Obama鈥檚 father and Kenyan anti-colonialism
Since WWII perhaps the most potent strain of anti-capitalist, anti-Western ideology has been powered by the conceptions of Hobson and Lenin as much as by those of Marx and the Webbs. On this view, capitalism and its need for markets and profits drives the violent and unjust economic exploitation of non-Western nations and peoples.
Through this ideological filter the dream of socialism became fused to the moral causes of anti-colonialism, and 鈥� ironically 鈥� both ethnic nationalism and anti-Western internationalism.
鈥� and proposed this revelation as the 鈥淩osebud鈥� which made sense of the puzzle at the heart of Obama鈥檚 Dreams From My Father 鈥� I mostly ignored the potent legacy of Kenyan anti-colonialism, a central life experience of Obama鈥檚 Kenyan father and grandfather.
Well, where angels fear to tread, Dinesh D鈥橲ouza has rushed in to fill the void, taking my 鈥淩osebud鈥� thesis and research into Barack Obama, Sr.鈥檚 socialism (without acknowledgment), and running with it as far as one could possible go in the anti-colonialist, anti-Western direction 鈥� and beyond.
I haven鈥檛 read or his . But I have watched .
As far as it goes, as a basic presentation of the facts about Obama鈥檚 father and upbringing, and what Obama has written in his own memoir, I think it is an essentially factual and useful recounting of important truths about the biography of the President which most of the popular media have willfully withheld from their customers.
As an interpretation of what motivates the President today 鈥� family history and university training in left wing anti-colonial theory may well explain why President Obama returned the White House bust of Winston Churchill to the British. But I鈥檓 not a fan of connect-the-dots speculative explanation that are far more complicated and far less direct than is the simple and fundamental fact of Obama鈥檚 very general, well documented, and life-long interest in the dream and ideology of 鈥渟ocial justice鈥�, race-based Marxism, and the post-60s American left.
Of course, one does have to wonder what the alternative history of Barack Obama, Jr. might have turned out to be if Barack Obama, Sr. had studied while studying economics at Harvard and the U. of Hawaii, rather than 鈥渟cientific Marxism鈥�, mainstream 1960鈥瞫 development economics, and other such things.
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