THE GOLDEN RULE AS A POLITICAL IMPERATIVE FOR THE WORLD PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA'S PROVERBIAL MESSAGES ABROAD

The political rhetoric of President Barack Obama of the United States is informed to a considerable degree by proverbs and proverbial expressions. This is true in particular when he addresses native English speakers at home, but he also draws on this folk wisdom when speaking to audiences abroad. The use of proverbial language gives his speeches a colloquial and metaphorical expressiveness that enables him to communicate effectively with people of different ethnic and social backgrounds. This was certainly the case when he delivered major speeches at Berlin, Ankara, Cairo, and Oslo. Stressing the common humanity of people in Europe and throughout the world, Obama used a number of national and international proverbs to bring his message of hope and moral values across in a world where globalization draws humanity ever closer together. As he strives for peace and for the eradication of war, deprivation, and disease, he sees his guiding moral principle in the universal proverb "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" that is known throughout the world by all religions and philosophies as the golden rule of humankind.