We’re No. 1
November 4th, 2008
Of course, this conclusion depends what you are measuring and/or what you value.
Many of you are reading Fareed Zarkaria’s, book The Post American World for your book review this quarter.
A good discussion has been going on over at the China Law Blog re: one of the central themes of this book.
Click HERE to check it out.
And here is a nice short video of Zakaria talking about four things that he believes bode well for America.
Your thoughts?
Entry Filed under: Pre-Departure, Beijing, China, India, New Delhi, Pre-Departure
1 Comment Add your own
1. Raquel Rusing | November 23rd, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I feel as if the United States can be compared to the Roman Empire. Our government sees itself as the sole superpower who has the inherent right to reign over not just our own nation, but every other nation below us. Since the majority of America’s lifetime has been “No. 1″, we believe we reign over everyone. We believe that it’s our job to put our hands into everyone else’s cookie jars because we are privileged and powerful and because we’re on some quest to save the world. We want everyone on the same page. OUR page. (I’ve always disliked this mentality).
I think the most interesting part about these discussions regarding Zakaria’s book is that America is living in a false reality. What world are we trying to save exactly? If we take a step back, most other “worlds” seem to be doing quite well for themselves.
Let’s do ourselves a favor and ignore the middle east for this discussion… or at least for my own sanity. I don’t even want to glance into that cookie jar.
What I’m trying to say is that I agree with Zakaria. I don’t think he was being a pessimist so much as a realist. Americans need to step off their high horses and realize that history repeats itself. The economy will dip and rise and our power will reflect that cycle. Even the greatest powers on earth fell. This is not to say that America will decline into a third world country, but it is to say that America needs to finally admit that we have competition and as we’ve learned in economics, long run competition eventually levels the playing field. This is where India and China are becoming our competition. They’ve entered the big leagues. I don’t think America is being demoted to the minors, but if we don’t adapt ourselves to this change in competition, then that’s a fear America will face.
I come from a background in mathematics education, so my suggestions may be slightly biased, but I think that if America wants to put so much energy into remaining “No. 1″ then they need to internalize their efforts within our educational system and back out of foreign issues. Before the establishment of the Untied States, societies battled and suffered and rebuilt themselves without the aid of a foreign power. Modern societies are even more advanced… I think they can do the work by themselves.
To argue for putting efforts into our educational system, I couldn’t have said it better than the following blog post by outcast:
“There are many problems [in the educational system, like our] core curriculum in math and science [which are] just too simplified and dumbed down. The point is, we’ve been able to get away with it for the last 60 years by importing engineers and scientists from other countries; first from western europe, then japan and south korea, then the former soviet union and it’s “friends”, and now india and china. Sooner or later this will end, as china and india continue to develop more and more of that talent will either come back, or simply never leave home. With our education system the way it is, how can we expect to maintain our technological and scientific leadership in the next 30 years?”
It is so true. With technology and knowledge growing at an exponential rate, how can we expect to maintain leadership if we can’t build ourselves internally. Our educational system will crumble and we’ll be too busy worrying about the tribal battles in Madagascar to recognize the flop and when it happens, we’ll do what American politicians have always done: We didn’t see that coming.
Ultimately, America is fearful of losing its “No.1″ status. As citizens, we need to be fearful of not sharing that status.
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