Globalization: Your views on America in a post-American world

[Korak the Mad]

I live in Massachusetts, and quite frankly, I'm pretty sure America is going to collapse soon, I like the freedoms that we might take for granted, but I'm pretty sure a bunch of idiots and corrupt officials are leading our government. I'm not saying that everyone in the political system is an idiot or corrupt, but there are a majority of them in our political system. I really don't understand why people are freaking out about something that would actually benefit the people not hinder them.

We are very similair to the Roman Republic near it's downfall. It seems that history is going to repeat itself.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well, it depends on who takes over the dominant role in world affairs, and how smooth the transition is.

If, say, the UN was to get it's act together and become the dominant world power, the US would likely do alright, as long as it could remain a reasonably important part of the UN.

Otherwise, not so much. Instead of bullying other nations for its own end, it'd find itself being bullied by its successor.

 

[Brian Hendershot]

Double Post. Read the one farther down. My mistake.

 

[Fleeker]

I think the US is hated in global affairs because we act out of concete despite good intentions.

I believe the core values of Americans are: passion (we dump ourselves into what we do our into doing nothing), when focused we are great at overreaching, we also neglect our freedoms because we don't take the time to appreciate them (too many of us at least), and our leaders tend to be to arrogant.

I believe America went from leader and a leader worthy of following to bully after WWII. We imposed our values to change other cultures at the same time ignoring our own. I believe our attentions our always good but our approach is bad.

We come in with an might and say do this because your nation is wrong in the following areas. This makes you out to be thug or bully when all you want to do is help another have a better life. If in the US we could chuck out our arrogance and say as a world leader we have resources, technology, and capabilities that few in the world have. We want to help your nation, with all respect to your cultural and historical values, offer the benefits and freedoms we do so lets get together and meet and talk about how to make that happen. That would allow us to accomplish what we want to accomplish but do it from a place of good friend or strong supporter.

 

[Brian Hendershot]

Yeah. America has a habit of doing that to everyone (in regards to farming). Sorry about that.

Anyways, thanks for your post. I'll probably use it. I haven't gotten a non-american poster on here so far and Canada is right next to us...so...yeah.

Also, what do you think about President Obama's attempt to get a universal health care system.

As a Canadian I am curious as to what you impending economic crisis that the US is in right now? How do you think they should come up with all the extra money that they need? I obviously agree with Obama that if something needs to be cut it should be tax breaks for the rich and not things like social services and healthcare.

Any econ expert will tell you the only way to get a handle on this problem is to either cut government spending or raise taxes. What boggles my mind is how some people want better faster government services with lower taxes. They want better roads, better post, better everything, but lower taxes. That's...that's just impossible.

Anyhow, since the debt figure is somewhere around 13 trillion--a figure I can't even wrap my head around--I would cut government spending (mainly in pointless corporate buyouts), raise taxes, give incentives for businesses to make products in the United States, give no tax cuts to the rich and move to get us out of not only the Middle East. I would also legalize pot, if there was a way to properly police it (really iffy subject there), and then promptly tax the hell out of it.

Last, but not least I would introduce an asshole tax. It's simple. Everytime you are an asshole (take excessive vacations using bailout funds, give yourself a million dollar salary increase, run a red light, ect.) you would have to pay 5 % of your income. Of course the FCC would be the policing force there.

Lastly, I would lessen airport security. Yeah, yeah terrorists are bad guys, ect. However some of that stuff is just too excessive and we waste too much money on that if you ask me. It's a small thing but I think it might actually help.

And I would probably move to get American soldiers out of every country they are in right now that doesn't want them and place their boots on the Mexican border and dare the drug lords or illegal aliens to make a move. Doing this would move American troops closer to home where they could put money back into the economy easier, appease other countries, lessen the workload that police offers from both countries have to do in that area and hopefully put a dent in the drug trade as a whole. I doubt that would work at all though, considering we did that to Columbia back in the day...and well..they just moved up to Mexico.

