corysub
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quote:
ORIGINAL: LaTigresse
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97295939
So, I was driving to work this morning and listening to the radio rather than bother changing the CD's I've gotten tired of and heard this discussion.
I think we all know that there are some dramatic changes taking place. I think that some of us also feel that the US, and the place it holds in the big world picture will never be what it has been for a large part of our lives.
I also believe that is what has fueled alot of the fear and hatred both on our part towards others and of others towards us.
I can understand a bit, the fear of many of my fellow US citizens. We were raised to believe that the US was the best place in the world and given a whole long list of reasons to back it up. Our freedoms, our way of doing business, our government model. All supposed to be the very best, something others envied and wanted. That is what we were taught. It has been so engrained in our very identity that the idea of losing any of it is quite frightening.
Yet, big picture, it is crumbling all around us. Enough so that some, like me, begin to wonder "Is it really the best?" Oh, I am not being unpatriotic, I just believe that nothing ever stays the same. That things, even governments, must evolve grow and change. Some of our ideas are perhaps, becoming antiquated. Lord knows I am no great scholar, nor do I pretend to be. But I do think that things are changing and, in the face of all the frightened "the sky is falling" voices, I question, while painful and frightening, is the end result going to be as horrible as imagined? Call me a blind optimist but, I don't think so.
I dont think losing our super power status is all that terrifying. In fact, I rather welcome it. I've grown to dislike alot of the arrogance that is substituted for pride in being a citizen of the US.
Who knows what the future holds, no one really. But it is interesting to speculate. I find it all rather exciting, not frightening.
You might have been better off listening to a good CD. The U.S.A. will do just fine, thank you, and there is room for India and China on this planet to achieve greatness. It doesn't mean that the U.S of A would be a third world power...but just as we have in the past, we will have other world powers replacing the vacuum created by the demise of the Soviet Union. And the USSR really was a "world power" only in a a military sense. China and India have a business model of socialist/capitalism that works for them having seen that pure socialism is a failed theory.
Twenty years ago these same pundits would have had Japan at the top of the list showing the way to the rest of the world. Japan is still in a decade long recession, thank you very much. Looking out to 2025 you could build a case that the USA would have climbed out of its 2008-2009 recession, the dollar remains the currency of choice for safety, and the technology developed for cleaner, effiicient energy, clean coal and nuclear will be driving a robust economy with some of the most productive workers in the world. The creativity and innovation of Americans has led this planet for generations, and will continue to lead the way. Hopefully, China would have cast off the bondage of a police state and India would have improved the lot of fifty percent of the population that lives in poverty.
Don't make the mistake of extrapolation. That's what so many do, even in the study cited on NPR. China and India have been on the move for a decade...it would be reasonable to assume that they will continue to grow in the future if they stay on their present course...you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out....versus say....thinking that Peru would lead the world.... :)
As far as Iran...everyone who has read any article on Iran knows that it was "formerly Persia and that it has a very young population...nothing new there either.
As far as a criminal type government...heck...Syria and
Hamas run Palistine...seem well on their way to that end.
Just one final thought...you mentioned about the world hating us and us hating the world. In all of my conversations with foreigners and American friends...I don't recall any hatred between groups, and certainly Americans don't go around with "I hate Europe" or "I hate Africa" T-shirts...I don't think Americans really even think about foreign countries..much less hate them, unless they have done harm to us. Europeans are more into the "hate thy neighbor" thingy...fighting each other off and on since recorded history. Thankfully, we have had two big oceans seperating us from that insanity, although they weren't big enough to keep us from getting involved in a a couple of pretty big arguements over territory in the 20th century.
We are going through extremely tough times that will test all of us. The younger generation really has never had to face what we are seeing these days...familiar to those of the baby boom and prior generations. Stay strong...stay proud of what we are...and don't bring yourself down to the level of people who would like nothing better than to see the collapse of the USA. At least...that's how I feel....
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2025......a different world - 
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