I listened to an NPR chat on the rise of China and thought to myself, "How do I feel about the notion that China will be the economic world power by the time O is my age?"
The inevitability of our descent makes my feelings moot, I suppose. America has followed many of the traditional paths of declining empire--overextension in foreign fields of battle using mercenary adjuncts to a weak standing army, leadership in disarray with corruption and self-interest trumping founders' ideals, concentration of wealth in the hands of the few while the majority views the empire's riches as unattainable and thus feels disenfranchised and disconnected. . . .
But I don't think this will be a simple transfer of power or a pleasant decline. The speaker on NPR was a Brit, with inbred memories of what it's like to lose influence to an upstart. But the Brits didn't have to contend with the racial and ideological conflicts that are bound to emerge as China rises.
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3 comments:
Surprisingly, I have some thoughts about this....
I don't think there have been too many simple handovers of power or pleasant declines in history.
Much of the tumult, chaos, death & destruction in the non-European world can be laid at the feet of imperialist powers that then collapsed. Inevitably, as people to climb aboard and then leap off, there were cleavages along racial, ethnic & ideological lines.
Britain's homeland may have avoided the direct hits, but most of Britain's empire is still reeling.
Oh, I agree with you. I just fear that some people assume the baton will be passed sweetly and neatly as though it's all one long relay race among civilized participants. After all, in a global economy, aren't we all on the same page? Not. I do think it's a little different from the British Empirical chaos, which largely derived from the imposition of arbitrary borders in places where they never made sense. But it will be chaotic, nonetheless.
I am so interested in this! I can't wait until all the smart people start analyzing the US's decadence and decline in world historical/comparative terms. Can you recommend someone for me to read?
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