 

[Brian Hendershot]

-snip-

stuff

Personally, I think it's a great idea. It sure seems to work well for us here. It makes me very sad to know that some people can't get access to the health care they need due to finances. It's just something we take for granted here. I know there are some people in the states that believe it's inherently bad, but I'm not really sure what they're arguments are. I'm not hugely educated about the debate, honestly. I just know it works for Canada and some other countries, I think it's worth looking into. The U.S.A. is a very wealthy country. It's just terrible to think that working class people could get injured and not be adequately taken care of.

Yep, it really is. It wouldn't be the United States of America if the working class wasn't getting shit on all the time though.

 

[Space Jawa]

Hmmm...How about a declining American world. While we still hold the top spot both in terms of military and economy, we won't have it for much longer. China and India are both growing at a rapid pace. China alone has more smart people then we have people and India is set to outpace China in terms of population. In terms of numbers and the desire to work we as an American people can't keep up with that. I would say that isn't a problem because Americans have always had a sense of innovation but even that is diminishing soon. It's not just China and India that are rising either, Brazil is certainly on the rise as well.

I can't speak on India, but long term I don't think China is doing so hot, either. They're suffering from a major identity crisis, for one, hanging on to the old one party system of Communism and trying to maintain a firm grip on its citizens while at the same time gradually implementing capitalism into its economy. If you haven't noticed, the recent African revolts have (or at least had) them spooked, with fears of something similar happening on their own turf.

Then you have China's One-Child policy, which in addition to China actively trying to decrease its population (I don't know if its actually working or not) is leaving them with a severe imbalance in Male to Female ratios.

As I see it, sooner or later China's going to burst.

Furthermore American policies are met with not distrust and anger, but more of disdain. There are movements to have organizations like NAFTA or the UN that intentionally leave out the United States.

My theory is envy - I think the real answer is that so many of these countries simply envy the United States (not ones like Iran or North Korea, of course). After all, everyone wants to be #1, and right now, they see the US as #1.

I don't blame them for their envy. If I was the citizen of a country other than the US, I'd probably envy the US too. Or if the US were suddenly to loose it's #1 status, I'd probably start envying the new #1 in turn.

I'm not saying we are not a powerful country. We still are. But if we keep trying to do things like we have for the past 200 years or so, we won't stay on top much longer, which frankly is fine with me. We don't need to be under the limelight of the world any longer.

I'm not saying we should keep doing things the way we have for the past 200 years. Or even the past 100 years. That's what got us our ridiculously bloated debt level. That's why I'm hoping we turn things like that and our society of entitlement around.

But if you don't want us to be in the limelight and subject to the envy of the world anymore, then who do you trust to take the place of the USA?

 

[lightningmagurn]

I just got back from London Study Abroad and part of my assignment is to write about how people feel about the United States in global affairs.I got most of the opinions I needed, but I forgot the most important opinions of all! I need the voices of people like you. Yes you. Even you Tony..

You can talk about anything from 9/11 to President Barack Obama. I just need a few quick opinions. Hate us, Love us, I don't really care, just say something fairly productive. I know there are couple of other posts like this out there but most of them either a. went in to pointless flaming or b. have a really low post count. Oh and if you could leave your country of origin in your post that would be great.

Oh and a few months ago I made a post about advice for going to London. Thanks for all the Londoners and English who gave me excellent advice! It goes without saying I think your entire country rocks.

Question: What do you mean by post-American world?

OT: Country: good. Government: pretty abusive. America has flaws, like everywhere else does, but in my opinion it's still the best place to live. The government is kinda being the international bully right now, and will probably continue to do so until 40 years of bad economic policies cause it's economy to collapse, so I hate the government, but the country itself is a good place to live.

I live in NY state USA.

I mean a world where America is no longer the last superpower but just merely another player in the global market, ect.

I'd say that the USA is still a superpower. It has one of the top militaries and one of the top economies. I would say it's the most powerful of the 3 superpowers, USA>China>European Union with the EU being a mostly economic power. Keep in mind, I think China is very close to the US in power, but I believe that the US is slightly more powerful(for now).

