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It’s far more dire than some spy agency slapfighting. Look at the other headline today about proud, patriotic Americans kow-towing to Foxconn for the political

It’s far more dire than some spy agency slapfighting. Look at the other headline today about proud, patriotic Americans kow-towing to Foxconn for the political sleight of hand of a few jobs. And yet another headline is about court martialing top brass in the US Navy because the “world police” can’t navigate peacetime waters in Asia without causing fatalities. Meanwhile, a new class of Chinese nuke sub is spotted openly flying a Chinese flag off the Senkaku islands in brazen defiance of the American protection racket in Asia. No one will be more pleased than Okinawa to see their supposed protectors go away. They’ve been hostages since before WWII. Japan is getting squeezed from the North by Russia. Indonesia is openly talking about joining China’s team. African kids are learning Chinese in school. And in Hawaii, the sloppy, lazy ineptitude and panicky fear-mongering are on full display. Who in their right mind would trust such people as stewards of the world’s largest nuclear arsenal? The game is up, but no one in America seems to know it yet. Those who are paying attention are just hoping America doesn’t take everyone else down with them.

IBM 9y ago
American Declinism has been a popular meme since the 50s, some day it will be true I guess [1]: >Twenty-two years ago, in a refreshingly clear-sighted article for Foreign Affairs, Harvard’s Samuel P. Huntington noted that the theme of "America’s decline" had in fact been a constant in American culture and politics since at least the late 1950s. It had come, he wrote, in several distinct waves: in reaction to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik; to the Vietnam War; to the oil shock of 1973; to Soviet aggression in the late 1970s; and to the general unease that accompanied the end of the Cold War. Since Huntington wrote, we can add at least two more waves: in reaction to 9/11, and to the current "Great Recession."…. >What the long history of American "declinism" — as opposed to America’s actual possible decline — suggests is that these anxieties have an existence of their own that is quite distinct from the actual geopolitical position of our country; that they arise as much from something deeply rooted in the collective psyche of our chattering classes as from sober political and economic analyses. >For whatever reason, it is clear that for more than half a century, many of America’s leading commentators have had a powerful impulse consistently to see the United States as a weak, "bred out" basket case that will fall to stronger rivals as inevitably as Rome fell to the barbarians, or France to Henry V at Agincourt. [1] https://newrepublic.com/article/78216/america-in-decline-thomas-friedman https://newrepublic.com/article/78216/america-in-decline-tho...
- nihonde 9y ago
  Thanks for trivializing my analysis, but I don’t see myself as a chronic doomsayer. In fact, I’m bullish on Asia and know from firsthand experience that Americans are, as a culture, increasingly moving out of the game at hand. I don’t expect any accolades for being right, but you could at least not puke some lukewarm theory about how America can never be wrong at my feet.
- nl 9y ago
  This is true, and I'm old enough to just remember the "inevitability" of Japan taking over the world at the end of the 1980s and start of the 1990s. Ooops. But this time.. .hmm. When the former (conservative) deputy prime minster of Australia says: THE 16-month delay in the United States posting an ambassador to Canberra is a sign that Australia has been “downgraded”, says former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer.[1] and The United States has been without an ambassador in Australia since September 2016 and Mr Fischer said the long wait was now "beyond acceptable" and bordering on a "diplomatic insult".[2] it's hard not to think that the US is withdrawing from the world. Plus, of course the US President explicitly says that. One might argue about the word "decline", but the US isn't the leader it once was. [1] http://www.news.com.au/national/politics/tim-fischer-says-us-has-downgraded-australia-by-not-appointing-american-ambassador/news-story/1962de55e09b7da82be7254128a2ffb2 http://www.news.com.au/national/politics/tim-fischer-says-us... [2] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-03/tim-fischer-criticises-trump-administration/9300920 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-03/tim-fischer-criticises...
  - tonmoy 9y ago
    That just may be the current administration’s specific policies, the next one could very well be different.
    - astronautjones 9y ago
      what this administration is doing is going to be impossible to undo
    - DrScump 9y ago

IBM 9y ago

American Declinism has been a popular meme since the 50s, some day it will be true I guess [1]: >Twenty-two years ago, in a refreshingly clear-sighted article for Foreign Affairs, Harvard’s Samuel P. Huntington noted that the theme of "America’s decline" had in fact been a constant in American culture and politics since at least the late 1950s. It had come, he wrote, in several distinct waves: in reaction to the Soviet Union’s launch of Sputnik; to the Vietnam War; to the oil shock of 1973; to Soviet aggression in the late 1970s; and to the general unease that accompanied the end of the Cold War. Since Huntington wrote, we can add at least two more waves: in reaction to 9/11, and to the current "Great Recession."…. >What the long history of American "declinism" — as opposed to America’s actual possible decline — suggests is that these anxieties have an existence of their own that is quite distinct from the actual geopolitical position of our country; that they arise as much from something deeply rooted in the collective psyche of our chattering classes as from sober political and economic analyses. >For whatever reason, it is clear that for more than half a century, many of America’s leading commentators have had a powerful impulse consistently to see the United States as a weak, "bred out" basket case that will fall to stronger rivals as inevitably as Rome fell to the barbarians, or France to Henry V at Agincourt. [1] https://newrepublic.com/article/78216/america-in-decline-thomas-friedman https://newrepublic.com/article/78216/america-in-decline-tho...

nihonde 9y ago
Thanks for trivializing my analysis, but I don’t see myself as a chronic doomsayer. In fact, I’m bullish on Asia and know from firsthand experience that Americans are, as a culture, increasingly moving out of the game at hand. I don’t expect any accolades for being right, but you could at least not puke some lukewarm theory about how America can never be wrong at my feet.
nl 9y ago
This is true, and I'm old enough to just remember the "inevitability" of Japan taking over the world at the end of the 1980s and start of the 1990s. Ooops. But this time.. .hmm. When the former (conservative) deputy prime minster of Australia says: THE 16-month delay in the United States posting an ambassador to Canberra is a sign that Australia has been “downgraded”, says former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer.[1] and The United States has been without an ambassador in Australia since September 2016 and Mr Fischer said the long wait was now "beyond acceptable" and bordering on a "diplomatic insult".[2] it's hard not to think that the US is withdrawing from the world. Plus, of course the US President explicitly says that. One might argue about the word "decline", but the US isn't the leader it once was. [1] http://www.news.com.au/national/politics/tim-fischer-says-us-has-downgraded-australia-by-not-appointing-american-ambassador/news-story/1962de55e09b7da82be7254128a2ffb2 http://www.news.com.au/national/politics/tim-fischer-says-us... [2] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-03/tim-fischer-criticises-trump-administration/9300920 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-03/tim-fischer-criticises...
- tonmoy 9y ago
  That just may be the current administration’s specific policies, the next one could very well be different.
  - astronautjones 9y ago
    what this administration is doing is going to be impossible to undo
  - DrScump 9y ago