Barack Obama’s Farewell Speech can be examined through the different theoretical lenses of liberalism and Ubuntu. Liberalism is often called “idealism” and describes how the world ought to be while pushing it in that direction(Zook 2017) Ubuntu theory is that “a person is who s/he is only because of the existence of others and because of his/her coexistence with them”(van der Walt, 108). Both theories have rather different origins, but liberalism and Ubuntu can be brought together to look at the same speech. In Obama’s speech, liberalism is best used to look at the instances where Obama emphasizes the importance of compromising on ideas and cooperation but Ubuntu better explains the idea that the nation works as a whole, not individually.
Ideas …show more content…
Obama states, “Our founders quarreled and compromised, and expected us to do the same. But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity – the idea that for all our outward differences, we are all in this together; that we rise or fall as one”(Obama 2017). Ubuntu argues for the importance of working together and the group must work as a collective. This aligns with the second half of the quote however, liberalism describes again the idea that compromising is key and the best choice leads to the best products. Essentially, this would be the creation of positive peace in which all parties involved would be satisfied with the decisions(Zook 2017). The author in “Neorealism and Neoliberalism” makes the claim that states are willing to communicate and cooperate to reach mutually beneficial agreements to avoid losing resources, etc(Nye Jr., 77). Therefore, similar to states, individuals are also willing to cooperate with each other because those outcomes will lead to more prosperity than fighting with others. Obama pushes for this to be how people in America think and to create a democratic nation where everyone is represented. Nevertheless, a shortcoming of liberalism is that it assumes that human beings are cooperative by nature which is a very general
Ideas …show more content…
Obama states, “Our founders quarreled and compromised, and expected us to do the same. But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity – the idea that for all our outward differences, we are all in this together; that we rise or fall as one”(Obama 2017). Ubuntu argues for the importance of working together and the group must work as a collective. This aligns with the second half of the quote however, liberalism describes again the idea that compromising is key and the best choice leads to the best products. Essentially, this would be the creation of positive peace in which all parties involved would be satisfied with the decisions(Zook 2017). The author in “Neorealism and Neoliberalism” makes the claim that states are willing to communicate and cooperate to reach mutually beneficial agreements to avoid losing resources, etc(Nye Jr., 77). Therefore, similar to states, individuals are also willing to cooperate with each other because those outcomes will lead to more prosperity than fighting with others. Obama pushes for this to be how people in America think and to create a democratic nation where everyone is represented. Nevertheless, a shortcoming of liberalism is that it assumes that human beings are cooperative by nature which is a very general