American Declinism: The Debate.

The debate on American Decline, or the existence of American decline, is meta. Yet, it is an important debate to have. 

So, let’s do it.

As a preliminary matter, I must point out that the opposite of American Declinism is not American Exceptionalism. While American exceptionalism may find roots in European critique of an ethnocentric America, the most common notion of exceptionalism in American is one used by Americans ourselves.

Steeped in the definition of exceptionalism is the reference to others. Therefore, American Exceptionalism and American Decline can both be true at the same time and thus aren’t opposing ideologies.

One way to look at American decline is relative, which is based on America’s position compared to the rest of the world. 

I will NOT endeavor to make an argument in this area. Rather, I will compare America to herself.

In closing this opening, I must also point out that America is being used to reference the United States. This naming excludes the rest of North America– Canada and  Mexico. It also excluded Central and South America as a means to further drive the linguistic ethnocentrism home.

“America’s” monopoly on naming and language is hopefully visible to everyone reading.

You can view my Youtube Channel here, for a video version of this discussion.

America, compared to the rest of the world.

While I have argued that a comparison between American and the rest of the world is not a valid way to measure American decline, I will start here as I expect “what-about-isms” that is comparing America to other countries, so let’s do a quick analysis that undoubtedly will be open to critique.

Military:

I refuse to even acknowledge any argument that does not concede that America’s spending on its military and ultimately the might of the American Military is beyond that of any other nation in the world. America Controls the land, air, and sea.

Let’s move on.

Economy: 

GDP and the notion that other countries are grouping faster. The fact is, America’s share of the World’s GDP has maintained itself at about 25%. No other country even comes close. 

Next, case

Education:

While the literacy rate is often cited as a means for making fun of Americans. It is important to note, except for Oxford and Cambridge, the world’s top schools are found in America. Underscore this with American immigration policies that allow for brain drain in other countries, American intelligence is not necessarily a measure of American’s intelligence.

American immigration prevents the economy from freezing and it gives access to the world and the smarties people. It’s easier to become an American… We bring in the best and brightest.

Let’s allow a point of contention here. Even to accept that American intelligence is lower than the rest of the world, does that mean it is declining relative to the rest of the world?

We can look to technological advancements and patents, America leads in development in these areas.

This is not a slide of hand, for what is intelligence if it is not used to develop?

The comparative model to try and answer the truth or falsity of the American Decline is not workable. Therefore I will set the foundation for this conversation before moving forward.

 The question put clearer is,

“Is the US in a worse off position now relative to where it has been?”

The obvious issue here is to define the categories for better. 

We have to choose a time we are comparing it to.

I will also not go through each of these with the precision and technical reverence that we should give each of the categories and questions. Such a post would be unreadable. Rather, in the coming blog, I will attempt to put together a frame working that is encompassing the different areas.