ROOTS OF AMERICA’S PRESENT-DAY ANGST --Attorney Patryk Utulu @ USA

Stable societies have the unfortunate tendency to becoming addicted to other peoples’ revolutionary violence. So, from the grateful lens of political stability America is, relatively speaking, OK although casual calls for secession and nullification [the illegal attempt by South Carolina to make U.S. Federal Laws inapplicable to S-Carolina/U.S. South, which laid the foundation for American Civil War] makes me wonder if speech and common sense are parting ways due to our current economic problems.

Like citizens of other nations America(ns) are unease, confused and even frightened by the side effects of globalization. Globalization isn’t bad per se. Its problem is that it is like a coin and we tend to see only one side of a coin at first. Often, it is afterward that we discover which coin is damaged or devalued by foreseen and not-so-foreseen circumstances like inflation and loss of legal tender, respectively. I am speaking in metaphors but I am sure you get the point! At first Americans embraced globalization. It seemed to bring limitless benefits: it opened new markets, shortened global distances, loosened religious centrism, gave many societies front-row seats to viewing how other societies live, and it even enhanced/encouraged new forums for interactivities, e.g. Facebook

But globalization also brought the world to America’s doorsteps in unprecedented ways. Competition from new immigrants who don’t’ have the hesitancy (some call it timidity!) of immigrants of yesteryears and from global conglomerates, new billionaires, Sovereign Investment Funds of Dubai, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, China and even $billions controlled by ex-KGB-turned-business men. Young Americans adapted (still adapting) but older folks started having a tough time, and vampire politicians with no interest or solutions are riding to higher offices by exploiting the fears/resentment/insecurities that flourished.

Roots of America’s present-day angst have been long in the making. Past U.S. Govts recklessly borrowed 100’s of $Billions from China to fight wars of choice that seemed to have little purpose except to create jobs for military industrial complex and war profiteers who jumped onto news wars like fleas on stray dogs. They used sophisticated accounting gimmicks to hide the structural havoc deficit spending was wrecking on U.S. economy. When Americans started asking questions, MID quickly created the narrative that the U.S. was in trouble because of those few $million spent on food stamps for kids/poor pregnant women. But we kept spending about $5Billion/month on the unnecessary Iraq war that coupled Afghan-Pakistan conflict, ended up costing the U.S. estimated $6Trillion all borrowed from/still owed to China.

The U.S. tax code is so full of deliberate loopholes that companies can make $billions/year in profit, pay zero $ in taxes and still collect $millions in tax refunds. The only way to make up for these lost revenues is to slash or eliminate decades-old social programs for the orphans, the poor, the sick and the old. President Obama has been using superhuman efforts to clean up the extraordinary economic mess he inherited but the same political/business elite who created the mess is running around, exploiting ideologically-friendly news/TV outlets (to stoke mass hysteria) and, using paid propagandists-posing-as-serious economists, to mount well-funded and highly coordinated campaign of disinformation and legislative obstructionism simply to create the impression that Mr. Obama can’t turn things around. Time was when U.S. journalists aimed to inform/educate. Major Cable networks often start broadcast by telling viewers of young actress who got arrested for drunk driving. For “serious” news Americans have to watch Comedy TV to obtain real news disguised as satire. It’s doubtful that a cure for cancer would get a 24hr news play but a miscreant can become instant celebrity by leading a “police chase” on major highways pursued by helicopter-mounted “news” hunters pretending to engage in serious journalism.

America became a superpower at the end of World War II (1945) partly because the U.S. was the only major power that did not fight the war on its own territory. Europe was flattened by Germans and Allied Powers bombed Germany almost back to Stone Age when the tide of war turned against the Nazis. When Obama came to power in 2008, the U.S. was already a dominant superpower for at least 63 years (1945-2008). We can assume that children under 10 years of age have no real sense of what goes on in any nation. So, if you add Americans less than 10yrs old (in 1945) to those born during 63yrs of U.S. superpowership it means that Americans under 73 years-old (that’s about 98% of the U.S. population) KNEW AMERICA after it had become a superpower. Thus in 2008 when Mr. Obama became president about 98% of Americans were accustomed to the U.S. as a superpower but less than 5% knew that the world changed in 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed, and “The Second World” (mostly Communist nations of Eastern Europe/China) and “The Third World” experienced resurgent economic dynamism that began shifting global economic influence away from “The First World” (West, including the U.S.).

Still, the U.S. remains a welcoming nation. Hospitality is encoded in the DNA of Americans but prolonged, severe and unaccustomed adversity has a way of testing the natural benevolence of even the most charitable. Unemployment is still unacceptably high. President Obama has offered common sense shovel-ready solutions that can put millions of Americans back to work overnight, literarily, but Mr. Obama’s political adversaries are so committed to his downfall that if it would bring Mr. Obama down, they wouldn’t mind seeing America burned to the ground if they could be kings of the ashes. Crises tend to beget crises of opportunism so there are Americans who hype real or imagined grievances and then market the fake outrage for profit. Some deliberately blame U.S. political paralysis on so-called “migration overload.” They hint darkly that America is down and that God would restore America’s blessings only if we shut the gates on the rest of the world. To disagree with their vision is to be branded un-American…and their antics reinforce the axiom that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

In truth, per square mile, the U.S. is still one of the least populated nations in the world. For example: China has a population of 1.361Billion inside 9.7Million Sq. Km land mass India has a population of 1.237Billion inside 3.1Million Sq. Km land mass, while United States has a population of 317Million INSIDE 9.8MILLION Sq. Km land mass

Starting about 20 years ago, as globalization took hold, major U.S. Manufacturers outsourced nearly 90% of U.S. manufacturing services to cheap labor in Asia. It happened so fast that entire regions of rural America were impoverished within months. Unemployment soared. Older people couldn’t retrain or adapt easily. Families suffered loss of income resulting in health problems, homelessness, and divorces. Exploited by politicians these severe economic turmoil turned into ideologically-motivated finger-pointing. Truth/facts became casualties to partisan political bitterness. To make matter worse, China and India reverse-engineered U.S. products (that is, China/India illegally copied product designs, trade secrets) then set up their own firms to manufacture those same products and compete against U.S. firms. Many U.S. firms now run out of Asia back to U.S. to restart manufacturing operations but lost jobs and skills and other intangibles cannot be regained overnight. So, older Americans continue to hurt. The U.S. is still earth’s indispensable nation but it is no longer THE ONLY dominant player. World Bank is still dominated by the U.S. and the IMF, by Europe. But other newly-formed economic alliances make the Western World economically less dynastic. New economic alliances such as BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa]; CUSTOMS UNION [Russia, Belarus,Kazakhstan and soon, Ukraine]; COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES [Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kirgizstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan]; BANK OF THE SOUTH [Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela ]make the world less dependent and therefore more likely to challenge America’s hegemony.

Bad news is always hard to swallow! For a majority of the 98% of Americans born after the U.S. became a superpower (or, hyperpower) it is still next-to impossible to convince them that any U.S. President, no matter how intelligent or charismatic, will henceforth economically reign but no longer rule the world.

So the angst continues…though the aggrieved can’t always differentiate real from imaginary enemies!

Patryk A. Utulu is a U.S.-based attorney and Strategic Communications Consultant
[All Rights Reserved 2013. All materials subject to Copyright Privileges and Immunities]

Well stated points...
But alas, due to propaganda from TV and other sources, the truth remains largely hidden.

Hope the emerging nations will learn 1/2 important points.

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