The Redcoats are coming! The Redcoats are
coming!
Remember what your elementary school teacher taught you about the
War of Independence? The British wore scarlet coats, which made them easy marks
and symbolized institutional pomposity, adherence to status over efficiency and
an out-of-touch empire bent on doing things the old way. The rebellious American
colonists, on the other hand, wore whatever; they were nimble, unencumbered by
institutional baggage and not too proud to employ guerrilla
tactics.
Those lessons are as much about ideological indoctrination as
they are about history. The secrets to America's success, they tell us, are
rebellion and innovation, the enemies of status and tradition.
The
problem today, however, is that we're the imperial power wearing the red coats.
And we are so concerned about losing our global dominance that we've lost sight
of the maverick qualities that made us preeminent in the first
place.
Reflecting a widespread fear of internal decay and external
competition, survey after survey shows that Americans think the country has seen
its best days. Last month, a poll commissioned by the Hill newspaper found more
than two-thirds (69%) of respondents think the U.S. is in decline, and 83% are
very or somewhat worried about the nation's future. Like almost everyone else on
the globe, a growing number of us, according to the Pew Global Attitudes
Project, believe that China will surpass the U.S. as the premier
superpower.
But concern over America's place in the world is one thing,
hysteria is quite another. Paleoconservative commentator Pat Buchanan has just
published a book, "Suicide of a Superpower," in which he suggests that the
United States will collapse by 2025. Likewise, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson,
who only eight years ago argued that the U.S. was well positioned to play a
constructive imperial role throughout the world, has a new book out in which he
asserts the "imminence of our decline and fall."
So noticeable is the
naysaying that the editors of Foreign Policy magazine set up an online "Decline
Watch" to track, and occasionally ridicule, the "gloom-and-doom punditry." Each
post comes with a rating system from 5 to 1. Five ( labeled "USA! USA!")
indicates good old-fashioned American triumphalism, and one ("We're totally
screwed. Start Learning Mandarin") marks utter fatalism.
What this
suggests is that Americans are spending entirely too much time defending their
global status and not enough inventing a brighter future. It also suggests that
being the sole world superpower is actually holding us back.
Our
dominance has made us the castle on the hill rather than the rebels at the gate.
And yet an essential component of our national M.O. is flouting the Old Guard.
Indeed, the founders designed the U.S. government with the express purpose of
constraining institutional power. When urging the states to ratify the new
federal constitution in 1787, James Madison emphasized that the new American
form of government derived its virtue from granting liberty to individuals
rather than suppressing it with customs, tradition and social
hierarchies.
Australian political scientist John Kane has gone so far as
to argue that when the U.S. achieved global preeminence, there emerged an
"irresolvable tension" between "American power and American virtue." Sitting at
the top precludes striving to be better.
As we've become more powerful,
it's not a stretch to say that it has changed the way we operate. It's pretty
much impossible to be iconoclastic and sacrilegious — essential elements in
American inventiveness — and at the same time protective of one's position of
power.
Barry C. Lynn, the author of "Cornered: The New Monopoly
Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction," suggests that Americans' growing
infatuation with power has led us to cede too much control to corporate giants.
Likewise, military historian Andrew Bacevich says our "penchant for empire" has
fostered a culture of entitlement that saps innovation.
As a big portion
of the world muddles toward what could be a catastrophic shutdown of the global
financial system, Americans should keep in mind that our position at the top of
the heap may have done us as much harm as good. Lynn is optimistic about our
chances of surviving whatever gloomy days lie ahead. But it'll depend on
regaining our rebellious spirit.
"Everything is about to fall apart," he
told me over coffee last week. "The bright side is that we have an opportunity
to reestablish our democracy after this plutocratic era. That'll allow us to
unleash pent-up creativity we need to rethink how we engineer competition and
use corporations."
So maybe America is in decline. But fretting about it
won't help a lick. It's time to take off our red coats.
grodriguez@latimescolumnists.com
November 21, 2011
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