IT’S AFTERNOON IN AMERICA

And so what?  Why would we be so afraid of that remote possibility?  I say remote, because in all probability (and “probability” meaning there is, of course, a margin of error implicit in any obviously subjective statement) few of us alive will still be alive to see a world in which the United States is not a defining economic, military and political influencer on the global stage.  But still, why do we so fear the possibility of #2 status?  What is it about not completely WINNING that automatically makes so many of us assume that all is lost?

A major factor, as I see it, is in the black and white perception with which many seem to view the world.  Pop lit and hysterical media would have us envision a U.S. which must necessarily be either far and away on top of all the charts, or else a crumbled, dilapidated U.S.S.A. in which corporations and a post-apocalyptic overmind control all activity and thought.  Like great empires before—Rome, Persia, the Inca—everything is viewed in the irremediable binary.  Great, or fallen.  Dominant, or extinct.  An entity relevant in and spanning decades and centuries, or else ceasing after a mere season, relegated to the dustbin of cultural association in only one momentary meme. As in, The Simpsons v. Alf.  And as we all know, if we’re being totally honest, The Simpsons is probably far more representative of American cultural placement.  (I mean really—eating cats?  Gross.  Who does that?!?  And how are there cats but not people on some alien planet???  Stupid Alf, you suck.)

Let’s be serious here, the central nation of our “great power” predecessor—the British Empire, have you heard of them?—is not doing too shabbily.  I’ve not seen much to-do about the extinction, or even relative poverty, of the British state just yet.  In fact, I’d love to see the dollar as strong as the pound.  Struggling a tiny bit more than before (as a whole)?  Sure.  Not calling all the shots in every timezone anymore?  That's right.  But unavailable health care, over 20% rate of HIV infection, 23% illiteracy, 43% unemployed, and/or greater mortality than birth/net immigration rates, at least one of which is actually present in various other nations?  Not by a freaking relativistic longshot, people.  Not even close, nor will it be anytime in our visible future.  (A little gratitude would be nice when you've got it great compared to the rest of the known universe, that's all I'm saying.)

There are not many—though they are not all dead yet—who remember an America that was not the pre-eminent global power and cultural hegemon.  And yet there are still in our midst those who lived before this ongoing brief moment—and it is, in fact, a historical blip—in which the United States was forefront of all influence.  It was not too many decades back in which we were, while quite productive and innovative, not the top producer, exporter, and factory-rich country on the planet.  Not the highest standard of living, not the highest per-capita GDP, and not the most exorbitant consumer of resources.  All this dominance was yet potential, not the entirety of remembrance.  But were those no less great times?  Were those dark days, particularly relative to the options concurrently available in rest of the world?  Most telling: were the immigration rolls any shorter?  How many now-entrenched and successful American families were then new immigrants, hoping that maybe—just maybe—they could scratch out a slightly better living here than in whatever beloved homeland they chose to forsake?

In our disgusting, polarized, and insecure political climate, which it is noteworthy to point out every generation bemoans, there are those who would charge me (because I speak a plain truth as I see it) with denying “American Exceptionalism.”  I would dispute that in the strongest possible terms.  Quite the contrary, the point I am trying to make is that our exceptional nature is completely unchanged, merely confused by many (though not all), and wrongly, with wealth.  No, as I see it, we as Americans need to strive to remember what it is that made this county the miraculous, noble and fantastically successful—indeed, “exceptional”—experiment that it was and continues to be:  the very idea of it.  The inherent morality of a nation that not only purports, but in fact was invented to be, of the people, for the people, and by the people. You see, scarce readers, it is not in economic, military and cultural might that our exceptionalism lies.  It is in the promise that here lies a unique social contract, that merit more than birth, right more than might, and intelligence more than financial advantage will carry the day.  That here, you may peaceably disagree, stand up to, and protest wrongs (UC Berkely notwithstanding, rather ironically) without fear of violent reprisal.  This ideal, the inherent rightness and freedom to express intellectual honesty, is what I would be (and am) willing to fight for whenever the need arises to stand in others’ stead in a dangerous land.

I do not fear NOT being the richest country on Earth.  I do not fear a lack of military dominance, nor losing the ability to broadcast our media across the globe.  Neither am I afraid that some other government may hold more foreign nations to debt than ours, nor even that ours itself may eventually be held to account for our collective excess (as inexcusable as that may be, and shame on us).  No, the only thing I fear is the day in which our one, beautiful and unique moral advantage—our freedom of voice and unfettered thought—is laid to siege and irrevocably harmed.  This alone is the true light we hold up to the world, and I hope above all hope that this is the light that we never, ever allow to be dimmed, sidelined, tarnished or  forgotten, as we stumble blinded by material preoccupations.

It's true that a few historical and geographic accidents made us fantastically rich.  But our ideals, not our wealth, are what have always made it Morning in America.

Long may the dawn remain.