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.

[sadolakced acid]

james, that's the CIA tho. the populus needs to know the enemy as well.

michael, sure, there may be study on the collegate level. but that's not everyone, and it's not as widespread as thier knowledge of us.

for instance, if you went to china and were supposed to take an important buisnessman to dinner, would you know how to act? they would know how to act if they came to america to convince a buisnessman to invest in them.

and minda, as far as losing dominance- if dominance is lost to eastern nations, then the effects will be much greater than that or britian's losing dominance.

loss of dominance to china will mean a cold war, and we will lose. we will have to take the lower role, which we're not at all prepared to do. Britian thrives, why? becuase thier culture is similar to ours, and we're dominate right now.

if china thrives, then who gains? all the other east asia countries- japan and korea in particular.

[*mipadi*]

michael, sure, there may be study on the collegate level.  but that's not everyone, and it's not as widespread as thier knowledge of us.

for instance, if you went to china and were supposed to take an important buisnessman to dinner, would you know how to act?  they would know how to act if they came to america to convince a buisnessman to invest in them.

There are two things I believe you may be overestimating. One is the extent of American studies in China, which could be more than the extent of the Chinese studies in the US, but significantly more? There are a lot of scholarly Chinese studying America, but is the typical Chinese person scrutinizing America? Is the typical Chinese peasant in a village far away from any city studying American culture? And more importantly, are they doing so any more than the typical US citizen in a small town in, say, Iowa?

I'd certainly agree that the typical corn farmer in Iowa, or auto worker in Detroit, does not know that much about China or Chinese culture. I'd also be willing to bet that the typical Chinese peasant is not an expert on American culture. And I'd also be willing to bet that, in your illustration, these facts do not really matter. They don't have an active role in any international political game. The corn farmer doesn't directly sell his crops abroad; the auto worker doesn't export the hubcap he riveted to another country; the Chinese peasant doesn't send his crops to America. My point, of course, is not that the study of international culture is not important at all; rather, it's not important that everyone have a good knowledge of Chinese culture, because (relatively speaking) only a few Chinese scholars, politicians, and businessmen have a strong knowledge of American culture. In other words, it's certainly important that we have some of our best and brightest minds in politics, business, and other international sectors studying China, but it's not vital to America's success that everyone does so.

Would I personally know how to interact with a Chinese businessman, should I need to take him to dinner? No, I would not. I don't know a word of Chinese. I'm not an expert in Chinese etiquette. But the key here is that I am unlikely to be in a situation in which I need to greet a Chinese businessman and convince him to invest in a company. I'm not a businessman. I'm not studying business. I don't plan on running that aspect of a business. So there's no need to know Chinese etiquette. Now, it makes more a more well-rounded and knowledgeable person to know a bit about Chinese culture. It might help a lot if I school myself in Chinese politics. It's certainly a good thing to know about the status of China in the world community and how that affects me. Maybe someday I'll have to interact with the Chinese. If and when that day comes, I'll likely be able to pick up enough Chinese etiquette to deal with such a businessman. But it's not my role to study the details of China now, as I have no interest in having political or business interactions with China.

The one thing that a post-secondary education teaches a student is that one can't be an expert in everything. The key to America's success is encouraging the study of China, but leaving it up to those who have a direct interest in it, and letting others focus on what they do best. I'd rather have the Iowa farmer know a lot about growing corn and spend most of his time doing it, than spend most of his time studying China.

Do we need more education, and earlier education, about China? Yes. Should the US encourage students--of all ages--to study China? Yes. But it's not a bad thing if only a relatively small number of bright, ambitious people who interact with China know a lot about China. If some guy in a field or on an assembly line that never interacts with China is not an expert in China, I hardly think that spells doomsday for the US.