Zarbia
15-05-2004, 21:49
This is very interesting, I found it here: http://www.netcartoon.net/naaas/quiz.php.
It's a bit long but it's pretty funny.
The Illusion of American Power
"America dominates the western world politically, economically, scientifically and culturally. "
In one form or another, this is one of the most common assertions made in the forum and in the e-mails we receive. It's usually stated as a given, without needing to be supported by reasons. So this week we thought we would look into this claim, examining the truth of how much, or how little, America really dominates the world.
America dominates the world politically.
If this were true, America would be so indisputably powerful that it always gets its way. Except that it doesn't. Look at the Iraq war. As causes go, this should have been a pretty easy one to argue. But America's attempt to get the UN to agree to the resolution failed dismally - and in a tremendously embarrassing way for the 'politically dominant' US. Where were all these politically subordinate countries which rushed to agree to whatever America wanted? Hmm. Remember the laughable list of 'allies' in the war against terror. Look at the first country on this list - Afghanistan! Followed by such mighty political allies as Eritrea, Micronesia, and Latvia. Can anyone hear a hollow scraping sound? And then Turkey - that mighty superpower - refused to let America use its military bases. The frantic and undignified combination of begging and threats which followed can hardly be construed as 'political dominance' even by the average American. The sad thing is, that after the deaths of 2000 innocent American citizens on September 11th, almost the entire world was firmly on America's side. Yet over the next 18 months the American government's prize-winning political ignorance dispelled all this good-will, turning most of those countries against it, and losing most of the support it had. At the one time when the US had the world on its side - it blew it. Not only is America not politically dominant, but it's not even politically canny.
Let's look at an example of America's 'political dominance' in the news this month. 'Bush Tries to Win Latam Friends' reads the headline to this piece on the Reuters website, which goes on to say:
The United States wants the 34 leaders at an Americas-wide summit in Mexico to agree to sanction the region's most corrupt governments by barring them from future meetings, but many were wary that it would lead to more U.S. dominance. The corruption proposal seemed certain to fail.
Once again, those political giants Brazil and Venezuela are refusing to play ball. A politically dominant country would put these countries firmly in their place - not send their President scuttling off to try to bury the hatchet. Hard to imagine Caesar rushing off to appease Gaul with friendly handshakes or Queen Victoria having to be shipped out to Africa to placate a disgruntled Cetawayo over tea and a ceremonial Zulu war dance.
Of course, Americans reading this will instantly think 'but America didn't need to get approval from anyone else, we just went ahead and took out Iraq anyway'. That's not much to be proud about. Britain, France, Germany, Spain, or just about any developed country would have been able to overpower Iraq with just as little resistance. Bombarding a country which has been starved of funds by economic sanctions for the last ten years is not much to boast about - and certainly doesn't indicate a particularly high level of world 'dominance'. Particularly when that country continues to kill American soldiers at the rate it is currently achieving. Only a country so desperate for something to be proud of could think that pulling a 70 year-old man out of a hole in the ground was a great military accomplishment. Whilst America may have been able to purchase enough ordnance to bombard Baghdad, it actually had to buy off the Fedayeen, and has failed dismally to establish itself as an occupying force.
The fact is, the US has never won a war without help. And even then, it usually loses. Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, even the current Iraq debacle. None of these represents the kind of one-sided victories one would expect from such a 'dominant power'. What chance would America really have of prosecuting a war with any of the developed nations? The most accomplished arm of the American military is their PR department, which has probably had to fight their toughest battles, and whose latest military victory was to claim that America 'won' the cold war - something one hears more and more these days. America didn't 'win' the cold war. It took part in one of the longest military stand-offs in the history of human conflict, and then claimed victory when the other side got bored and went home for its tea. Hardly impressive. America's claim to superpower status is a piece of wishful thinking left over from the heady days of the cold war, when it's nuclear arsenal actually meant something. That nuclear arsenal has lost any value it once had, now that so many countries have the ability to fire back.
