Evidence of Decline

Until 1984 – when control of Hong Kong passed from Britain to China – the sun never set on the British Empire. Holdings in Africa, the Subcontinent, Austral-Asia and even the “New World” had made England the global powerhouse for centuries (probably from 1588 – when British ships defeated the Spanish Armada – to the middle of the 20^th century). She drew natural resources from diverse regions on the planet, enriching her coffers disproportionately considering her relatively small population and tiny land mass for the home country. Few empires last. The Romans fell in 476 AD; the Chinese succumbed to Mongol hordes in 1279 AD.

The pattern seems to be familiar. Complacency, taking a superior status for granted, placing the priorities of special and narrow interests (the “power elite”) above those of the ordinary citizen, even hiring mercenaries to fight the battles that used to be fought with regular soldiers, the adoption as “normal” a style of life considered luxurious and wasteful by most of the rest of the world, the rise of power from the residents of lands from which economic resources are taken and the acceleration of military and economic power in other regions of the world.

What the British did with actual occupation of lands far from her native border has shifted in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. Occupation is no longer a necessity; a global corporate world – led by the United States – has altered that requirement by simply owning or controlling certain assets and/or market access all over the planet. As technology has increasingly dictated growth and power, global control of patents now rivals possessing vast pools of natural resources like oil and gold reserves.

Read the second paragraph above again. And think about the United States. From engaging “contractors” in Iraq and other militarily sensitive areas around the world to allowing mega-financial institutions to grow at the expense of ordinary citizens, to a denigration of many forms of hard physical labor which are now either outsourced or relegated to undocumented aliens, to average home sizes that clearly exceed global averages and quality of construction by quantum leaps, to the declining number of new U.S. “hard” patents, to maintaining our standard of living by massive borrowings from foreigners… and the list goes on.

This all just pisses me off. Negative thinking that lurks behind the conscious minds of so many Americans. We seem to think we’re falling, but that “someone else” is going to figure it out and make it “all better.” Well folks, that someone else is US… or U.S. Those jobs we have lost? Most of them won’t be coming back – ever. So people who are waiting for the same old, same old may have a very long wait. We haven’t had a long-term period of under and unemployment like this since the Great Depression. We need to create new values, not turn out undergraduates with “business” or “marketing” or “communications” degrees. We need products to create businesses, have something to market and about which we can communicate. Our community colleges may be the next “oil discovery” that will train human beings to perform real jobs creating real values.

The tea leaves that need to be read are everywhere, most recently the meeting in Pittsburgh of the G-20 nations. What happened to the G-7? The September 25^th NY Times: “President Obama [announce September 25^th] that the once elite club of rich industrial nations known as the Group of 7 will be permanently replaced as a global forum for economic policy by the much broader Group of 20 that includes China, Brazil, India and other fast-growing developing countries, administration officials said Thursday…. The move highlights the growing economic importance of Asia and some Latin American countries, particularly since the United States and many European countries have found their banking systems crippled by an economic crisis originating in excesses in the American mortgage market.” There is talk of ending the dollar’s reign as the “reserve currency” (the money nations retain for international dealings and by which global commodities are priced) by an amalgamation of currencies, including the dollar, in a “special drawing right” virtual currency. Tea leaves everywhere.

We don’t deserve a great quality of life; we have to earn it. Every day! And damn it, we’re Americans! We can dream. We can build. We can invent and create. We can do! We need that spirit of American invention, drive and determination that made us great. Most of all, we need to reinvent ourselves. But this clearly isn’t a government policy that will be determined at the top and shoved down to the “people.” This has to be a decision by each and every one of us, regardless of age or experience, to take tangible steps to adapt into this new era and reinvent our own value-contribution to our country. What’s your path to reinventing yourself… or do you think what you are doing can continue just the way it has?

I’m Peter Dekom, and I approve this message.