LOL powerful granted, but useful? They can eventually defeat a man they put into power and throw his country into chaos, and get mired in a guerilla war of unwinnable in order to kill a guy who's hiding for ten years in their allies shed? WTF??? Powerful mayhaps. Awesome hardware is awesome, but with crappy software, it all goes wrong. Try running a supercomputer on unpatched WIN95 and call that powerful please, it'd be less funny.

Well, I think you are marginalizing the U.S. economy. We can put tremendous pressure on other nations without using our military (Iran) Also, I think you are looking at the military wrong. While it is true that on the large scale, the American military is making and has made mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan, on a tactical scale, no standing army can match the American military, and one of the reasons America is still heavily tangled with raq and Afghanistan, is the failure of local partners, not U.S. military failures. Even at the worst times in Iraq, (the figure is from 2006) U.S. troops killed 55 enemies and captured 65 for every lost U.S. serviceman. I think the super computer analogy is off the mark. I think that it isn't a software or hardware error, I think it is a failure to mesh changing software with awesome hardware.
I can't tell if that made any sense. My point: The U.S. Has a pawerful economy, despite debt, and has a powerful military. Failure of policy and strategy does not mean failures of tactics, equipment, or personel.

Well, forgive me for thinking strategy important

If the US could or would realise that world "policeman" is only as popular as the sides he's picked over the span of his career... Small town cops always endeavour to stay consistantly on some peoples good sides, and the world is getting smaller. If this great power had been used wisely and sparingly, think of all the worthwhile allies they could have had...

Not to say that the US doesn't have its plusses, hell, the country that bombs its own abortion clinics has more gay rights and less threatening censorship than mine. It's just that, well, every time any local from anywhere has a friend who got accidentally bombed by the US, there's another 50 people that hate the US. Sometimes the best use of power is restraint is all I'm getting at. People respect the guy who almost never flattens random dudes when he does have to smack a guy around a bit, people just fear and resent the ones who look for guys to fight...

Honestly, fear and resent are ok. The rest of the world doesn't need to like us. Until they do something about it, we will enjoy a unsustainable standard of living. If you are at a party, and there is a absolutely jacked man standing there being a dick and sticjing his nose into everybodies business, nobody messes with him. Everybody talks about it when he isn't around, but at the end of the day, he is much, much bigger. That is America. America is powerful, not nice.

 

[Veylon]

America hasn't sat on top of the world for a while now. Remember Vietnam, where a third world jungle exhausted a Superpower? Remember Afghanistan, where the same happened to the other one? The limits of Superpowerdom have been clear for quite some time. Put simply, America never dominated in a way that suggests that a post-American world is any different.

 

[Apollo45]

I feel like we need to get our act together a bit. We're not in the hole yet, but we're definitely headed there, and that can be seen from both international and national politics.

Allow me to explain a bit further. We, as a country, have the potential to do a whole lot of good in the world. We still have the most powerful economy and military in the world. China may be bigger and have more people on both fronts, but it doesn't have all the gears working quite like they should yet, and that likely won't be completely fixed for another twenty years. No other country can come close to having the sheer power that America has under its belt. The problem is that there isn't a set goal for the whole country. It's pretty easy to see where things started going downhill: Vietnam and shortly thereafter was the starting point, but the ball didn't truly get rolling until the collapse of the Soviet Union. That left the US without someone to face off against, and it stagnated. Countries, like individual people, often need a solid opponent to duke it out with in order to stay competitive. Being numero uno only lasts until someone else sneaks up and takes the title from you, and often when that happens you're too late to take it back. America built its way up to the top, and now that we're here we have nothing to do, so we bicker between ourselves and cause more trouble.