A Roman citizen could famously declare 'civus Romanus sum' anywhere in the world - and would receive respect & safe passage. Would receive them because every other country was so scared of incurring the wrath of the Roman empire. The same was true of a Briton travelling the world at the turn of the century. Compare this with the barricades around the London branches of America banks, and the unprecedented private army which George Bush needed on his state visit to Britain last year. And this is in the capital of one of America's closest allies! Any country which is so nervous for the safety of it's citizens and it's premier can hardly be said to dominate the world in the same way that Rome or the British Empire dominated.
The fact is that, in both political and military terms, America - one of the largest countries in the world - is actually only capable of 'dominating' the very weakest nations, is forced to buy the temporary support of the poorest, and does not hold enough weight to guarantee the safety of its citizens abroad - even in allied countries..
So, if America is neither politically not militarily dominant, perhaps it dominates in other ways?
America dominates the world economically.
America currently owes the rest of the world $1.2 trillion dollars. Say that aloud to yourself slowly. One point two trillion dollars. That means each American citizen owes just under $5,000 to another country. Of that sum, they will owe around $2000 to Japan alone. Some economic dominance huh? America's 'riches' are actually an illusion. Borrowing large sums of money might make you feel richer than other people for a short time, but all it actually means is that you are more in debt. This is a mistake made by naive students the first time they get approved for an overdraft...and by the US government.
'But the US dollar is the preferred unit of currency around the world' we hear you cry. Well, strictly speaking gold is the preferred unit of currency for the connoisseur. For those Americans who may have gleaned the wrong impression here, people all over the world do not wander around with wallets full of dollars. The exception being, of course, black marketeers, underworld criminals, and Saddam Hussein. Perhaps this is an indication of how easy it is to launder American currency - and that is nothing to be proud of. For the reputable financial entities, dollars are a convenient denomination to make sure everyone is using the same yardstick, but that's possibly because, since so many countries are owed so many of the 1.2 trillion American dollars, it's easier to swap the IOUs directly, than to bother converting them into other currencies first.
Now, there is probably at least one economic specialist amongst our readership who no doubt will put up some argument proving that America is richer than everyone else. But most 10-year-olds can probably work out that a country with a debt of $1.2 trillion dollars is probably not as economically dominant as it might like to think.
America dominates the world scientifically.
Actually, of all the claims, this one appears to hold some water on first inspection. America put the first man on the moon. America's 'Spirit' mission certainly had more success than Britain's 'Beagle'. America has sophisticated weaponry, Silicon Valley, and Nobel prize-winners galore. Unfortunately, most of this scientific superiority is based on an illusion. Most of the expertise is purchased from abroad, including the scientists themselves. Einstein and his ilk were tempted to America presumably with part of that $1.2 trillion. If this website were to borrow enough money to hire the entire staff of Microsoft for a day, we would be the most technologically advanced website on the internet (and our PHP forum might work). Unfortunately, this wouldn't make any of us any more intelligent. Home-grown scientific expertise would be the only true claim to scientific dominance - and in that sense, the US is sadly lacking. Next time you watch a documentary about some American technological advance, there is a 50/50 chance of the person interviewed being Japanese. In the case of the 'Spirit' probe, any pride over having done so much better than the 'Beagle' must be tempered by the fact that the British can try again 10 times before they spend the same amount of money that 'Spirit' cost. And, so far, 'Spirit's' progress hasn't exactly been trouble-free either...
Yes, America has some claim to scientific dominance over the rest of the world, but that dominance comes with a huge price tag on it, and will only last until Japan asks for its money, or its scientists back.
America dominates the world culturally.
America has flooded the world with the finest composers, the giants of literature, and the greatest thinkers. America has provided the world with the most highly valued works of art, the most superb culinary dishes, and the most refined fashions.
Right?
