As I sit in my dark room, alone, the voice of our 44th President softly plays through my computer’s speakers. Across the world, these same words resonated with the resounding ideology that has unquestionably defined the American Way. These words inspired millions across a fractured world, marred with the seemingly abject cynicism manifested from the innumerable dismal failures which seemed to cascade catastrophically with relentless consistency. The words softly play through my speakers. I try not to use the words “significant paradigmatic shift” to describe what many feel about the new President after a nation, in vain, attempts to wash the taste out of its mouth of a disgraced man who many would like history to forget. It occurs to me that 22 is half of 44.

You can find the entire transcript of the speech here. It occurs to me that I can stop the post here, and keep my opinion to myself. I ignore this compulsion. I keep writing.

My roommate, Alex, meets me at 6:54pm PST on the street. The teenagers who call me Bob Marley ride their skateboards in ennui as he tells me in that voice, so temporarily inspired, that Obama has made him a new man after reading the transcript of the speech. I respond that he sounds like a member of a cult. I approach Obama with cautious optimism, knowing that all those African inspirational songs with small children chanting his name can’t all be for nothing. Significant. Paradigmatic. Shift.

My boss responds, “That speech really didn’t say much, but it was inspirational.” I agreed. The bar is so low, for a speech given by the Leader of the Free World to be inspirational is already a vast improvement. The conservatives froth at the mouth, bitter at the reckless squandering of their evaporated Senate majority in 2006 followed by the number of Senate seats in their control dropping like flies on top of a humiliating general election loss. These speeches aren’t meant to hold meaning or substance. If you want either of those, there are a couple of places you can go. Like here.

No, this was a speech meant to instill a sense of optimism in a time where our power is waning, our economy is in shambles, and our enemies seek to capitalize on our now-obvious weaknesses. It uses a lot of the same language as other Inauguration Speeches. It was a speech meant to remind us, and the rest of the world, where we were, and that we’ve dealt with worse problems, and have come out stronger as a result of the struggle.