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pampango

(24,692 posts)
Mon Apr 29, 2013, 06:35 PM Apr 2013

BBC: Will the rise of the rest mean the decline of the US?

The Democrats believe America is falling behind in economic terms because of a refusal to invest in the infrastructure - and it really is crumbling; in some places it feels more like the developing world than Europe.

But in large measure, the reality of decline that it is part of a huge historical re-balancing act - something we acknowledge in words like "globalisation" or "Brics", while often ducking just how profoundly the world is changing.

Remember, wealth and power were pretty evenly distributed in the world until around the 16th Century. The rise of the British and other European empires, with their technological and ultimately military superiority, threw the world out of joint. Now the world is rebalancing - power and wealth will become more evenly distributed across countries. So yes, China will rival the US, and so will others. But let no-one mistake how far above the rest of the world the US has risen.

Those defenders of America who attack knee-jerk anti-Americanism are rather missing the point. Those all over the world who might say they are anti-American don't hate Jimi Hendrix and Woodie Guthrie, Levis and denim, Andy Warhol and Jack Kerouac. They don't, usually, hate freedom or democracy, but a certain cynical exercise of America power sheltering behind those values.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22319136

A long and interesting view of the US and its role in the world.

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