Don’t write off America
US errs so often that it’s easy to miss the fact that it is fundamentally right
Next week, President George W. Bush will arrive here. A convoy of black limousines will make its way through Jerusalem, and he will say all the right things – American presidents always say the right things, that’s why they have speech writers. After that, he will evaporate out of our lives without us understanding why he even came here or what he said.
After that, as always, we will be left with the discussion on America’s decline and the end of the era of global hegemony. China is the next big thing, in India there is a new middle class that comprises 200 million people, in London real estate is more expensive, and in Frankfurt the euro buries the dollar every morning. The United States has turned into a wasteful, hedonistic nation lacking a spine. Three hundred million people who consume more than they produce, and in order to finance this party sell their country chunk by chunk to two billion people who are thinner, more diligent, and live on the other side of the world.
There is only one problem with this theory: We heard it before. In the 1980s, China was called Japan, and everyone was convinced it is about to take over America. Investors from Tokyo acquired the famous Rockefeller Center in New York, and Akio Morita, Sony’s legendary founder, wrote a fascinating book called “Made in Japan,” where he explained that America’s main problem is the system. He argued that American CEOs only care about the next quarter’s results and the year-end bonus. In Japan, one can find long-term planning that will always win ultimately, he argued.
Ever since then, Japan sank into a 20-year recession. Sony hired an American CEO to revive it, and the US broke any economic record ever held by any country.
This is because at the end of the day, we all tell the American tale. We speak its language, our computers (even if they were produced in Taiwan) work based on software it invented, our heroes come from its movies, and the democratic code that rules the world was written by its founding fathers. We hum American rock ‘n’ roll, wear American jeans, eat American burgers, and later go on an American diet to burn it. For better or for worse, America is the second homeland of most citizens of the world.
China’s meteoric rise in the past decade is impressive, yet it doesn’t mean that this year we shall all be wearing round straw hats.
The power to change course
True, America is indeed facing a relative low point at this time, but there are moments like that in the life of every nation. Those familiar with American history know that the Americans, more than any other nation, know how to shake things off, come out of such situations, and decide to change course. The sub-prime crisis (why the hell doesn’t anybody just call it the “cheap mortgages crisis”?) may be slowing them down a little, but they have faced much worse crises in the past and emerged out of them.
In 1943, just for the sake of example, America produced about a million and a half vehicles. Towards the end of that year, President Roosevelt called all automobile producers and told them that he wants them to join the war effort and start producing battleships and aircraft. This wasn’t even an order; he merely explained to them that this is what their country expected of them. Do you know how many vehicles were produced by the US in 1944? A total of 147.
The world’s greatest industrial power changed course, within a year. This is because a major part of the American culture, which we so much enjoy disparaging, is about their ability to enlist for a goal. There is quite a bit of arrogance, and naiveté, in their desire to run the world, but at least they are willing to do it. It is hard to see any other country on the horizon that would be willing to take up this job.
America chose to lead
China will not be running the world, because its goal is to maintain a merciless totalitarian regime and feed 800 million people who live inland and earn $100 a month. India will not be running the world because on the four lanes of the one road to Bangalore, the Indian high tech capital, you can see donkeys and cows and traffic is always at a standstill. Russia will not be running the world, because it has been unable to give the world even one brand or product that anybody would want to buy. There is no desired Russian car, no prestigious Russian computer, and not even one distinguished Russian fashion guru who has people lining up to wear his clothes.
America has all of those things because it chose to lead. It decided that it should be assuming the burden of leading a confused and chaotic world searching for someone to show it the way. Yes, Americans make tons of mistakes, but at least they do it for the right reasons.
Take, for example, the America aid to Israel: On Monday, December 21, 2007 America’s foreign debt stood at $9,128,932,191,230. Israel, on the other hand, had a budget surplus of roughly $2 billion that nobody can decide what to do with exactly. And still, they are the ones aiding us. Why? Because they believe this is their job.
A senior Chinese politician once explained to his Israeli counterpart that Mandarin, China’s official language, is deliberately complicated. For about 3,000 years, senior Chinese officials made sure that the poor fail to understand what the noblemen say to each other. In America, on the other hand, the top election candidates at this time include a black man who was once addicted to drugs, a white woman who was married to the president, and the son of Italian immigrants who overcame cancer and got married for the third time. It may be confusing, it may sound like a soap opera sometimes, but at least everybody understands what they’re talking about.
America errs so often that it is easy to miss the fact that fundamentally, it is right: It is all about the system, Mr. Morita. The system where every person has a fair chance, where there is constant movement between classes, and where the greatest global power feels responsible for smaller nations.
When President Bush arrives here next week, we will ask ourselves, as always, why does he care so much about a hyperactive Mideastern country the size of Rhode Island? The answer is that he knows this is the source of America’s great power: The fact it still cares.
