[cryout-multi][cryout-column width=”1/4″] [/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/2″]
II. America, the Dutiful
America is the catalyst for everything humanity is, or ever will become. History bottlenecks through us here at the beginning of the 21st Century, and the future will largely be what we make it. Not since Roman times has one nation state had such far-reaching impact.
In the history of nations, America is unique, a radical departure from the xenophobic pockets of cultural sameness that dominated nation building prior to 1776. We are the restless children of every nation on Earth, drawn to these shores seeking an ideal that beats in the heart of every human being. Never have so many races, faiths, and cultures existed so peacefully side-by-side, proud to call themselves members of one tribe, the American tribe.
As an ideal, America has been as well intentioned as any nation ever founded, founded for the ‘pursuit of happiness’ no less. The nobility of our actions toward Germany and Japan following WWII said we were something different. It said we were the ‘Good Guys’. The comically overbearing menace of the Evil Empire we opposed during the Cold War only reinforced that conviction. When the Berlin Wall came tumbling down, the future seemed to hold great promise. It felt like it was ‘over’. It felt like the Good Guys had won.
Ironically, since that day most of Europe has been marching left, while we’ve been marching right. The most war torn hunk of real estate known to mankind has united under the euro and learned to live in peace for the first time in its history, and we dare ridicule them for it.
Instead, America ought to be proud of the role it played in bringing about that peace. From the nobility of our actions following WWII to our staunch defense of the Western Democracies in their time of weakness, we set an example that paved the way for a brighter future, a peaceful future. We led Europe to a better place and it is the better for it. The world is the better for it.
The world was ours to lead into the future, and it seems all we’ve done is drag it back into the past. Europeans have been getting blown up by Middle Eastern crazies for decades, but they didn’t react by declaring holy wars or turning into police states. A couple of boxcutters wielded by a handful of Saudi fanatics, and we’ve darn near destroyed the Constitution and set the world on fire. We tackled a global problem while telling our allies and the rest of the world we didn’t want their advice and didn’t need their assistance. So they sit on the sidelines in a war that is as much theirs as ours. They sit on the sidelines because we put them there.
America needs to again become the leader of the Free World. We need to reconnect with our former allies and build bridges to our former foes. America needs to again stand for something that gives the oppressed hope and forces the tyrants to build walls to keep it out. We need to win the hearts and minds of the little guys again. The world is there for the shaping if we reconnect with our obvious, no-doubt-about-it Good Guy-ness.
America needs to do some serious soul searching, tweak the system here and there, and move forward with a plan. We need to show some of the vision that won us the world’s respect in the first place.
We need to start thinking outside the box. We can’t use 19th and 20th century solutions to solve 21st century problems. The geo-political situation today is unique in the history of mankind, driven as it is by the global economy. Virtually all of the ‘Bad Guys’ these days are small, backward countries with virtually no industrial base. If they weren’t using the threat of our own weapons of mass destruction against us, they’d be throwing rocks. When the most powerful nation on earth can be held hostage by an ‘Axis of Evil’ barely out of the Stone Age, it is time to seriously rethink the way we are doing things. One madman willing to die for the cause and we all live in fear, held hostage by our own progress. It will be 1984 forever.
As long as weaponry remains the currency of diplomacy, the future of all mankind is hostage to the next Fearless Leader or Suicide Bomber. But were the rest of the world to unite and build an economic wall around these rogue states, they’d be fighting wars over sheep and howling at the moon.
Nothing in. Nothing out. America’s power lies, not in our weaponry, but in our ability to influence the global economy. But economic power is fragile power. The more we have, the more we have to lose. Our enemies may be weak, but they are sturdy. They have nothing to lose, for generations and generations to come, if it comes to that.
We have deluged Iraq with Darth Vader technology, yet some Muslim Good Old Boys in Toyotas have done a pretty good job of holding their own. A few Arab frat boys with boxcutters have done more damage to our Constitution, our national wealth, and our international prestige than Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union combined.
America needs to come to grips with the fact that the guys with the big armies don’t win the wars anymore. The cost and fragility of modern weaponry make it fatally vulnerable against insurgent and terrorist tactics. The big army hasn’t decisively won a conflict since WWII: Korea. Vietnam. Brezhnev’s Afghanistan. The Arab-Israeli Wars. South Africa. The Cold War. Desert Storm. Bosnia. Somalia. Our Iraq & Afghanistan.
America is still the most powerful, influential, vibrant nation on Earth. But that is more a function of what we’ve done in the past than what we’re doing in the present. If we continue to emphasize the Empire over the Republic, Wall Street over Main Street, and the haves over the have-nots, our influence will wane. We’ll become a place people leave to find freedom and opportunity. We’ll find ourselves living in the Chinese Century.
America is at a turning point. That we are no longer the nation we so recently were is rather obvious. That we are a nation undergoing potentially catastrophic growing pains shows all around us. That we are not yet the nation we are evolving toward goes without saying.
America has lost touch with the nose-to-the-grindstone, money-in-the-bank values with which our parents built the world we’ve inherited. We need to reconnect with the values of the Founding Fathers, immigrants, pioneers, and liberators that came before us. We no longer stand for, nor even respect, the gold watch values upon with this country was built. …with which we were raised.
The early 21st century is obviously a time of great peril, but it is also a time of great opportunity. Never has mankind been richer, better equipped, or more in command of his environment. At such a time, America has the opportunity to do the virtually unimaginable. Were we to truly reconnect with the values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness upon which we were founded, we might just be able to bring peace to our world. It is not as far-fetched as it sounds. The world has never been smaller, Djibouti.com and all that. Were we to attempt such a thing, for all the right reasons, and in all the right ways, most of the rest of the world would jump on the bandwagon in a heartbeat. We spend more on the military than the rest of the world combined. Most of the rest of the world is obviously already there.
A plan for demobilization and cooperation would bring riches to the negotiating table in staggering amounts. One tank equals how many refrigerators? Humanity is infinitely wealthier than it has ever been, driven by innovation and technology. We’re fighting over the same old apples while it has begun raining apples all around us.
America needs to return to the core values that have brought us so very far. We need to rebuild our nation upon a foundation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as mandated in our most sacred papers. We need to start doing things for all the right reasons again. Our Best & Brightest need to be devoting their talents toward peace, not war. A little bit of vision would go a long way about now.
America has an economic hammerblow that we are squandering on 20th century military solutions. Build a school and it generates returns for a century. Build a tank and it is money flushed down the toilet tomorrow. Were humanity to start working together, a tidal wave of good things would wash over all our lives in noticeable, close-to-home kinds of ways. That’s not to say there won’t be some belt tightening between here and there. But the American people have proved time and again that they are willing to make great sacrifices if given sufficient vision.
Were our Best & Brightest to actually sit down and come up with a starting point for settling the disputes and investing the resources efficiently, the potential benefits would be the kind of thing that could unite all mankind. Results would appear virtually overnight. One treaty. Make it noble enough and world leaders will want it as part of their legacy. Make it rewarding enough for the little guy to give his all. Let us make it everything that is best about mankind. Let us make it a worldwide Holiday the likes of which we’ve never held. Let’s start being better people. Let us do right by this paradise of a world and the gift of life with which we’ve been entrusted. Let’s pitch in and be proud of the legacy we leave for our kids.
- [/cryout-column] [cryout-column width=”1/4″] [/cryout-column] [/cryout-multi]