The
entire world situation is changing rapidly. Each night we go to sleep
in one world, and the next morning we wake up in another. It's all
happening that quickly. This situation is about to get even worse. We
are standing on the verge of new computing technologies that will
make modern super-computers look like that thing that controls the
thermostat in your refrigerator now. (Quantum computing, anyone?) I'd
like to think that the United States is at the forefront of this new
technology, but we're not standing out there on our own anymore.
There are six or eight countries out there with us, and as soon as
the computer revolution hits, it will quickly lead to advances in
dozens of other areas. Things are about to get interesting.
As
usual, I am pessimistic about all of this.
America
is still the most powerful country in the world. Any of our
competitors will cheerfully admit this. We have by far the most
powerful and capable military; we are still in the lead in terms of
GDP and GNP; the dollar is still the world's reserve currency and the
currency that matters in all important transactions in the world; we
have a large and growing population that is relatively well educated
and capable; and we are still, in many ways, a wealthy country.*
The
ice under this position, however, is becoming thin and beginning to
make crackling noises. Very soon we may no longer be able to say that
we could stand off and destroy the rest of the world single-
handedly. Of course we are still capable of pushing anyone in the
world around with our vast military, but it is frightfully expensive
to maintain such a force and deploying it in anger costs even more.
The day is coming when that will no longer even be an option.
America's
greatest danger is that the country has been run by idiots for over
thirty years now. This unfunny circus of clowns took the treasure
that was handed to them and left it out in the rain to melt away.
Once
we exerted tacit control over most of the world through the use of
soft-power, which is very effective and often very economical.
Soft-power consists of humanitarian assistance; favorable trade
relationships; fraternal votes in various world bodies; cultural ties
and exchanges; close diplomatic relations; infrastructure
construction projects; low or no interest loans; medical training;
even something as simple as the United States Peace Corps! We have
squandered much of that option with ill-advised military adventures
that all turned out badly in terms of political results and returns
on investment. Beyond that, our current bosses feel like it is better
to save the money and not bother with soft-power solutions. The
single-minded goal of the American government for some time now has
been to channel all of the money to the super-rich, through the
agency of the large corporations and the banks, and to some of our
government officials. (Corruption is still discouraged among our
police and low-ranking public officials, but for our higher ranking
government officials, including high ranking military officers,
corruption, insider trading, bribery, cronyism, self-dealing, and
even outright theft, are considered perks of their high status.)
We
started out on this road to democracy with flawed but essentially
good intentions long ago, but we have clearly taken our eyes off of
the ball. We are losing our democracy, our cooperative way of life,
and our place in the world, and a disturbingly small number of
Americans seem to so much as notice, much less care. Most people seem
more interested in denying homosexuals the right to marry than in
protecting the rights of American citizens to probable cause, Habeas
Corpus, freedom from unlawful searches and seizures, privacy, and due
process of law, to name a few.
Did
I say “idiots?” Our current President Professor Doctor Terror
From The Outer Darkness and the crew of mediocrities that trail along
behind him are placing all of their faith in military power just as
the world has learned to be suitably unimpressed by the knowledge
that two giant American aircraft carriers are parked several hundred
miles off their coasts. So what, pray tell? Ditto by reminders that
we have several tens of thousands of immediately deliverable nuclear
warheads. Unimpressed. So what?
For
decades our influence around the world was second to none, but now
everything has changed.
Enter,
China
China's
response to all of this lazy-minded complacency and negligent
self-degradation has been to work together, generate hundreds of
great ideas, and implement all of them. Their accomplishments go well
beyond what could be expected of any authoritarian government. They
have managed to regain their peoples' affections after decades of
horrible abuse. The 1950s, 1960s, and up into the 1970s were a
nightmarish time for the long-suffering Chinese people. But they are
a durable race, and they seem to have come through it okay. Beginning
with Deng Xiaoping in the mid-1970s, the Chinese communists have
managed to rehabilitate their image domestically while retaining
total control of everything. In an amazing feat of legerdemain, they
have convinced everyone that they are a positive force in the life of
the Chinese nation. It has been the most amazing political success
since the unification of Germany by Otto von Bismark in the late
Nineteenth Century.
Domestically,
they have raised huge numbers of people out of poverty, literally
hundreds of millions of people; they have enabled a growing,
broad-based prosperity, including a large new middle-class; they have
raised the standard of living for just about every one of their one
billion plus people; and they have successfully integrated their
diverse regions and populations. They have done all of this while
enhancing state control over all aspects of peoples' lives by the
generous application of technological advances that had been invented
elsewhere. It is a stunning achievement.
Internationally,
their successes are hardly less remarkable. Their methods include
bullying; vast infrastructure expansion; intimidation; targeted money
lending; actual assistance; traditional forms of soft-power; and good
old-fashioned out-performance. They have built up a modern military
on the sly and on the cheap, and they have vastly extended the range
of their influence in the world both militarily and economically. My
congratulations, sirs!
The
Future
You
could say that it's easier for a government to get things done if the
country is under tight authoritarian control, but the United States
government certainly has almost equivalent power to act as it sees
fit. It should be obvious that they do pretty much what they want, no
matter what we, the people, might prefer. If they listened to us, far
fewer things would be specifically criminalized, and far fewer people
would be incarcerated. Not to mention that our Constitutional rights
would still receive the respect that was once considered critical to
the American way of life if our wishes were to be considered.
Instead, our rights have been whittled down to nothing. Those things
resulted from a political agenda that was generated at the top of the
American power structure, very much in the manner of authoritarians.
The
problem is that our new idiot bosses don't seem to have any plan, or
even any ideas in particular. They are perfectly content to let
everything rot while they line the pockets of themselves and their
rich friends. (That's a joke! The rich consider our bosses a bunch of
useful monkeys who will do anything for a few peanuts.) They control
the American population by fear while we helplessly watch our
security and prosperity evaporate. Control by the fear of police
violence, fines and civil forfeitures, loss of our precious credit
rating, and the nebulous terrors of immigrants, atheists,
homosexuals, and, God help me, THE BLACKS!
America
is in a state of impending societal collapse, but our elected
officials and our super-rich ringmasters reassure us that everything
is fine! And they can prove it: just look at that Dow Jones Index!
All of that funny money is in the right bank accounts in the Bahamas,
so don't you worry, boys and girls. All is right with the world. Just
figure out how much medicine you can afford and spread it out over
the entire month. That's if you're lucky enough to afford your
medicine at all.
Americans
are successfully distracted by President Admiral-General Rich Kid
Asshole's comedy routine, the cast of idiots that support him, and
arguing over the status of English as “America's official
language.” (Here's a hint, you bunch of Rubes: everybody who comes
to America learns English. This new crowd is learning it just as fast
as your Grandparents did. And by the way, most of you could use a
little work on your grammar and vocabulary, so stop throwing stones
in your glass houses.)
This
collapse will be a terrible thing when it happens. If they manage to
ruin the dollar itself, you'll be able to hear my screaming wherever
on the earth you may happen to be. Just give me another ten years or
so and I'll be spared having to witness the end. By then I will have
been overtaken by the poor design of the human body. Do what you want
to in the meantime. I'll try to keep busy over here in my brier
patch. Careful! Watch out for those thorns!
*It
is important to note that the wealth of the United States is now
acutely focused in a very narrow range of the population. The same
wealth, spread over a much wider base of the population, would
enhance the security of more Americans and therefore make America a
much stronger country. That was the situation in the great years of
the Middle Class America, the 1950s, 1960s, and most of the 1970s.
That broad-based prosperity, and the resulting strength, is now
lost.
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