Notice how, for a couple years after 9/11, the country stopped stagnating and started getting itself in gear again. This lasted until the people lost interest, the leader began to make poor decisions, and we went back to what we were. For a few years there, we had a common enemy and we rallied. Now, I'm not saying we need a war to keep us going. That certainly would be the easiest way to get ourselves back in gear, but it would also be one of the worst. The same effect could be achieved through having a non-military rival. For this, it's likely we'll need to look towards China or Japan. China would present much more of a military threat, and is likely the next 'opponent' the US will pick out, but Japan is a production superpower in itself; it has about the same landmass as California, but has half the population of the US and half the production power. If they had more territory in which to expand, they would have surpassed us years ago. The European Union wouldn't be a bad rival either, but the fact of the matter there is that Europe has been in a similar decline since the late 1800's. It's not yet unified enough to present a solid front that could actually rival our power, and it probably won't be for another 40-50 years.

This rivalry doesn't have to take on the form of another country though. If the United States had a set goal, and a reason to push towards it, we could get something going. That, however, has to be something big, something that requires the majority of the US to work on it at once. Getting to Mars would be a good start, but better than that would be setting up a permanent base on the Moon. The ISS is a good step and all, but it's doomed to fall in to obscurity from its very design; it's not built for expansion. I could go on this for hours, but the short (or not-so-long) of it is that we need a big step towards space exploration to get us moving again, because the issues on Earth are isolated and don't affect a large portion of the population.

Since I'm on a roll, I might as well go a bit in to US politics. In short, however, they're stupid. Too much infighting, both between the two parties and within the two parties, has caused things to end up stalemating back and forth repeatedly. In all likelihood, Obama will last through his second term and then a Republican will take back control and the pendulum will swing back to the Right almost completely before swinging back. The almost complete re-coloring of the Senate and Congress every 8(ish) years makes whatever the last President did almost completely useless; if things would stabilize a bit and people would stop thinking in straight Red/Blue we would be able to continue moving forward, or at least make it easier to do so. If it keeps going the way it does it'll be a tossup to see whether a civil war breaks out before the economy collapses on itself or we get invaded. None of those options sound pretty, and they all affect the rest of the world greatly, which is a large part of why the entirety of the rest of the world is so focused on us; what we do affects everyone else almost as much as it affects us. Good or bad, it's one of the effects of continuing globalization, and it'll only get more pronounced as the world becomes more and more interconnected.

And I should probably stop there...

TL;DR: The US has the potential to do good things, but we need to get our shit together before we can do so. That could mean uniting against a common enemy (or rival), or it could mean setting a national goal for ourselves and going for it (space exploration). None of that will happen until our politicians get their heads out of their asses and start working for the country instead of against each other.

 

[Spinozaad]

I'm the living stereotype of an arrogant European.

Europe has a past, a tradition, a culture while America is a melting pot of invented traditions. Our social democracies are better, our political arena is used to be more intellectual and civilized, we shit on empty nationalism and patriotism, we don't say 'like' and 'totally' fourteen times every other sentence, et cetera ad infinitum.

This is, of course, just the surface. Deep down inside, I simply don't care about the USA.

Of course, this doesn't apply to the entirety of America. In a culture with so many people, there are bound to be Americans who subscribe to the same values as I do, who are part of the same cosmopolitic, international self-described elite as I see myself belonging to.

Those guys and girls are awesome, but no more 'American' than I'm Dutch, and Jean-Pierre is French.

What crosses the pond regarding American politics usually makes me laugh to tears, the American-Fuck-Yeah-Attitude is cute in the same way a guinea pig is cute, the lack of culture and history shows.

If I have to provocatively stereotype America, I'd say that Europe is an elderly man wearing a top hat and sporting a monocle who listens to Beethoven and Wagner, quotes Shakespeare, admires Van Gogh-paintings while enjoying French cuisine at a restaurant in the shadow of the Colosseum. While the American grunts "GOD BLESS 'MURICA, YEAH!" while fucking a goat.

 

[Snugglebunny]

From an outsider's point of view?

As an Englishman who lives in Australia, America scares the hell out of me.

Firstly, I believe it is honestly too big and varied a society to really be one country. It seems to me that the only way that the US government is able to unite its people is by giving them some kind of outside threat. America defines itself by its enemies. This mindset filters down even to the lowest level and is re-enforced by your very constitution encouraging you to see even your own government as your potential enemy.

