The US’s National Defense Strategy unambiguously states low tech conflicts are on the way out, history will show that great power competition came to the forefront in 2014 when Russia took Crimea, and China is the pacing challenge. We expect something like one of 3 general narratives for China: competitive, assertive, and aggressive. We really don’t want aggressive, and are hoping encourage assertive to competitive but there’s some concern that Xi, who is widely seen as the strongest leader since Mao, and may be fencing himself into a political position that forces him toward aggression. The US is roughly of a mind that the Chinese people deserve free and fair electoral politics but the CCP is a real problem internationally. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s first National Security Advisor, has been advocating we perceive narratives of American exceptionalism to be properly understood as American narcissism on the international stage.
Do you really think 350M people on one of the smaller continents really have the power to dominate the other 7.6B people on the planet? Do we really not have to care about how much information we share publicly? Do we really not have to care which countries have controlling investments in companies operating within our borders?
Are you sure the 17 Beijing-owned genetics companies operating in the US are entirely compliant with CLIA?
Are you sure the operating systems on OnePlus phones and Huawei switches are designed with user privacy in mind?
Being the world's largest, most developed, economy (we're number 1) brings some unwelcome truths;
The only direction is down. Obviously you can't be the best at everything, for ever, so inevitably by some measures you're "not number 1". For folks raised on "we're the best country on earth" all their lives, this is hard to hear. Health care? Annual leave? Education? Construction? Infrastructure? The US has the best in the world (we must have, we're the best at everything).
Unfortunately when wishful thinking and reality collide, reality tends to fall away. If we just think it, if we just say it often enough, it'll become true.
Ironically it is exactly the "we're the best at everything" that prevents improvement. You can't improve the best, and most importantly you can't learn from other places, thereby implying you're not the best. Can't learn from the Japenese health system because, by definition, that's inferior.
Of course the US _does_ have the best health, education, whatever, as long as you add the phrase "for rich people" to every claim. And since all Americans are either currently rich, or rich-in-waiting, that means it's the best for everyone.
Do you really think 350M people on one of the smaller continents really have the power to dominate the other 7.6B people on the planet? Do we really not have to care about how much information we share publicly? Do we really not have to care which countries have controlling investments in companies operating within our borders?
Are you sure the 17 Beijing-owned genetics companies operating in the US are entirely compliant with CLIA?
Are you sure the operating systems on OnePlus phones and Huawei switches are designed with user privacy in mind?