To Surpass Everyone

[unhappycamper]

In the coming years, America's legendary ability to renew itself will be seriously tested.


To Surpass Everyone
Gazeta, Russia
By Fyodor Lukyanov
Translated By Olga Kerzhner
27 January 2011
Edited by Mark DeLucas

"To expect Americans, who are accustomed to thinking of their nation as number one, to acknowledge that in many areas its supremacy has been lost to an Asian nation and to learn from that nation is to ask a good deal." No, this quote is not from a timely comment about U.S.-China relations. It's more than 30 years old, and comes from a book titled “Japan as Number One: Lessons for America,” which was published in 1979 by a Harvard professor, Ezra Vogel. Back then, this monograph was one of the most widely read books in the United States, and set a sales record in Japan for books by foreign authors. Vogel argued that the Japanese socioeconomic model has several serious advantages over the American system: smooth and healthy industrial relations, low criminalization of society, excellent schools, and quality managerial elite with a long planning horizon.

Nowadays, those fears, for which Professor Vogel was merely the most vivid spokesman, are laughable. While 30 years ago Japan was stepping on America's heels, only a decade later it sank into a recession that Japan has yet to overcome. Many of the Land of the Rising Sun's national characteristics, which used to be considered its strengths, are currently acknowledged to be partly the causes of its prolonged crisis. However, the problem formulated three decades ago about the U.S. falling behind seems to be pressing once again, although no longer with respect to Japan.

President Obama's second State of the Union address is permeated with this idea. A year ago, Obama, in his first annual address, proclaimed the fact that American leadership is not a given. This year, he extensively developed that idea, and his speechwriters found an unexpected analogy — the Sputnik moment. The president recalled that more than half a century ago, the Soviet Union drastically surpassed the U.S. in space technology by launching the first artificial Earth satellite. American leaders were at a loss, having neither the scientific nor technological capabilities to get revenge. But the nation mobilized, and by emphasizing science and education, in 10 years the U.S. not only landed on the moon, but also made an innovative breakthrough in its economy.

Obama called the current need for research and innovation on a scale not seen since the space race a "new Sputnik moment.” This will be the aim of his administration in the coming years. The proposed model is clear and consistent. But can it be achieved in an environment without an opponent similar to the Soviet Union? In other words, without an opponent, the competition with whom, systematically underlies every policy.

~snip~

The new Sputnik moment is happening at a time when, as Obama himself has said, the United States does not have a clear enemy. Without a comparable opponent, even the arms race turned into a unilateral increase in defense spending. Ever since the end of the Cold War, America has had to compete with the entire world, proving its worth as a global leader. This requires far more resources than were necessary to contain even such a giant as the Soviet Union. However, the U.S. seems to have reached a limit in this aspiration. It's no accident that the State of the Union announced the impending reduction in military spending, and that a recurring theme in Obama's activities has been that sole global leadership is impossible.



unhappycamper comment: So if we don't have a clear enemy, why the fuck are we spending a trillion dollars a year on the military?

[Nay]

1. Ah, but we do have a clear enemy -- the looters who are trashing

the economy even as we speak. The problem is that no one in the govt or big business thinks they are the enemy -- they want to BE them.

[greytdemocrat]

2. Hmmmm...

So we don't have to spend 3 trillion if we cut and then get surprised???

[unhappycamper]

3. The United States has more bombs, bullets, missiles, ships, airplanes than the rest of the world.

NSA and the DoD are monitoring all emails, internets postings and phone conversations. How could we be surprised?