It is a land of violent contradiction, where that government is incapable of truly representing its people, and seems to have given up trying. It is a place that claims to value freedom on an almost religious level, but has willingly and eagerly thrown those freedom's away for anyone who doesn't agree with the way they do things.

As an American, living in America, I can't help but feel like your views might be a bit radical and shortsighted.

I would argue that the American population is the most well represented and protected group of people on the planet. Our government is held directly accountable to the people who elected it, and the career of each politician in it based solely on their ability to best represent their constituents, and protect their constitutional rights and freedoms.

Boring Explain-y Part:

[In our system, the representation is formed through a bicameral system, in the Congress. In the Senate, two representatives are given to each state to equalize the power of small and large states, and in the House of Representatives, the states are divided into districts based on population, with one representative for each district, that district holding control over their representative to best represent its interests. (My state has a small population, we have 6 districts, as opposed to California, which is much larger, that has 53).

As for our Constitution, not only is it essential to the protection of freedoms such as speech, religion, press, petitioning of the government, suffrage, civil rights, etc., but is subject not only to the scrutiny of the American people through our court system, but is the very document that establishes the idea of accountability that the government owes to its peoples.]

Our government isn't our 'enemy', but rather our self-crafted protector, and the voice through which we are heard, if we can take the time.

People complain, 'The government is flawed! Congress is filled with incompetent politicians! I have no voice!' While our system isn't perfect, when examining raw data tracking voter turnout reports that in the last senatorial election, only around 37% of registered voters actually cast ballots. In our last presidential election, 2008, only 56% of eligible voters actually bothered. In a country where 29% of Americans can't name the Vice President (It's Joe Biden, by the way), would it even be worth your time to ask them which Congressional District they belong to? Who their Representative in the House is?

This said, I believe that America's greatest ability is that of change. Admittedly, there have been dark moments in not only our foreign policy decisions, but in our inexcusable violations of civil rights, and many other aspects. However, it is our mutable nature as a nation allows us, the people, to take charge and change our government, policies, laws, and even the definitions of rights when we recognize our flaws, and take the time to correct them. That is, if we could be bothered to look beyond short sighted and polarizing rhetoric, and actually DO something.

 

[Justanewguy]

I live in Massachusetts, and quite frankly, I'm pretty sure America is going to collapse soon, I like the freedoms that we might take for granted, but I'm pretty sure a bunch of idiots and corrupt officials are leading our government. I'm not saying that everyone in the political system is an idiot or corrupt, but there are a majority of them in our political system. I really don't understand why people are freaking out about something that would actually benefit the people not hinder them.

We are very similair to the Roman Republic near it's downfall. It seems that history is going to repeat itself.

Just for the record, the Republic didn't fall, it was augmented into the Roman Empire and enjoyed almost 200 years of unchallenged supremacy in the world's standing. If the USA is going the way of the Roman Republic, then I say carpe diem.

In reality, though, its wrong to assume that the USA is in a singular situation. This is a problem that a lot of Americans seem to have, and it's something that the rest of the world doesn't help by gossiping so much. In reality at least four European countries have gone bankrupt. A half dozen have been in danger of it, and many are still teetering. The USA is also having problems, and if we go "bankrupt" then of course that will cause a tidal wave that could easily unseat the entire Global economy. That being said, we wouldn't be the only ones to collapse, and it's important to remember that. If the USA goes under, the countries that rely on us, and the ones that hold our debt, will also be brought under. China would be pulled under, as would much of Europe and many parts of South America too.

The point of the above is not that the USA is incredibly important, rather that it is really just another nation dealing with a world wide financial crisis. The USA isn't the only country in a recession. We're also a very long way from total economic collapse. Unemployment hasn't come close to that of Depression levels, and despite the American "woe is us" mentality right now, we're actually not in as deep trouble as we're trying to fool ourselves into believing.

