Food for Thought!

What does it take to turn a Super Power
Into A Post Script?

Did the Ottoman Empire Ever Believe That It Would Disappear?
Did Rome Expect That It Would Lose Its Empire?
Did England Ever Think That the Sun Would Set On It's Vast Empire?

ARE THE MECHANISMS FOR CHANGE ALREADY IN PLACE?

Consider the following:

What is America today: A world leader, A follower, Third World Nation or Colony…

Sometimes it can get confusing. I was reading the definition of a Third World Nation the other day, and it seems mostly unclear; it was terminology to describe part of the world in the fifties during the height of the Cold War; yet, it some ways it was frightening close to home; then I looked up what it meant to be a Colony and I could see parallels there as well.

But, of course, most will say that America is nothing other than a super-power. What is a super power? By today’s definition, it seems that a super-power is a country with a highly developed military, large military budget, and the ability to exercise force over a great distance to get its way.

But over history there have been many super-powers, per se, or the equivalent, who have disappeared from the scene in a blink of an eye.

Why?

Because they lost sight of everything else!

Have we fallen into that pattern. Consider some of the facts that apply to ourselves in this century and start asking yourself what America is today…

Here’s an historical reference…

A “super power” can lose those advantages that allowed them to gain the lead in the first place. And a country that leads because of military strength may have little to fall back on. That was the problem with ancient Greece after its arrogance caused it to lose all of its friends. There was a lesser known people called the Sybarites who thought they knew it all and wound up so self-preoccupied that they couldn’t believe that they could be attacked and beaten. They were; and who remembers them today.

Sound familiar?

The point is that super powers only stay super powers if they keep pace not only in armaments, but in science, philosophy, education, business and international relationships. Right now, we are the military juggernaut , but keeping ourselves honed militarily means that we are cutting back in essential areas like healthcare, education, economic initiatives, and global relations.

So how are we doing?

Judging by the performance of our students in world competitions America is slipping down the slippery slope—not even ranking on some international competitions. . Or consider environmental health, America ranked 28th in the last survey way behind most of the more advanced countries in Europe. How about the economy? Although the president claims we are doing great by most other measures we are experiencing the slowest and worst recovery from any economic recession. Our job market increasingly is being made up of low paying service sector jobs that have little impact on the economy. There is virtually no manufacturing left in the US. Our information age jobs, which was supposed to be our future, has all but left these shores. We are not introducing new patents which is by itself a sign of economic health. We have become a gross exporter of “scrap” and exporter of raw materials and agricultural products and an importer of finished goods. For the privilege we have incurred a debt of nearly sixty billion dollars a month more than half of that to China. That is reinforced by the fact that we have tallied up debts of more than a trillion dollars in just a few years of trading with China; that China owns an increasingly larger share of our debt along with Japan and Saudi Arabia and England. In effect, by definition, it looks increasingly as if we’ve become a colony of China.

Definitions of what constitutes a third world power are not set in concrete but they are usually characterized by burgeoning populations with unequal opportunity for the majority. Third world nations usually have a small elite that holds most of the money.


Increasingly, with the redistribution of income in this country, we have become a nation of haves vs. have-nots with the top 1% of the land owning nearly 60% of its assets. Today, the top 5% of the population makes more money after taxes than the bottom 40% of the population. And the situation is becoming exacerbated thanks to plans that are giving tax breaks to the already rich and, in order to do that, they have to cut back basic support programs for the middle class.

Something like forty percent of the population cannot afford a medical plan.

And the cost of energy and food have risen to such an extent that many find themselves unable to afford both.

Increasingly, we see all the earmarks of a vanishing middle class in a land of very great wealth and an exponential growth in poverty. Yet, in order to prop up our military strength, we continue to deflect money from basic programs to the military.
We are losing our way and we have lost our core; these are two of the preconditions that identify a country on the road to failure.

If we fail to see these characteristics, if we don’t act to put ourselves back on course to first reality and then envelope pushing technology, then we are in danger of becoming simply a hollow power. And through-out history, they seem to fall of their own weight.

In the end, the determining factor of who we are and what we become is decided by the people either through action or their own inaction, which of course, has just as much impact but in the opposite direction. What we become, in the long run, is pretty much up to us.

Les Aaron