Well not quite. America's cultural legacy to the world seems to be based more on McDonalds, Nike trainers, baseball caps, Hollywood action movies, Britney Spears, and 'The Simpsons'. What this actually means is that America is fantastic at exporting popular culture. Popular culture by definition is transitory, worthless, and uninspiring. Any 'cultural dominance' which America can claim is confined primarily to Japanese teenagers, and European pre-teens. Rome created a lasting template for systems of government and justice. Greece built the foundations of philosophy, science and mathematics. Egypt continues to whisper its mysterious spiritual fascination down through the ages. Britain gave the world its lingua franca. America invented the hamburger.
True, America has produced some fine writers, though none of them compares with even the middle-ranking authors that other nations have produced. It has also produced some composers, some artists, even some philosophers. That is the reason for the first two words in this website's title. However, in spite of its masive population, the sad fact is that America has produced a paltry number of cultural giants compared with just one European country.
At the same time, America has not provided the rest of the world with templates for systems of justice, or government. It has not built railways, or even roads, across the globe. Unlike the great nations of history, when America finally collapses there will be nothing left to show that anything was there.
A nation with huge debt, able to dominate only the weakest nations millitarily, with less political clout each year, and no cultural heritage worth speaking of. This can hardly be a great superpower.
The fact is that American dominance is an illusion, and the misplaced belief of Americans in their country's political, economic, scientific, and cultural domination is based on the greatest illusion of all - the illusion that somehow the US is a great civilisation comparable with the Roman, Greek, Ottoman, Maya, Aztec or British empires. Two important facts militate against this idea. Namely, that America is not great, and is not a civilisation. America is the dog-end of a civilisation best described as Western Democracy, which itself is already in decline. It is better compared to Byzantium than to Rome. Incabable of dominating the other developed nations, either politically or militarily, America's only claim to power is the fact that it can, and often does, bully much smaller, much poorer countries. And even then, it owes what little success it can claim to massive and imprudent over-borrowing.
America is not a superpower. It is not even a truly dominant nation. It is simply a chicane.
It's a bit long but it's pretty funny.
The Illusion of American Power
"America dominates the western world politically, economically, scientifically and culturally. "
In one form or another, this is one of the most common assertions made in the forum and in the e-mails we receive. It's usually stated as a given, without needing to be supported by reasons. So this week we thought we would look into this claim, examining the truth of how much, or how little, America really dominates the world.
America dominates the world politically.
If this were true, America would be so indisputably powerful that it always gets its way. Except that it doesn't. Look at the Iraq war. As causes go, this should have been a pretty easy one to argue. But America's attempt to get the UN to agree to the resolution failed dismally - and in a tremendously embarrassing way for the 'politically dominant' US. Where were all these politically subordinate countries which rushed to agree to whatever America wanted? Hmm. Remember the laughable list of 'allies' in the war against terror. Look at the first country on this list - Afghanistan! Followed by such mighty political allies as Eritrea, Micronesia, and Latvia. Can anyone hear a hollow scraping sound? And then Turkey - that mighty superpower - refused to let America use its military bases. The frantic and undignified combination of begging and threats which followed can hardly be construed as 'political dominance' even by the average American. The sad thing is, that after the deaths of 2000 innocent American citizens on September 11th, almost the entire world was firmly on America's side. Yet over the next 18 months the American government's prize-winning political ignorance dispelled all this good-will, turning most of those countries against it, and losing most of the support it had. At the one time when the US had the world on its side - it blew it. Not only is America not politically dominant, but it's not even politically canny.
Let's look at an example of America's 'political dominance' in the news this month. 'Bush Tries to Win Latam Friends' reads the headline to this piece on the Reuters website, which goes on to say:
The United States wants the 34 leaders at an Americas-wide summit in Mexico to agree to sanction the region's most corrupt governments by barring them from future meetings, but many were wary that it would lead to more U.S. dominance. The corruption proposal seemed certain to fail.
