During the Cold War, Soviets and Americans raced to be the best at everything. From the “Space Race” to economies to education and technology, the feeling in both countries was that the loser would be annihilated. Since the end of the Cold War, the drive to be the best is no longer fueling such determination. As a result, over the past two decades or so, Americans are increasingly aware and afraid of decline. There is a raging debate as to the current state of America both compared to where it was 40 years ago and relative to other countries. Some, like New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, contend that there is a “fire in the basement” and we don’t even know it’s there. These “declinists” feel that America has a serious problem and its stature is steadily falling in various categories such as technology, education, and economy. On the other side of the debate are people like Alan Dowd who feel that America is still a leader of the world and is in great shape. While I agree that America still may be clinging to its leadership role, as Americans, there is much reason for pessimism about the future of this great country. In a 2006 Time magazine article entitled “Are We Losing Our Edge,” Michael D. Lemonick outlines a number of reasons to be skeptical about the future of America. Among his various reasons, he outlines three specific reasons why business and academia experts are warning of trouble specifically with regard to science and technology. He claims that the Federal government has not been investing nearly enough in research and development, big corporations are more concerned with a quick buck than with spending time researching the next big thing, and that the “quality of education in math and science in elemen... ... middle of paper ... .... The Cold War was certainly a frightening time in American History, but it produced great results such as NASA and medical and scientific breakthroughs. We need to have a similar sense of urgency driving us to unprecedented exploration and innovation. If not, we will quickly find ourselves with even worse economic hardships than we face today. Works Cited Herr, Phillip. U.S. POSTAL SERVICE Broad Restructuring Needed to Address Deteriorating Finances. Rep. no. GAO-09-790. United States Government Accountability Office. 30 July 2009. Web Accessed 18 Mar. 2011. . Obama, Barack. "State of the Union Address." Address. United States Capitol Building, Washington D.C. 25 Jan. 2011. The White House. Web Accessed 18 Mar. 2011. .
The essay titled America Remain the World’s Beacon of Success by Tim Roemer discusses the positive position America placed as a leader in many of its endeavors in the fields of technology, sciences, and healthcare. In Roemer’s opinion, America regarded upon by other countries as the litmus test comparing their success. Roemer enumerated the many achievements and discoveries America accomplished as new country at only 700 years old. Now the question remains, will the success of America continue to be sustainable? I believe it will be, and I agree with Roemer’s opinion despite the internal issues the country face on a regular basis. After all, success is a daily repeated effort in small sum.
The Cold War was a period of dark and melancholic times when the entire world lived in fear that the boiling pot may spill. The protectionist measures taken by Eisenhower kept the communists in check to suspend the progression of USSR’s radical ambitions and programs. From the suspenseful delirium from the Cold War, the United States often engaged in a dangerous policy of brinksmanship through the mid-1950s. Fortunately, these actions did not lead to a global nuclear disaster as both the US and USSR fully understood what the weapons of mass destruction were capable of.
To conclude, the cold war had an enormous effect on nearly every aspect of American life. With varying results, some were good and others were bad. I sense that the Cold war was helpful to us as a nation. Russian competition pushed the U.S. toward improvements in technology, military, science, and education. In a world with 2 superpowers the U.S. was driven to be better than the competitor. But now we are alone at the top and there is nowhere to go but down. Hopefully the termination of the U.S.S.R. didn’t open up a spot for a new and better world power to emerge in the near future.
Restructuring the U.S. Postal Service to achieve sustainable financial viability. (2009, July). Retrieved January 17, 2010, from http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09937sp.pdf
In 1980, it seemed like the United States was not as dominant in the world as it had been before. The Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union began after World War II. The two nations had joined forces as members of the Allies, but tensions arose after the war. The Americans were very worried about the spread of Soviet communism, and tried to prevent it with a policy of containment, where the United States would protect countries from outside oppression. The Cold War also expanded to include the race between the Soviets and Americans to create atomic weapons. Furthermore, there was a race between the two countries to put the first man in space, which was accomplished by the United States in 1961 (“Cold War History”). The Cold War was a standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union to try to prove their dominance in the world. Each country wanted to have more power and diminish the power of the other. At home, Americans were paranoid with the thought of Soviet spies and communists hiding amongst them, dubbed the “Red Scare.” President Richard Nixon and the Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic A...
