Probably every human being who lived within an “empire” thought that his/her world would always be that way.
That would include Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Mongols, Ottomans, and British, to name a few empires that lasted hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Eventually, times changed and nations that were once major players on the world stage became spectators in the grand scheme of things.
Ebb and flow.
The United States has been a great nation since 1900 and the world’s premier superpower for less than one hundred years. However, many of the things that made America great in the past (stable democracy, cheap labor, industrial might, quality of education, natural resources, etc.) are not what they once were, allowing other countries the opportunity to chip away at America’s dominance.
I’m sure that the U.S. will remain at or near the top of the heap for the foreseeable future, but the “world order” is constantly evolving and nothing lasts forever, particularly when our government in Washington D.C. is in a constant state of war with itself, making problem-solving (hence, progress) almost impossible.
It has appeared for quite a while that China would be the next dominant superpower. Lots of people, lots of industry, lots of exports, and a government which tends to have a long-term, strategic outlook. However, in its rush to modernize from 3rd world status over the past half century, China seems to have “outrun it’s coverage” (to use a football expression), growing too fast and big for its own britches. It appears that an economic course correction may be in order.
India, which has 17 percent of the world population (like China), has a lot of smart people who are poised to thrive in the digital age. Indian universities are graduating 1.5 million engineers per year. These are the young folks who will be designing the future of tomorrow via artificial intelligence and the systems that will allow A.I. to change the way people live. For better or worse. engineers invent the things that change the world.
To put things into perspective, there are approximately 1.8 million engineering jobs in America at this time; all the while, India is graduating almost that many professional engineers each year. What does that tell you about the future?
Currently, there are a lot of unemployed/under-employed engineers in India vying for important jobs in their chosen fields. Many of these smart people, who speak very good English (remember, India was a colony of the British Empire from 1858 to 1947), are the folks who we encounter over the phone when we call “customer service” to complain about a product or service that doesn’t work. Many of these smart Indians have taken jobs in the silicon valleys of California and Texas, where they will develop skills to take back to India.
Some of these clever, under-employed Indian tech geeks are also the villains who perpetrate Internet scams. “Idle hands are the Devil’s workshop.” Digital crime pays.
Science and math are the backbone of engineering. It seems to me that these academic disciplines are revered in the countries that are up-and-coming while they are under attack by politicians in the United States. Scientific principles like biological evolution, global warming, and the benefits of immunization, to name a few, are the regular targets of derision by conservative politicians, conspiracy nutjobs, televangelists, and podcasters operating from their mom’s basement.
Political “truths” (beliefs?) and actual facts are often opposites. The extent to which America relies on the former, rather than the latter, to keep pace with the developing world will put drag on our society and imperil our standing as a dominant world power.
Let’s hope future historians will not write an epitaph that says the United States “believed” it’s way into becoming a second-rate nation.