There's a great piece by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times, comparing the strategy the Chinese have for the coming decades to that of the U.S. The Chinese are developing infrastructure and going full bore into the post-oil dependence reality of the future. Which means, of course, a major commitment to electric cars, trains, etc. And we, meanwhile, are going full bore into developing the nation of Afghanistan. As Friedman points out, if we persist on our path of nation building, the Chinese are going to win that contest, and thus be the real global powerhouse.
Now Friedman has a lot more inside knowledge than I do, and works for the New York Times to boot, which means he kinda has to put a positive spin on this stuff. So he ends on a hopeful note... suggesting that somehow we will heal our internal rifts, give up our oil dependency, and forge boldly into the future. Or at least he suggests it's a possibility worth striving for. Which, of course, it is.
I guess.
On the other hand, I have spent a lot of time in Texas the last couple of years. And my sense of it is the Texas oil folks ain't a-gonna give up their stranglehold on the U.S. economy until every last drop of oil has been sucked out of the ground and used as fuel or turned into a plastic thingamabob.
I really do hope the Afghans are happy with the new country we're trying to build them. Whether they want it or not. And I'm darn thrilled that the Iraqi's have a new country too.
Kinda.
But these two disastrous escapades have put us way behind in the race toward the future. We were sitting in a pretty good position during the Bill Clinton era. But we're not in a very good position now.
We can still develop the stuff needed here. But then we can't seem to implement much. The left hand is constantly fighting the right hand. And so, the Chinese (and others) buy this cool techno stuff we've developed and actually utilize it.
While we argue back and forth about what the founders and Jesus would do.
The Chinese are not burdened with Democracy or religion. They don't care what the people want, nor the supposed representatives of the people. And they don't give a damn what Jesus would do. They look at science, evaluate, and act accordingly. Whether the science be environmental, economic, or whatever. The Chinese have been running China for a long time.
Honestly, I don't think America has much of a chance in this contest. It's kind of like pitting petulant children against grown ups. As much noise and disruption as the children cause, ultimately the grown ups are going to send them to their room. And Americans don't want to be anything but petulant children, really. It's all we know.
We're good at it, too.
Oddly enough, I'm pretty okay with America just being itself. With our quirky little ideas of democracy, our freedom of religion, and our love of classic cars. America is a huge country, full of wonderful people. It's just that we're not gonna dominate the planet forever. We've done it for fifty years or so, and already one gets the sense that we've gone beyond the apex. And the reason for that is quite simple. We haven't apparently learned from past empires... that what brings them down is military ventures far from their own borders, and the unwillingness or inability to pay for them. Every military venture ever engaged in by any empire was presented and sold with some rational argument. But eventually, they destroy the conquerors themselves.
Maybe we will stay neck and neck with China in the race to the future. But I doubt it. Because here in America, we're too attached to our past. And our past is that of a very recent frontier. Our values are formed by that frontier mentality, and don't necessarily juxtapose well with civilization. And in China, where civilization goes back so much further, they seem much more willing, and able, to move forward quickly and decisively.
I love America for what and who She really is. A quirky, industrious, musical, creative, petulant, ambitious, occasionally cruel, often funny and endlessly argumentative group of misfits and ne'er-do-wells who can't really agree on much of anything except that we have the right to disagree.
I don't think we can make anybody be like us even if we try. And I don't see why we'd want to.
I couldn't have said it better myself! Great job as usual David. Kinda want to print this one and save it. lol You are still my hero.
ReplyDeleteHoping more folks will read it. We are hard headed and stubborn aren't we? I say that i kinda wish America were to change but not sure how it would be or if we can change. We'd have to change our entire government and how would we restructure? Plus, how embarrasing. But it is already embarrassing. Seems to me we are afraid of changes. And oh yeah, & "socialism". Plus, maybe Hitler & the antichrist.lol I think the other countries are probably scratching their heads when watching our news.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm not sure that I think Communist China is the role model for how nations should operate, but I do get what you're saying. We recovered from the Depression because WWII hit, and we revived the economy by manufacturing things that were needed. Asia does that for us now, and we give them even more jobs by outsourcing. And all our guys can do is mumble stuff about 'green jobs' even though no one seems to know what that is or how to create one. And if they DID, they'd outsource as much of the job as they could to India.
ReplyDeleteI vacillate between thinking America will return to her greatness, and just resigning myself to the fact that we are barreling toward implementing all of the worst parts of socialism. Where the haves can no longer support the have-nots, and we're all dependent on the government(which the "people" are practically begging for anyway). Now, take a good long look at our government, and ask yourself if you want them to be responsible for you. Yikes. We will all be "equally poor" and the elite rich will be in charge, doling out to the little people as they see fit. It's already happening on so many levels already.
Empires rise and empires fall, and I suspect the American empire is in decline. Just look at the signs: building a nation that doesn't necessarily want to be built in our image (I'm still trying to figure out why our nation's leaders think that this form of government is the only one that works--and this has been going on for almost 200 years), focusing upon serving the needs/desires of a few instead of the masses, etc. The fact that a good portion of the national debt is now owned by foreign countries (particularly China) is quite frightening; it makes me long for the "good old days" when the debt was just owed to the American people. The intrusion of government into people's daily lives has been going on for over a century--some of it good (certainly the Pure Food and Drug Act was a positive), some of it questionable. At the same time, I think that in the realm of education, we need to have more federal government involvement and standardize the curriculum nationwide; I still remember when my family moved to Houston right before I started 6th grade, and that year (and most of the next) were pretty much review of information I had already learned. So many people relocate now because of jobs; it makes little sense to have as much "local option" in the realm of education if the nation's leaders hope to have the nation move forward instead of continuing to regress.
ReplyDeleteBy the way--I LOVE your statement on why you love America. It captures the essence of the nation (and sounds like a great discussion topic for one of my classes).