Could America be unseated as the only Super Power in the world? Yes. Is China likely to be the one to do it? Well, going by historical examples, probably not. China is dealing with a housing bubble currently, much like the one that got us into our mess. They're also industrializing in a fashion that is very much like the Soviet Union's race to industrialization back in the late 80's. Assuming they follow a similar path, the people of China will be clamoring for political representation, and no matter what the Chinese Communist party does, they will have to deal with the fact that they cannot hide their people from the same things that brought the Soviet Union to its knees. In my opinion the nation best seated to challenge the USA in the coming century is probably Brazil. Brazil is currently growing, rather than shrinking economically. Their population is also growing, which is normally the precursor to an economic boom. Assuming that the USA follows a major decline like is being predicted (and as I said, I have my doubts of), and Brazil follows its current path of economic fortitude, then Brazil will be in a prime position to fix the damage that occurs if the USA were to collapse economically.

All in all, we can't count the USA out just yet, even though everyone (including Americans) seem to want to. Sure, we may be dealing with hard times, but so is every other nation in the world, and when the world recovers, so will the USA, and most likely quicker than most nations.

In other words, Americans seem to be so convinced of their own singularity that they forget that the rest of the world is also dealing with problems similar to ours. The USA won't necessarily collapse (although I tend to think that many Americans subconsciously crave that, so that they can "pay" their debt to the rest of the world), and it isn't in a more dangerous position than all the other nations of the world either. Some have already dealt with bankruptcy. So long as America avoids that, we're ahead of the curve.

 

[BlazedWithPower]

America, land of the fee and home of the bacon double cheeseburger.

As an American who believes in the ideals expressed in the constitution I can honestly say the current political system is nauseating and obsolete. We're becoming the super villain faceless mega-corporation of science fiction. And the 9/11 attacks made things so much worse.

First of all, 9/11. Yes, it was a tragedy. But the terrorist accomplished what they set out to do and more. Our economy is in ruins, and its the governments corruption that did it. Though I don't think 9/11 was an inside job I do think the government knew and allowed it to happen.
"But how do you keep that many people quiet?"
Money. Money runs EVERY thing in America. Its our most important form of infrastructure. With out currency I think the population would fall to 1/64th of the current population simply because people aren't able to adapt.

And that's another thing. Aside from apathy and obesity, stupidity seems to be our chief export. If some one doesn't immediately understand something they dismiss it. "Some one else will take care of it." Which is right. But is it some one who should? In most cases the answer is no. Its just so disgusting to see how a country with such noble and humble origins has become a seething pit of corruption, greed, and sheer idiocy.

And our laws are ridiculous. Did you know there are some areas in America where alcohol is still illegal? We're the last country on the planet that still supports prohibition. Which sort of speaks of the government's agenda as a whole. Control at all costs.

As for the future of America, it doesn't look good. China is going to want their money soon. And since our politicians are pocketing what little profit we make we'll be in debt forever.

If China invades, please don't allow wealthy American citizens to hide in your country. They are war criminals. And will do to your country what they did to ours. Bleed it dry and leave you to pick up the pieces.

I'd leave this country if I could afford it. But I can't. And I don't really know what to do to prepare for the future.

 

[Bvenged]

Are you canvassing for American opinions as well? I think our position in the world is simply shifting back to something more akin to what it was at the birth of our nation before the late 1800s invested us with American nationalism and the second world war convinced us of our eternal righteousness. It's clear to most of us now that America is not a perfect place and hopefully that will give us the humility to address some of our shortcomings.

Oregon, USA

Such as your corporate-run healthcare system that leaves the poor to die; and your education-dumbing bible belt that refuses to teach anything that contradicts the bible no matter how fundamentally right this new knowledge can be?

Bah, however it is I would have to agree. The USA was a very prosperous superpower around 1800-1929's with the volume of people who wanted In being quite substantial. But after the Wall Street Crash the rest of the world realised the best country on Earth at the time was far from being a Eutopia.
Nowadays the USA has to compete with India, Russia and China for superpower status so it's no longer such a big thing. The only thing that makes you stand out in todays world is your very cut-throat-like business industry, ensuring the best rise to the top while anyone who flitters for a second gets knocked out of the ring. Also the way you toggle between dabbling in world affairs to pure isolationism, depending on whose in office, also seems to be high on your country's To-Do list (which is strange as I'd bet almost all republicans are related to immigrants and not founding colonists).