Once again, those political giants Brazil and Venezuela are refusing to play ball. A politically dominant country would put these countries firmly in their place - not send their President scuttling off to try to bury the hatchet. Hard to imagine Caesar rushing off to appease Gaul with friendly handshakes or Queen Victoria having to be shipped out to Africa to placate a disgruntled Cetawayo over tea and a ceremonial Zulu war dance.
Of course, Americans reading this will instantly think 'but America didn't need to get approval from anyone else, we just went ahead and took out Iraq anyway'. That's not much to be proud about. Britain, France, Germany, Spain, or just about any developed country would have been able to overpower Iraq with just as little resistance. Bombarding a country which has been starved of funds by economic sanctions for the last ten years is not much to boast about - and certainly doesn't indicate a particularly high level of world 'dominance'. Particularly when that country continues to kill American soldiers at the rate it is currently achieving. Only a country so desperate for something to be proud of could think that pulling a 70 year-old man out of a hole in the ground was a great military accomplishment. Whilst America may have been able to purchase enough ordnance to bombard Baghdad, it actually had to buy off the Fedayeen, and has failed dismally to establish itself as an occupying force.
The fact is, the US has never won a war without help. And even then, it usually loses. Vietnam, Korea, Afghanistan, even the current Iraq debacle. None of these represents the kind of one-sided victories one would expect from such a 'dominant power'. What chance would America really have of prosecuting a war with any of the developed nations? The most accomplished arm of the American military is their PR department, which has probably had to fight their toughest battles, and whose latest military victory was to claim that America 'won' the cold war - something one hears more and more these days. America didn't 'win' the cold war. It took part in one of the longest military stand-offs in the history of human conflict, and then claimed victory when the other side got bored and went home for its tea. Hardly impressive. America's claim to superpower status is a piece of wishful thinking left over from the heady days of the cold war, when it's nuclear arsenal actually meant something. That nuclear arsenal has lost any value it once had, now that so many countries have the ability to fire back.
A Roman citizen could famously declare 'civus Romanus sum' anywhere in the world - and would receive respect & safe passage. Would receive them because every other country was so scared of incurring the wrath of the Roman empire. The same was true of a Briton travelling the world at the turn of the century. Compare this with the barricades around the London branches of America banks, and the unprecedented private army which George Bush needed on his state visit to Britain last year. And this is in the capital of one of America's closest allies! Any country which is so nervous for the safety of it's citizens and it's premier can hardly be said to dominate the world in the same way that Rome or the British Empire dominated.
The fact is that, in both political and military terms, America - one of the largest countries in the world - is actually only capable of 'dominating' the very weakest nations, is forced to buy the temporary support of the poorest, and does not hold enough weight to guarantee the safety of its citizens abroad - even in allied countries..
So, if America is neither politically not militarily dominant, perhaps it dominates in other ways?
America dominates the world economically.
America currently owes the rest of the world $1.2 trillion dollars. Say that aloud to yourself slowly. One point two trillion dollars. That means each American citizen owes just under $5,000 to another country. Of that sum, they will owe around $2000 to Japan alone. Some economic dominance huh? America's 'riches' are actually an illusion. Borrowing large sums of money might make you feel richer than other people for a short time, but all it actually means is that you are more in debt. This is a mistake made by naive students the first time they get approved for an overdraft...and by the US government.
'But the US dollar is the preferred unit of currency around the world' we hear you cry. Well, strictly speaking gold is the preferred unit of currency for the connoisseur. For those Americans who may have gleaned the wrong impression here, people all over the world do not wander around with wallets full of dollars. The exception being, of course, black marketeers, underworld criminals, and Saddam Hussein. Perhaps this is an indication of how easy it is to launder American currency - and that is nothing to be proud of. For the reputable financial entities, dollars are a convenient denomination to make sure everyone is using the same yardstick, but that's possibly because, since so many countries are owed so many of the 1.2 trillion American dollars, it's easier to swap the IOUs directly, than to bother converting them into other currencies first.
