Canoe leaking. Paddles missing. Any breaks on this basket?

There has been much discussion over the past several years about the decline of America. The Internet has been filled with chatter on the topic, both in agreement and in denial; several noted authors have published books on the topic, and it has been debated in public forums, sponsored discussions, city pubs and urban saloons. The word ‘superpower’ doesn’t creep into the language anymore, but is shouted bravely while banners are waved by strong if belligerent arms, as though the condition of the world merely mirrors a game on a gridiron or a melee on a street corner.

There is something that feeds on the collective human psyche, encouraging it to reach for power with grasping hands, that stimulates thoughts of superiority, that provides the delusion and chimera of power destined to define a singularity, the ‘one,’ the authority, control, dictator, and judge of all existence. Somehow, it seems to dig more deeply into the masculine mind than the feminine, but the infection can run rampant in both, like a deadly virus that might mutate when required for the myth to survive but that never deviates from it’s core purpose – inflammation of emotions and total blindness of spirit.

America seems to be badly infected. Like overworked leukocytes, those less tainted attempt to turn the tide, to debate and dissent, to suggest alternatives that while not curing the disease, might stop it’s speed on the road to destruction, but they are often overcome by more ravenous and diseased cells.

There is an essay by Paul Craig Roberts making its way through the Internet called “American is No Superpower,” and his rationale for such a declaration is very telling. By whatever name, we are losing our world status because of the major decline in our financial position, dependent now upon other countries as our ‘bankers’ and thus driving up a massive debt. Tied to that financial decline is our dependency on imports because we have eased outsourcing in manufacturing and technology, leaving ourselves with the inability to create jobs for a citizenry not only burdened by the country’s massive debt, but falling deeper into personal debt in order to survive.

According to Roberts, we like to believe that our military might contributes to our superpower status, yet at the same time, we have grown to fear much smaller countries and rebellious religious movements, thus tying our military down in confrontations not only destructive to them, but further destructive to our economic situation. We have even begun to threaten the use of nuclear weapons in the hope of cowering others we seem unable to influence in any other fashion, a threat that would be anathema to us in wiser, more settled times. The desire to flex our military muscle without regard to countries which have historically allied with us or to countries much smaller but with natural resources we covet has almost united the entire world against us, which all by itself negates any claim we might have to an epithet as a super ‘power.’

In my opinion, we are presently at a cross road halfway down a steep hill, and our further slide will be determined by not only our desire to return to an existence based less on illusion and more on integrity, and the willingness of other countries to allow us to slide further while they build an illusion for us. We have been so good at providing them with a larger than life enemy, they would be at a loss for someone to blame should we completely fall. They would also lose their benchmark for measuring themselves against, and might lose their own ability to increase the knowledge and expertise of their own inhabitants should our higher centers of learning lose their distinction, and thus, their appeal.

For some peculiar reason, Americans seem loathe to seek inside themselves and their ingrained mythology to separate truth from fictional exaggeration. Because of that preference for self-delusion, it would not be difficult for more self aware nations to prop up our wounded carcass for their own purposes. There is much truth to the axiom ‘better the devil you know,’ but they are wise enough to understand that weakened devils are far easier to control and manipulate.

In the meantime, our ship of state continues leaking. A few of us are attempting to bail, but others are trying to steer without paddles and only managing to dip their hands fruitlessly in the murky waters, sloshing us back and forth at cross purposes. Other nations stand quietly on the shores watching while we flail in an almost useless effort to avoid the eddying whirlpool, steep waterfall, and rock strewn rapids in our path. Few of those watchers are concerned with throwing us a life line and even fewer of us can hope to swim to safety.