In How America Can Rise Again, John Fallows addresses the current state of the United States of America as he tries to establish whether the nation is truly crumbling as many critics and experts claim. Fallows’ analysis of the situation is aided by the fact that he spent some time in Asia, particularly China and India, and is therefore able to compare the situation in the United States with that in two of the world’s fastest rising industrial powers. His analysis is also constructed around the views and opinions of some experts who he addressed with the of America’s apparent collapse. While speaking with historians, soldiers, politicians and experts in various fields, Fallows sought to establish whether the fears of America’s demise were justified or simply a repetition of the regular alarmist claims of discontent parties in the nation. While Fallows’ arguments regarding America’s current state are largely infallible, his conclusions are skewed by the fact that he only compares the United States to China, and not other significant powers such as the European Union.
"Inaugural Address by President Barack Obama." The White House. The White House, n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .
Obama, Barack. "President Barack Obama's Inaugural Address." The White House. Office of the Press Secretary, 21 Jan. 2009. Web. 5 Apr. 2014.
Bob Herbert, columnist and professor of journalism, wrote about the current condition of America in “A Fire in the Basement,” an introduction to a collection of his editorials, Promises Betrayed: Waking up from the American Dream (2005). The “fire” he is referring to, is the idea that America is falling apart from the inside out, and we aren’t even aware of it. He suggests that our current state as a world power is in decline, and it’s not the terrorists we should be worried about. Rather, he gives examples showing that this decline will be the result of the growing inequality, irrationality, and the loss of hope within our nation. He states, “It’s not that life in America was better in the 1960’s. It wasn’t. But it seemed to be moving in a better direction” (396). In other words, we’ve lost a crucial part to what made us a great nation in the first place. If we don’t recover this hope and can-do spirit soon, we may be headed for a supporting role on the world stage.
President Barack Obama goal when giving this speech is to inform the Congress on the State of the Union. The primary message being delivered is to focus on the future and the four questions that he believed the country should answer regardless of the future presidents. The person delivering the speech is the 44th president Obama because according to the Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution the president must give the congress information on the State of the Union. Obama is the right person to be delivering the speech because he is the president and he knows what it is exactly that needs to be conveyed to the congress.
For years, America has always been perceived as one of the top world powers due to its ability of achieving so much technological, economical, and social progress within a mere couple decades. Despite their great accomplishments, America is actually regressing psychologically, preventing the country from reaching its true potential as an “opportunity rich” country. In Anthony Burgess’ Is America Falling Apart? , the author unveils the circumstances in which America’s restricting society and selfish ideology cause the nation to develop into the type of society it tried to avoid becoming when it separated from the British Empire.
During the years between 1920 and 1960, America saw change in many aspects of life. The United States was a part of two major wars and a crash of the banking system that crippled the economy greater than ever seen in this country’s history. Also the country had new insecurities to tackle such as immigration and poor treatment of workers. These events led to the change of America lives socially, economically, and politically. The people of America changed their ideas of what the country’s place in the world should be. The issues challenging America led the country to change from isolation to war, depression to prosperity, and social change. The threats to American way of life, foreign and domestic, were the changing forces to the country in the twenties to the sixties.
One of the most vigorous debates focuses on the current status of the United States hegemony and whether or not it is in decline. This begs the question, if the United States is indeed declining in status, will it still be an influential player or not? I argue that the United States is losing its prominent position as the hegemonic leader of the world, but will still remain an influential player in global politics in the following decades to come. Its decline is an imminent result of their domestic issues, the violation of international laws and economic deficit, which have posed a grave and serious challenge for the United States. On the other hand, I propose that the United States will remain a dominant force due to its innovation, cultural influences around the world, and military prowess. In their articles, “How Americans Can Survive the rise of the Rest”, by Fareed Zakaria and “America and Europe in the Asian Century”, by Kishore Mahbubani, provides two distinctive and thought provoking arguments from a declinist perspective. However, both articles are susceptible to criticism and will be further examined in order to understand the United States prominent role.
Geddes, R. Richard. "Policy Watch: Reform Of The U.S. Postal Service."Journal of Economic Perspectives 19.3 (2005): 217-232. jstor. Web. 28 Sept. 2013.
Impersonating a family possession can tear the minds of the family. William Faulkner’s book The Sound and The Fury is the story of a noble family’s inglorious fall from grace. The Compsons are a southern aristocratic family with numerous psychological problems. The story is told by four characters, all have a part to prove how they were involved in the shameful downfall of the once powerful Compson family. The novel illustrates to the readers how corruption among multiple family members can tear down a whole family in a period of time.