The Only Thing We Have To Fear

Given the U.S.’s difficult position in Iraq, the rest of the Muslim world and the lowly opinion in which the rest of the world holds America, can there be reason for optimism? While conservative talk show hosts and many of their left wing counterparts see the world – and especially the United States - as going to hell in a hand basket, I don’t share that view and am actually quite optimistic about our future.

The end of the Cold War left the United States as the world’s only super power. The Soviet Union, a social, economic and political bankrupt, threw in the towel and became conservative, inward looking, and well liquored old Russia. George H.W. Bush (Bush 41) became the first president of the modern era, and the elites that defined our world view basked in the glory of the last side standing.

Two groups took most credit for this great and largely unexpected turn of events, the neoconservatives and the evangelical Christians. Having read many books on the subject – none better than Andrew Bacevich’s, The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced By War – it appears that the rise in the political standing of these groups as a result of their apparent success in the Cold War and in providing the foreign policy theories for Bush 41’s successors gave them the right to call the opening moves in the twenty-first century.

We are fortunate that the first great foray into the new millennium was a relatively modest one. How the president proposes to get us out of the quagmire that he created will be difficult, costly and cannot yet be fully fathomed. This decision to invade was probably the worst foreign policy blunder in American history, but, while tragic, it is probably not going to be as costly in blood and bullion as Korea and Vietnam.

Bush 43 will be the poster boy for future presidents who are feeling their oats, and it will be a bold chief executive who takes this nation into an optional war in the next thirty years. Our nose bloodied and our hubris exposed, we are looking forward to a new role in the world.

We may wind up being the leaders of a completely new civilization. We seem to be drifting away from Europe and forming a new and vital grouping of states, including perhaps all of North America. Certainly, Europe seems to be looking east as it incorporates the states formerly part of the Soviet orbit. The Europeans seem revitalized as result of their great union and seem inclined to thumb their collective noses at us. Oh, we’re still friends, but they resent us as an overbearing partner and have convenient memories of our contributions to their riches and safety over the last sixty years.

But Europe appears unable to solve an ancient riddle that has vexed our species since we walked out of Africa. Should people be assimilated and have upward mobility based on merit or on their traditional place in society. The present owners of the land are not reproducing themselves sufficiently to assure continuity of the society, yet they are unable to successfully deal with those flowing in to fill the longer rungs on the social and economic ladders.

China’s model, while appearing successful on the surface, is fraught with peril for them. The gangsters in charge have opened the economic valves to the creativity of the population but intend to hold onto the levers of political power. Think about that in futuristic terms. The Indians, however dynamic, are still struggling with problems of caste and an over burdensome system of regulation.

Meanwhile the North American Free Trade Agreement appears to have brought Canada, the U.S. and Mexico into a new and powerful amalgam whose workings seem quite different from our old world parents and major competitors. Our internal arguments are creating dynamism qualitatively different from what Don Rumsfeld termed, `Old Europe.’ Even as we struggle with the problems of race and assimilation of newcomers, it is clear that that those committed to equality and upward mobility based on merit maintain the upper hand. Many new groups - regardless of origin, race, religion, gender, or ethnicity (including many from the Islamic world) – have succeeded as individuals and their groups often exceed the wealth and income of the White majority.

These advances have not been made without social difficulties. No matter, America, for all its problems, faces the age old battle of mobility with political and economic power in the hands of those committed to solving it based on equal opportunity, social justice, and ultimately on merit. That is why despite all of our problems, people are willing to give up everything to move here and prosper intellectually, economically, spiritually, and politically.

As these changes take place domestically, China, Russia, Japan, India, and the Islamic civilizations are setting limits on our power, and we seem to be settling in to a slightly more conservative place on the planet. We’re still the biggest kid around, but we’ve been brought up short with a bloody nose in Iraq. Our days of stealing lunch money and picking on the little kids in the cafeteria line of the world’s resources seem to be behind us, at least for a few decades. This is good; our internal creativity far exceeds that of our competitors.

A lot of neoconservatives and evangelicals find this discombobulating, but is it really that bad that we don’t run the whole world? I don’t find it so, and it’s going to be a lot cheaper than the Cold War and the world reach we’re still trying to project. It isn’t like we’re surrendering; we’re just adjusting to a world in which we remain the biggest and strongest nation in the world but one which the rest of the residents have us checked – but not check mated.

Our thoughts of empire have been inspired by Rome and England. Maybe we should rethink our definition to that of Florence. We are the city on the hill. Our residents can create wealth, power, and civilization without conquering everyone in our way just as the Florentines did in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

We’ve still got the world’s most dynamic economic system. Rugged individualism will provide us with ideas and organizations second to none. Our major competitors such as India, Japan, Russia, China, and Europe have leagues to go in deregulating business and industry to the point of our best.

Our richest and most successful citizens while compensated too greatly are showing signs of emulating Renaissance princes and merchant kings by creating such programs as the MacArthur awards to encourage creativity in all fields, and look at what’s happening to the great wealth of such stars as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet as it is being harnessed to cure the world’s ills. Dozens of fortunes have been converted to foundations and trusts designed to make America better. Things are not all bleak, and despite the conscious efforts of many of our leaders to frighten us, we will prevail against ignorance, disease, and poverty.

And look at what the little folks are doing to keep the mighty on the straight and narrow. Tens of thousands of bloggers daily point out that the emperors are without fig leaves. And they can’t be shushed or shot – not all of them anyway.

No, the world’s not all bad and America is far better than many pessimists think; there are many more positive than negative signs. As we move toward 2007, I see the glass as well over half full, and I hope you do too.

Happy Holidays! Peace, prosperity, good health, and happiness in the New Year!

Blog on!

Wild Bill