Looking at the situation in the advanced economies in
general, and more specifically at the United States of America , we see
that the common wisdom at this time is that the existing paradigm is dying. It
is being replaced by a new paradigm, but this is something that no one has yet
defined. Well, I'm not going to define it here or now because I don't have
enough insight about it to make such attempt. I do have enough, however, to
make a few observations.
In addition to the revival of the ancient classics in the
arts and in philosophy as brought to Europe by the Arabs, the Renaissance
brought the spirit of exploration to the inhabitants of Southern
Europe who were exposed to travelers that came to them with exotic
products, and tall tales about far away intriguing places. As it happened also,
it was shortly after the start of the Renaissance that the Industrial
Revolution began to take roots in Northern Europe .
Eventually, the two met and the combination gave rise to the paradigm that is
with us today, and that is said to be on the wane.
So we ask: What are the features of this paradigm? There can
be no doubt that exploration and exploitation were the two original features
that initially motivated the people who sought to conquer the world. These
people had mastered the technology of iron and steel which they adapted to
produce effective machines of war. Superior in this field to everyone else,
they were propelled to go out in the world and grab what they could. They colonized
much of Africa and Asia, and also Australia
and the Americas .
As a result of these activities, they experienced explosive growth in their
economies; growth that remained with them for a long while.
But the European legacy has also been that these people
fought each other for centuries over religion and philosophical beliefs. This
kind of fighting abated to be replaced by fighting each other over the riches
of the colonies as each jurisdiction sought to create its own empire. In fact,
the Europeans fought each other to the point of exhaustion, and so they started
getting kicked out of the colonies. The legacy they were left with by the
mid-twentieth century was that the growth in the economy they were experiencing
stayed with them as they rebuilt themselves from the effects of their
inter-European wars – referred to as World War I and II. But then the growth
came to a crawl, even to a halt in some places when the elements that made it
possible dried up.
Meanwhile, the people that settled in Australia and the Americas had a better luck because
these places were sparsely populated, and there were not enough indigenous
people to kick them out. In fact, they became the transplanted indigenous
population that kicked out the European powers and declared themselves
independent nations. They kept some of the European traits and acquired new
ones, thus transforming their cultures into something distinguishable from
those of Europe . And it is in the part of
North America, called the United
States , that the biggest transformation has
occurred and a very different paradigm emerged.
There, the descendants of the various British ethnic groups
that did not get along well in Britain ,
got along in the United States ,
even allied themselves with France
that was Britain 's archenemy;
and they declared themselves independent of Britain . In possession of a piece
of real estate that was fabulously rich in natural resources, they opened their
doors to immigrants from everywhere on the planet. Many of the individuals who
went through these doors were of the adventurous, entrepreneurial, independent
and tinkering type. They melted their experiences into one pot, thus created a
society that is different from anywhere else. But the one thing that America (so
nicknamed affectionately) could not escape was the force of the laws of
economics. Requiring the same elements of expansion that produce growth in the
economy, America
began to experience the phenomenon of low growth when those elements started to
dry up.
What to do now? There is no doubt that America , in addition to the developed nations of
Europe and the Asian nation of Japan
are facing a new paradigm that will not be fully understood till much time has
passed. It is, however, a paradigm that they must embrace and learn to live with
if they want to avoid being relegated to the rank of have-been nations. As of
now, each jurisdiction has a different set of visible problems, and with the
exception of America ,
they all seem to have a notion as to what they need to do next. And they are proceeding
in that direction.
The problem in America that needs to be dealt with as soon
as possible is that despite the great depression early in the twentieth century
and the various recessions that hit the nation from time to time, the Americans
never developed the institutional framework or the approaches that would carry
them through a prolonged period of slow growth or no growth at all. What they
must do first of all is develop the belief that America is not here to serve them
but that she is home to them. They need to develop a filial sort of affection
for her the way that other people feel toward their respective motherlands. To
quote John Kennedy whose locution they never seem to have understood: “Ask not
what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
This done, they will not surrender their fate to a system of
governance based on rigid laws that must be obeyed even when proven destructive
to the causes they are supposed to protect, but based on the judgment of human
beings they elect to run the ship of state. They must come to regard the nation
not as a train that runs on railway tracks it must follow or be derailed, but
regard the nation as a seagoing ship that navigates through steady times and
stormy times, in friendly waters and treacherous waters. And they must
understand that these are waters where decisions are made a thousand at a time
at every moment without respite, and where they are amended without notice to
suit the constantly changing situations.
In short, the Americans must begin to feel secure in their
individualism, and they must cease fearing that the collective is out there
preparing to pounce on them and take what they possess. When they will have put
themselves in this frame of mind, they will be able to construct the
institutions and the approaches that will be flexible enough to detect the fast
changing situations in the world, and modulate their responses (both political
and economic) just as fast; also respond adroitly not clumsily as they do now most
of the time.