From Wales.

 

[Not Good]

Globalization will be the death of us all.

 

[Helmutye]

I am a US citizen who is proud of the idea behind my country, but not the reality as it exists today.

My read on the situation is that the US is an empire that is desperately trying to cling to the idea of popular democracy. The two are not compatible. To put it another way, I think the post WWII/Cold War United States bears little if any resemblance to the country it was before those terrifying times. A lot of people today think of and have always thought of the US as a Superpower--if you're under the age of 60 it has been a Superpower for your entire life. But I think being a Superpower is what has destroyed the US, or at least transformed it from a democratic republic into a corporate-fascist empire.

The original intent behind the US was to create a place where citizens could do whatever they wanted, so long as nothing they did interfered with anyone else's ability to do the same. The government was there to protect your ability to live this free, enterprising life. The primary concern of the government was internal. There were wars back then, of course, and the government wielded military power on several occasions against external threats. But the role of government was overwhelmingly Defensive (though I suppose you could consider the acquisition of new territory and Manifest Destiny and all that as imperialistic expansion, but even that was driven primarily by citizens, not by the government--the government protected settlers, but they made their own way of their own free will).

But something changed after WWII. Some people would say that a common enemy--the Nazis, and then the Soviet Union--united the US. But I would say that the US government learned that it could ignore most of the rules limiting its power if the people believed there was a big, evil, external threat. After over 40 years of that the US government of today has forgotten how to operate under the "regular" rules. As incredible as it may seem, the last half century has been, strictly speaking, a departure from the norm. And at this point we have a decision to make: will the US willingly set aside its Superpower status and go back to being a country primarily concerned with internal matters instead of imperialistic ambitions abroad? Or will we accept Superpower and empire as the new norm, and take it to the next level? Because since the fall of the USSR there is no real reason why the world needs a "police force." Terrorism is nothing but a diversion, an attempt by the government to maintain the external threat necessary to justify its continued violation of the normal rules, to justify its existence as an Empire rather than a nation.

Of course, there is also the idea that nations are an outdated political unit, and that Corporations are now the dominant institution of our time--and this idea is pretty convincing, considering that corporations span the globe far more effectively than any nation, corporate money and lobbying play a part in pretty much every political cause, and it is nations fighting their wars and competing with each other to win their good will. At one time they were the agents of US and Western European imperialism, but today I think the roles have reversed--nations are the agents of Corporate imperialism. In this view, the US is just a puppet, like all other nations on the planet. Specifically, the US is the military--the US spends more on its military than the next 13 biggest spenders COMBINED. It is also a big market--it buys tons of stuff. But once the US has lived out its usefulness--once there are no lands left to conquer and once it cannot buy anything more, the corporations will leave and take their money with them, and the US will cease to be relevant. We're somewhere along this process already, I think.

Personally, I don't think we're just in the post-America stage. I think we're in the post-national stage. Whether that's a good thing or not, I'm not sure. But I really admire the ideas that resulted in the founding of the US, and I think a lot of other people in the world do as well. And I don't see too many of those ideas existing in a corporation-dominated world, where economic might is the only morality. Capitalism is a pretty good economic system, but I think it makes a terrible political ideology, because it is essentially a dictatorship where money has replaced military force.

 

[SillyBear]

English/Ghanaian here.

I think the "decline" of the USA that has been heralded for so long will be far less exciting and dramatic as anyone thinks. I also don't think it will extend beyond the economic arena. Socially they'll still be the biggest influence on the Western world, and I think it will stay this way for most of our life time.

They won't crash, they won't have a civil war, there won't be a revolution, they'll just simmer down a bit and have a bit less cash to play with. The role China plays may elevate, and when China progresses past their agrarian roots and start to branch out militarily some interesting events may unfold. But I think the USA is here to stay and it will remain influential in our media, art and entertainment for a long time.