The Stakes of Crisis
"The Stakes of Crisis" (pdf) in P. Kjaer, and N. Olsen, eds. Critical Theories of Crisis in Europe, Rowman & Littlefield International, 2016.
Posted: 14 Jun 2021
Date Written: 2016
Abstract
On 20 January 2009, upon having been sworn in as the forty-fourth President of the United States, Barack Obama stood on the Washington Mall and proclaimed, 'We are in the midst of crisis'. Obama's claim to crisis characterized a moment in history, so as to mark off a new age, or a 'journey'. This journey is historical in so far as it pertains to an economic and political conjuncture. And yet, after giving an inventory of the historical facts of crisis--homes lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered--Obama added a qualifier: 'These are the indicators of crisis,' he said, 'subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land--a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.' He then concluded: 'This is the source of our confidence--the knowledge that God calls upon us to shape an uncertain destiny'.
Full text at: https://www.newschool.edu/nssr/faculty/janet-roitman/
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