know your friends well, but your enemies better, why the united states will fall Options

[sadolakced acid]

The United States of America.

the promise land?
land of milk and honey?
land of the mountain of gold?

maybe.

yet, like all empires, doomed to fail.

why, you ask? mayhaps it's politics. mayhaps it's terrorists. or mayhaps it's cultural.

So says the old joke, that people who only know one language are americans. This may be true for some, but with more and more high schools requiring foriegn languages, this is slowly changing.

yet to what purpose? sure, we might learn the culture of the romans, the french, the spanish (and mexicans), and the germans. but will this help us in the world?

if we consider the world as a whole, what is the greatest threat to the United States of America? Is it russia? they seem to be fading from the stage, their act over, exiting stage left.

is it the middle east? certainly they are the source for terrorists. Yet what do terrorists do? they kill people. They terrorize. yet this is not what kills a nation. Terrorist's actions unify America, they make it stronger.

then what is the threat?

let's look at recent events.

george bush annouces that the united states will return to the moon by 2019.
and china anounces that they will put a man on the moon by 2018.

a brilliant display of one-up-manship if it's pulled off.

this is a nation that has vast potential, and they are begining to tap it. Sure, there are growing pains, but it means they are growing.

so let's consider this for a second. most every nation, china included, teach thier children to speak english.

To do this, they read american books, learn from american teachers, and watch american movies.

American culture is exported to other countries. yet these countries don't completely ignore thier own culture. the two- american culture and local culture- coexist.

jump to america.

a country where youths make jokes based on racial stereotypes from 100 years ago.

a country where most children's knowledge of chinese is how to say a few bad words.

a country where other cultures are not valued, or studied.

let us look to the future. Is the united states going to be able to sell things to china? not anymore, not with our limited understanding of thier culture.

but they, on the other, they have hundreds of thousands of college graduates who know how to operate in a western buisness world, who know what americans want, and can give it to them for much cheaper.

So what, you ask. Why should it matter?

the answer is staring you in the face. America dominates because america innovates. the internet. automobiles. aeroplanes. all created here.

so what happens when america loses it's innovation? then it's military weapons cease to be the worlds best. It's industry ceases to do things others cannot. It's commerce soon depends on someone else. and it's dominence-- it's dominence fades.

and thus the empire falls.

[innovation]

Justin? Why were you up so late?

Is it really the best policy for the US to label China an "enemy", considering its rapid growth both economically and politically? Methinks not. Mayhaps the US should begin adapting more to this globalizing world, but it shouldn't motivate its public through "fear of collapse." Actually, I was just talking to a student from China about this at a Christmas Eve party. The Chinese public already hates US policies, mostly because of Bush. Creating this fear among Americans is not the way to go. Bad diplomacy.

Besides, the US has already been adopting somewhat--the College Board is administering its first AP Chinese exam in May 2007. And Tufts University has an entire institute that promotes studying abroad in China. It's happening already; people are realizing the need to learn about China.

Sorry, I just had to get some Justinisms in there, like "mayhaps" and "methinks". :D

edit--

I just realized that I'm from Washington, DC, and you're from Alabama. And we're in high school, while Michael is in college. Perhaps our location and environment offer different perspectives of the US's efforts to globalize?

*TOK MOMENT*

And I also just noticed my signature. It feels very much at home in this thread.