A dignified retreat

America has offered a lot to the world. Her idea of democracy has helped many of the poor and the oppressed, given them a hope for the future, and actually carried through with that promise. There can not be a world without power, and all said, I am glad to have America in relative control right now. However, I realistically do not believe that America will always be the top dog. History is dynamic and time balance of power is never a true balance. The Roman empire fell over time and the USSR also expired. The reasons for these were complicated, but I believe that one of the main reasons is the need for expansion. The Roman empire, by necessity, needed to continue to expand, yet was unable to maintain internal stability, which led to its collapse. Likewise, during the Cold War, it was determined that the strength of the communistic agenda resulted from its need to expand, and this resulted in our staunch deterrence to Russian entrance past the Eastern Block, as well as the wars in the far East. Eventually, this proved to be accurate, because the USSR was also unable to support its internal core without spreading beyond itself. I believe that the United States is in a similar state. Although we (perhaps) do not seek military dominance over other nations, but it is essential to our own economic survival that we maintain free capitalistic world markets. Most, if not all, of our wars over the past hundred years are linked to this principle.


Thus in essence, we must continue to expand, to gain cheaper resources from developing nations to allow our communications and technology based economy to survive. We rely on the base of cheap labor and cheap natural resources, like a pyramid scheme. If a global minimum wage was established, if democratic capitalism was established worldwide, I believe our economy would implode upon itself. While a world democracy may be impossible, at some point democracy will stop being introduced into new countries. The third world will slowly pull itself up from its own economic shambles, and at this point, a new change in power will likely emerge.





The above situation will take time, perhaps two or three hundred years. During this time, I believe America will offer much to the world, acting as a policemen to weed out the nations that simply desire power but do not benefit humanity, and also acting as benefactor to lift up nations that are poor or oppressed by other nations. We must do this as it is part of our original creed that all men are created equal, that all men have God-given rights.





At the same time, our individualism and desire for personal achievement is leading to an increasing materialism and selfishness. The breakdown of the family may become linked to a lack of personal attachment not only to family, but to American and to belief in the American ideals. When America is no longer able to make good on the promise of a better life and a good economy, we-the-people’s belief in the entire democratic and capitalistic system may crumble. Again this will not happen for quite some time, in my opinion, yet I see it as inevitable.





Power is found, not in weapons, but in ideas…the “pen is mightier than the sword” philosophy has held true ever since mankind began writing. Our agenda should be to leave an honorable legacy behind. When we decline with dignity, some other nation will build on our ideas, rather than reject them, just as we built on the ideas of ancient Rome. How is this honorable decline possible? Firstly, by living up to the original ideas that make America exist: that of being a nation under God. In other words, we are a nation that must define itself under a moral agenda not of its own making, in direct contrast to the popular post-modernism where we can all find our own truth. Our moral agenda is to do good to those around us, not to be driven by economic gain, but rather to assist nations based on the idea of God-given rights to humanity. Regardless of religious affiliation, this principle is central to the whole American experiment. This will prevent us from entering unnecessary wars that are solely for economic or prideful purposes. I cannot speak to the present case, as I do not know the underlying issues, but Iraq has begun to reestablish the confusion of the Korean and Vietnam era. We also need to reestablish the idea of communalism in order to give internal support during the decline. Without love and strong support of the family, individuals become so entangled in just getting by that they are unable to care for others in the world. Without this, our mission as a nation becomes meaningless, and after our decline, nothing will remain of the greatness that we were able to offer.


However, as a disclaimer, America is also resilient. It may be that she has the ability to survive as a superpower in whatever new world order emerges down the road, just as she has over the vast changes in the past two hundred years. As long as she can provide something positive to the world, I hope she will be around.


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