Now, there is probably at least one economic specialist amongst our readership who no doubt will put up some argument proving that America is richer than everyone else. But most 10-year-olds can probably work out that a country with a debt of $1.2 trillion dollars is probably not as economically dominant as it might like to think.
America dominates the world scientifically.
Actually, of all the claims, this one appears to hold some water on first inspection. America put the first man on the moon. America's 'Spirit' mission certainly had more success than Britain's 'Beagle'. America has sophisticated weaponry, Silicon Valley, and Nobel prize-winners galore. Unfortunately, most of this scientific superiority is based on an illusion. Most of the expertise is purchased from abroad, including the scientists themselves. Einstein and his ilk were tempted to America presumably with part of that $1.2 trillion. If this website were to borrow enough money to hire the entire staff of Microsoft for a day, we would be the most technologically advanced website on the internet (and our PHP forum might work). Unfortunately, this wouldn't make any of us any more intelligent. Home-grown scientific expertise would be the only true claim to scientific dominance - and in that sense, the US is sadly lacking. Next time you watch a documentary about some American technological advance, there is a 50/50 chance of the person interviewed being Japanese. In the case of the 'Spirit' probe, any pride over having done so much better than the 'Beagle' must be tempered by the fact that the British can try again 10 times before they spend the same amount of money that 'Spirit' cost. And, so far, 'Spirit's' progress hasn't exactly been trouble-free either...
Yes, America has some claim to scientific dominance over the rest of the world, but that dominance comes with a huge price tag on it, and will only last until Japan asks for its money, or its scientists back.
America dominates the world culturally.
America has flooded the world with the finest composers, the giants of literature, and the greatest thinkers. America has provided the world with the most highly valued works of art, the most superb culinary dishes, and the most refined fashions.
Right?
Well not quite. America's cultural legacy to the world seems to be based more on McDonalds, Nike trainers, baseball caps, Hollywood action movies, Britney Spears, and 'The Simpsons'. What this actually means is that America is fantastic at exporting popular culture. Popular culture by definition is transitory, worthless, and uninspiring. Any 'cultural dominance' which America can claim is confined primarily to Japanese teenagers, and European pre-teens. Rome created a lasting template for systems of government and justice. Greece built the foundations of philosophy, science and mathematics. Egypt continues to whisper its mysterious spiritual fascination down through the ages. Britain gave the world its lingua franca. America invented the hamburger.
True, America has produced some fine writers, though none of them compares with even the middle-ranking authors that other nations have produced. It has also produced some composers, some artists, even some philosophers. That is the reason for the first two words in this website's title. However, in spite of its masive population, the sad fact is that America has produced a paltry number of cultural giants compared with just one European country.
At the same time, America has not provided the rest of the world with templates for systems of justice, or government. It has not built railways, or even roads, across the globe. Unlike the great nations of history, when America finally collapses there will be nothing left to show that anything was there.
A nation with huge debt, able to dominate only the weakest nations millitarily, with less political clout each year, and no cultural heritage worth speaking of. This can hardly be a great superpower.
The fact is that American dominance is an illusion, and the misplaced belief of Americans in their country's political, economic, scientific, and cultural domination is based on the greatest illusion of all - the illusion that somehow the US is a great civilisation comparable with the Roman, Greek, Ottoman, Maya, Aztec or British empires. Two important facts militate against this idea. Namely, that America is not great, and is not a civilisation. America is the dog-end of a civilisation best described as Western Democracy, which itself is already in decline. It is better compared to Byzantium than to Rome. Incabable of dominating the other developed nations, either politically or militarily, America's only claim to power is the fact that it can, and often does, bully much smaller, much poorer countries. And even then, it owes what little success it can claim to massive and imprudent over-borrowing.
America is not a superpower. It is not even a truly dominant nation. It is simply a chicane.