading your post.
At 32, I'm too young to throw in the towel, too old to go and hide under the covers.
I, we, need to reclaim the early optimism that we Americans were instilled with: That anything is possible and that you can make it be.
We lost that after 9-11, not just in governmental blunders or loss of rights, but in diminished audacity (a valuable American trait). Maybe we chose a "keep our heads down and suck-it-up" mentality, thinking it the patriotic or safe thing to do.
Whatever it was, many of us had our hopes dashed (however subtly) and in the process didn't find it so easy anymore to "dare to dream."
At last, my generation may finally get to feel that we have a chance at participating in a brighter future, at refilling our optimism tank.
Thank you.
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