volprof
Destroyer of Nihilists
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2011
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I don't know where this thread will go, nor do I claim to defend unabashed nationalism (although I am an unabashed patriot).
It seems to me that the US as the world's sole superpower is on its way out. I don't need to tell you the whole story; you know it already. But, in brief, we're sky high in debt, the economy is a hollow shell at the moment, and the world around us is changing, perhaps even beyond our control. Not to mention that our children - the very children you raise - are apparently getting dumber.
I've spent considerable time thinking about this, and it has led me to this very uninformed conclusion: the greatest strides in this nation's history have occurred when under pressure from a real threat. The British galled us into a nation of free men (and later women). The Civil War not only accelerated a world's democracy into living up to its democratic potential but also pushed forward this nation's industrialization, a step that probably played a role in our nation becoming the world's largest economy by end of century. The Japanese and the Germans turned us into a superpower. And the Russians made us into a technological and engineering giant, the likes of which has never been seen before. And perhaps never will be seen again.
But what happened after the fall of the Soviets? We had a good run, but we got all decadent. Between foreign adventurism and hapless congresses, we've managed to find ourselves in a fine hole.
I'm convinced this is the result of our unrestricted supremacy. With no real enemy, we have just farted around, so to speak. It seems to me that we're just in some sort of drift.
So, my questions to you are these:
1) Is the US "better" when it has a "real" enemy? And I'm not talking about Islamic terrorism. You don't compete against "Johnny Jihad," his explosives belt, and his tenth-century mentality. I'm talking about an honest-to-god enemy that you have to compete against economically, technologically, etc.
2) Does the US need a new enemy? And, like with question 1, I mean a real enemy.
It seems to me that the US as the world's sole superpower is on its way out. I don't need to tell you the whole story; you know it already. But, in brief, we're sky high in debt, the economy is a hollow shell at the moment, and the world around us is changing, perhaps even beyond our control. Not to mention that our children - the very children you raise - are apparently getting dumber.
I've spent considerable time thinking about this, and it has led me to this very uninformed conclusion: the greatest strides in this nation's history have occurred when under pressure from a real threat. The British galled us into a nation of free men (and later women). The Civil War not only accelerated a world's democracy into living up to its democratic potential but also pushed forward this nation's industrialization, a step that probably played a role in our nation becoming the world's largest economy by end of century. The Japanese and the Germans turned us into a superpower. And the Russians made us into a technological and engineering giant, the likes of which has never been seen before. And perhaps never will be seen again.
But what happened after the fall of the Soviets? We had a good run, but we got all decadent. Between foreign adventurism and hapless congresses, we've managed to find ourselves in a fine hole.
I'm convinced this is the result of our unrestricted supremacy. With no real enemy, we have just farted around, so to speak. It seems to me that we're just in some sort of drift.
So, my questions to you are these:
1) Is the US "better" when it has a "real" enemy? And I'm not talking about Islamic terrorism. You don't compete against "Johnny Jihad," his explosives belt, and his tenth-century mentality. I'm talking about an honest-to-god enemy that you have to compete against economically, technologically, etc.
2) Does the US need a new enemy? And, like with question 1, I mean a real enemy.
