February 22, 2008

Dear Colleague:  

    Margaret Thatcher said: "In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman." Hillary Clinton surely couldn't agree more. But, as a feminist, I won't want to cede so much ground to man. Speech is the glory of the human species, and to somehow suggest that man takes to it more naturally and eloquently than woman is an insult to the female gender and, moreover, enforces a gender stereotype that goes back to the ancient Greeks. In the Athens of Pericles, you remember, men sought to achieve immortality by making eloquent speeches in the public arena, whereas women were made to stay at home, take care of the children, the daily wash, and balance the household budget.

    "Hope" is a favorite word with Barack Obama. Hillary Clinton counters it with "experience." These words are tricky to use because they have both negative and positive meanings. In suggesting that hope can be delusory, Clinton speaks like an ancient Greek. Remember Pandora's box? When its lid was opened, all sorts of evil—famine, disease, war—emerged to afflict humankind. The last fury to emerge was "hope." Now, we moderns might think, "Thank God, hope also came out. So not all was lost." But to the ancient Greeks, "hope" was the last straw, for in addition to the other evils that burdened humankind, another was added—that of delusory hope. I suppose Clinton was drawing on her knowledge of myths, acquired at Wellesley, when she made "hope" sound empty.

    Obama, for his part, gave "hope" a strongly positive meaning, one that has its roots in the still very much alive Judeo-Christian tradition. Hope in this tradition rests on faith in the fundamental goodness of the Lord. Things may not go well now, but don't despair, the Lord our God can be trusted to come through with solace. Solace is, in fact, too weak a word. God can be counted on to give his people glory! And, indeed, there are hints of glory even in this life. From the founding of Plymouth colony in 1620, John Winthrop saw a /new/ England, a "city upon a hill," a people on whom God can bestow praise and glory. That curious word "glory," what does it mean? It means to be appreciated by God. It means that God will say of Americans, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." This belief—this hope—has not altogether wizened despite America's checkered history, one that included slavery, imperialist land grab, capitalist excess, ethnic obscurantism and tension, and a persistent self-righteousness that is the antithesis of being a "good and faithful servant." Obama is trying to give new life to hope. Maybe he shouldn't.

    "Experience" is a good word. I like it because the root "per" in "experience" means peril or danger. One takes risks in experiencing, one learns from experience. Unfortunately, Clinton has not stressed this risk-taking aspect of experience, and so she allows the word's more passive meaning of something "undergone" to emerge. I am experienced because I have undergone the trials of life. But do I necessarily learn from such trials? Plato urged his disciples to trust knowledge rather than personal experience, which can lead them into error (The Republic). Experience produces good habits, true, but also bad habits. And habits, good and bad, tend to become our nature, locked into our muscles and brain cells, and almost impossible to undo. They are, in any case, incompatible with change. If I were Clinton's adviser, I would ask her to stop using the words "experience" and "change" in the same breath.

Best wishes,

Yi-Fu