If there was only one argument I could make about the twenty-first century, it would be that the European Age has ended and that the North American Age has begun, and that North America will be dominated by the United States for the next hundred years. The events of the twenty-first century will pivot around the United States. That doesn’t guarantee that the United States is necessarily a just or moral regime. It certainly does not mean that America has yet developed a mature civilization. It does mean that in many ways the history of the United States will be the history of the twenty-first century. – page 13
This is interesting and much different than what is generally accepted in this time of perceived decline. It seems that on the right and left, America is bound for the dustbin, but that may be an observation born of our generational configuration. In Friedman’s read, America’s ascent has just begun. Let’s take a look at an alternate read the events of the cold war:
It is interesting to note that throughout the Cold War, the United States was on the defensive psychologically. Korea, McCarthyism, Cuba, Vietnam, Sputnik, left-wing terrorism in the 1970s and 1980s, and harsh criticism of Reagan by European allies all created a constant sense of gloom and uncertainty in America. Atmospherics gave the United States the continual sense that its advantage in the Cold War was slipping away. Yet underneath the hood, in the objective reality of power relations, the Russians never had a chance. This disjuncture between the American psyche and geopolitical reality is important to remember for two reasons. First, it reveals the immaturity of American power. Second, it reveals a tremendous strength. Because the United States was insecure, it generated a level of effort and energy that was overwhelming. The was nothing casual or confident in the way the Americans – from political leaders to engineers to military and intelligence officers – waged the Cold War. – page 26
The U.S. was completely caught off guard when it won the cold war. But why?
Psychologically, the United States is a bizarre mixture of overconfidence and insecurity. Interestingly, this is the precise description of the adolescent mind (emphasis mine), and that is exactly the American condition in the twenty-first century. The world’s leading power is having an extended adolescent identity crisis, complete with incredible new strength and irrational mood swings. Historically, the United States is an extraordinarily young and therefore immature society. So at this time we should expect nothing less from America than bravado and despair. How else should an adolescent feel about itself and its place in the world? - page 28
This characterization of America as an adolescent is astute. There is little-to-no public discussion about how a nation, changing against the backdrop of global history, matures. The only discussion of change that I ever see is “thing X, in the past, happened and it was bad/good”. Particular segments are highlighted for a look-see, but only to serve a perceptual bias for one’s political camp.
But the part of the book that stuck with truest chord with me was Friedman’s acceptance of the three stages of a culture:
Cultures live in one of three states. The first state is barbarism. Barbarians believe that the customs of their village are the laws of nature and that anyone who doesn’t live the way they live is beneath contempt and requiring redemption or destruction. The third state is decadence. Decadents cynically believe that nothing is better than anything else. If they hold anyone in contempt, it is those who believe in anything. Nothing is worth fighting for.
Civilization is the second and most rare state. Civilized people are able to balance two contradictory thoughts in their minds. They believe that there are truths and that their cultures approximate those truths. At the same time, they hold open in their mind the possibility that they are in error. The combination of belief and skepticism is inherently unstable. Cultures pass through barbarism to civilization and then to decadence, as skepticism undermines self-certainty. Civilized people fight selectively but effectively. Obviously all cultures contain people who are barbaric, civilized, or decadent, but each culture is dominated at different times by one principle. – page 29
This is key. Remove from your mind the end-goals of our political perspectives and look at the tone and approach. On each side, we have caricatures of the right and the left. Both hold staunchly to their values. The right holds onto simplifications of rural tradition combined with Christianity, while the left embraces relatively recent values and morals that are still taking shape. Both extremes, however, share a sense of moral certainty about their values. America is a barbaric nation.
