"This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny." Barack Hussein Obama.
"Go west young man, and grow with the country" Horace Greeley
Voici quelques extraits choisis du discours d'investiture de Barack Obama montrant son attachement au mythe américain de la "destinée manifeste", -manifest destiny- que Pierre Lagayette - Professeur de littérature et civilisation américaines- nommait "la matérialisation linguistique d'une idéologie tentaculaire." Un mythe qui prend forme au début du 19ème siècle avec la présidence de Thomas Jefferson, soit 65 ans avant l’abolition de l’esclavage par le 13ème amendement à la Constitution.
Ce destin exceptionnel, fait du dessein divin, que l'Amérique croit porter en elle s'appuie sur la pensée providentielle des Puritains et "l'apostolat de la liberté". "Entre les deux se déploie la mission civilisatrice qui incombe à la nation américaine, et qui fonctionne sur les bases d'une expansion et d'un progrès constants" souligne Lagayette. Une idéologie qui a gagné la planète, dans tous les sens du terme.
Les Etats-Unis ont toujours eu recours à cet « habillage politique et idéologique de l’expérience individuelle», celle-ci ne faisant sens que dans la mesure où elle réalise un destin collectif. Que d’efforts déployés d’ailleurs pour un destin sensé, par définition, préexister. Mais les Etats-Unis se jouent des paradoxes et des obstacles. Les dérives raciales de la « destinée manifeste » ont semble-t-il été définitivement écartées avec l’élection d’Obama. Mais celui-ci continuera de diffuser la bonne parole de l’Amérique.
Leur histoire a un sens, et cette vision téléologique de l’avenir n’est pas prête de s’éteindre.
"The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
(...) it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth.
For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake
Our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
(...)you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
(...)it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies.
(...)those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths
Et de conclure: "Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."
Amen.