In a July 2nd, 2011 article published in the Wall Street Journal under the title: “The Future Still Belongs to America” Walter Russell Mead seeks to reassure his fellow Americans on the eve of the 4th of July celebration that their country will not yield the position of leadership to someone else anytime soon. In fact, the subtitle of the article sums up his theory as follows: “This century will throw challenges at everyone. The U.S. is better positioned to adapt than China, Europe or the Arab World.”
Great! You think to yourself expecting to see in detail what qualities Walter Mead believes will be needed in the nation or group of nations that hope to lead the world of the future. You also expect to see what the challenges will be, how and why the U.S. is better positioned to adapt to them and why no one else is as good as America at doing this. And so you read the article and it begins by telling you that yes, America has problems but contrary to what the pundits say, America is not yet ready to head: “...into an assisted-living facility for retired global powers.”
As you continue to read, however, you slowly get the feeling that you will be disappointed because instead of this being a hot positive article, it gradually promises to be a tepid one if not a cold and negative presentation. You begin to get this feeling when the author assures you that every major country in the world has problems now and will have even more of them in the 21st century. However, he promises you that: “...no country is better positioned to take advantage of the opportunities or manage the dangers than the United States.” And this is the theory he tries to develop throughout the article. The remarkable thing, however, is that he unveils both his emotional state and his state of mind at the outset as if to slap you on the face and warn you to listen to him and listen carefully because he has something serious to reveal. Then he says this: “Geopolitically, the doomsayers tell us, China will soon challenge American leadership throughout the world. Perhaps. But to focus exclusively on China is to miss how U.S. interests intersect with Asian realities in ways that cement rather than challenge the U.S. position in world affairs.”
And you begin to realize that this is it. Doom in his view is that China will soon challenge America geopolitically, something he seems to agree will happen. And to reassure the readers who may be concerned about this impending event, he prepares the groundwork for saying that other powers will also rise in Asia; happenings that will create new “realities” which America will exploit and thus enhance its position rather than see it challenged. He explains this point of view by saying that what is happening in Asia today is different from what happened in Europe at the beginning of the Twentieth Century because China is not Germany and the U.S. is not Great Britain. In fact, he says, China is rising but so is India which is armed with nuclear weapons; and so are Vietnam, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia and Australia. And there is also Japan which remains a formidable presence. And what this says to him is that Asia will be a discordant multipolar region that China will not be able to control. Hurray!
Having slapped you on the face early on and having told you to listen carefully about the doom that is represented by China's rise in Asia, he now says that the rise of the other Asian powers fits American interests precisely. Never mind explaining why China's rise is doom but please explain why the rise of the other Asian powers fits American interests. Well, it is because the United States has no interest in controlling Asia or in blocking its economic prosperity, says he. And so, you now understand that in the eyes of Walter Mead, this is a case of double sour grapes. It is sour grapes for America as seen through American eyes, and it is sour grapes for China as seen through American eyes also. But don't bother asking how things may be seen through Chinese eyes.
Now that the author has disposed of the threat posed by China's rivalry, he turns his attention to the rest of the world and assures his readers that America has no other real rival left on the Planet. As proof, he summarily dismisses the potentials of Europe and those of Russia. As to the world of ideas, he dismisses Communism, Fascism, the Anti-Americanism of Latin America as well as Islamic radicalism in Europe, Asia and elsewhere. He then declares in all confidence that liberal capitalist democracy remains the wave of the future.
Having done all this, he now blows your mind. In a way, he almost puts it like this to you: “Guess what!” And he triumphantly asserts that at a deeper level the current century is shaping up to be an even more American century than the last. And why is that? Because the global game is moving towards America's home court, he says. And how is that? Change, he says, change my dear. Change is sweeping through every element of human life, he explains. And to do this in more detail, he takes a few paragraphs to talk about change and how it affects our everyday lives. He then says that change is something which happens in a stressful way and he adds this: “Everybody is going to feel the stress, but the United States of America is better placed to surf this transformation than any other country. Change is our home field. It is who we are and what we do. Brazil may be the country of the future, but America is its hometown.” And he ends with this: “Happy Fourth of July.”
Is that all? Expecting to see details as to what is needed in a nation that may want to lead the world of the future you are left disappointed. Nothing was said about the big challenges to come. Nothing about how and why America is better positioned to adapt to these challenges. And nothing about why no one is as good as America in adapting to them. The author clearly stated that at a deeper level the current century was shaping up to be more American than the last which you took to be a promise that you will see depth in the presentation but what you get instead is a lightweight view of the idea of change being America's home field ... and nothing about the how or the why of things. In the Nineteen Sixties, we used to call this a rip-off.
And then it hits you; the lightweight view that the Americans have as to what is important and what is not in the affairs of nations is the reason why America has been losing ground to the other powers. But the sad part is that this loss happened so abruptly and so soon after the country's rise to the top. And you wonder what it is that triggered it. You think about the matter for a while and you hit upon a startling discovery: Although still young, America thinks and behaves like a sclerotic old specimen. Contrary to all claims, change is no longer America's realm; paralysis is. But why is that?
It is because like a young attractive woman, America fell under the spell of an old and decrepit culture that has never lived by its own effort but has led a parasitic life at the expense of the other cultures for thousands of years. This is the Judeo-Yiddish culture in whose grip of a Svengali America remains a captive nation -- almost like a sexual slave. And because the parasite has not changed in thousands of years, America is behaving according to principles that have not changed in thousands of years. Will this situation ever change? Maybe yes; maybe not.
You will know that the Americans have once again adopted change as their prime motivator when you see them introduce enough changes to their Constitution that they will never again remain paralyzed like they do now when they need to work for their country but engage instead in biting each other in the back to go genuflect in front of the little farts from Israel who come urinate over their symbols of government.
No one is doing it to the Americans, not the Chinese, not the Russians, not the Europeans and not the Arabs. They are doing it to themselves by romancing a culture that has been the kiss of death to everyone that came under its spell and stayed there too long.