The one thing I dislike the most about current times is the almost savage cynicism abroad, about everything from football (there’s too much money, too much this, too much that, too much hype about the England team yada, yada) to society in general (chavs, dumbing down, perceptions about crime) to politics.

The later two are corrosive and important.

I could blag on about how such an attitude is lazy, self-serving, decadent and doesn’t do anything to help. But what’s the point? You can’t change this by being equally negative about other people’s negativity as you end up being dragged into their cynicism. You follow me. Good. I thought I explained that quite clearly actually. Do keep up.

We are where we are but I still believe that we have the power to change things if we want to, either through direct action such as the 10 for 10 campaign which aims to encourage us all to reduce our CO2 emissions by err 10% next year.

I’m not wholly sold on the man made climate change thing, but if there’s an outside chance we can do some good then why not give it a lash?

http://www.1010uk.org/

It’s no big deal and if everyone has a go, then you never know. And it keeps our MP’s honest. They have to answer you. Make ‘em work!

Barack Obama is the single biggest reason to believe in the power to change things by politics in 2009, if not indeed so far this century.

There’s the usual carping form the cynics about Obama’s backstory, presented here in unflinching yet unsentimental detail and I was a bit surprised that the McCain crowd didn’t make more of his admittals of personal failings, but the momentum that Obama generated from personal campaigning which avoided the usual corporate hand cuffing meant there was little the Republicans could do about it.

I was enraptured from the first to the last page. Obama’s easy conversational style with his quite mind blowing belief in the good of other people made me realise just what a monumental thing the American people have done in placing power in the hands of a guy who, just twenty years ago was sitting in a queue on a Saturday morning to seek arbitration from New York Housing Corporation due to experiencing land lord problems.

We all know what that’s about! I don’t know anyone who hasn’t gone through a scenario where a landlord is trying to screw the tenant, no matter how subtly.

His grounding as an organiser in the Chicago Projects and his admital that he often felt like jacking it all in only to be kept going by a pot of tea with an elderly resident who needed him, really struck a chord with me. What a man.

Barack Obama is dreaming up the world he wants to live in, and making it happen. Actually happen. Amazing.

Obama’s vulnerability is just so honest, and the way he writes about his family, it’s dysfunctional nature and yet the love that comes through just inspires me.