An American Century
No matter what the chorus of critics pontificating on American decline may say, the fact is that only America possesses the three levers of power: military, economic and socio-cultural that are prerequisites for world supremacy.
Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War, the United States has become the coordinator of planetary security, the guarantor of international monetary reserves and the coordinator of planetary trade.
It is only the President of the United States who can decide when and where an international police operation is needed and he alone has the privilege of being able to intervene wherever in the world he so chooses.
We can deplore this or applaud this but we have to accept that this is the fact.
America is the world’s largest, wealthiest market with the right demographic mix.
America is home to the most advanced technology on the planet and controls the great flows of energy, financial capital, data and audiovisual imagery. This allows it to produce economic hegemony at a level never seen before.
Whatever their internal differences may be, the political class in America is united in their wish to perpetuate and strengthen the primacy of the United States.
Even those in opposition who moan about its decline, cry about America’s decline because they claim that they are the alternative that is capable of restoring its lost grandeur. Those who are in power in America defend their own record and showcase their positive achievements and maintain that they alone can guarantee its continuing ‘Numero Uno’ position and prosperity.
Those in India who have any doubts about the 21st century being an American century should give up relying on biased, motivated prophecy or worse, delusion
Recognising reality for what it is, all of us should endeavour to make sure that India becomes the number one country in America’s grand design and in doing so lies our road to prosperity and betterment.
My area of professional activity is brand building and marketing.
I am looking at America from a marketer’s eyes and I see how the American republic has transformed itself into a global phenomenon!
It is a democratic empire that through the power of superior marketing and corporate enterprise has rapidly coloured the entire planet, even sometimes at the expense of American domestic interest.
They have managed to achieve an American -centred global civilisation. No one came close to this in the past. The emerging and established classes across the world have their interests tied to and minded from America.
It is natural that the triumph of this global American civilisation should worry those who are attached to local or national particularities. This is true even of domestic American constituencies. I take a pragmatic view of the situation and find it pointless to complain about America’s inexorable march towards planetary empire. In fact, some clear areas of concern that are planetary in scope - ecological distress, a crisis of overconsumption, species loss, cyber intelligence and genetics can only be handled or remedied when America takes the lead with the whole world behind it.
I am resolutely optimistic that throughout history, Indians have been forced to adapt to new forms of social organisation and I see that Indians are at an enormous advantage to capitalise on the emergence of a world that is American in spirit. Indians have the technological smarts and presence in global corporations as mid to top management to be able to gain from its economic triumph.
Brand America has gone through several cultural mutations that have allowed it to become a world empire and manage the representation of diverse human communities.
From the 1960s, it has had religious implications for the American political system with the eclipse of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant America and the birth of new multiculturalism.
America has also travelled from provincialism to world dominance between 1914 and 1945.
Let no one be in doubt that Washington D.C is the political capital of the planet and New York City is its financial Centre.
This realisation will explain the construction of a new universal American planetary organisation because only then will realise that in reality, America is the largest, most productive and the most continuously innovative economy in the world. From its smallest ‘start-up’ to the bosses of its largest global corporations they make no secret of their intention to control and run the world economy. It is from here that they derive their policy of anti-protectionism and organising worldwide trade, capital flow and security pact.
America is effectively the driver for the greatest social, economic, political and cultural shift the world has ever seen because it is the first such movement to have reached the entire planet. This shift has undercut ancient institutions and the sovereignty of nation-states including that of the United States of America itself because it is more driven by the worldwide marketing of corporate forces.
Technology has made things accelerate since the arrival of the new millennium and now the scale and complexity of the forces at work compel us to join forces with the leader.
Everywhere in the world, the distinction between the internal and foreign policy is becoming increasingly blurred.
America is integrating with the rest of the world just as much is the rest of the world is integrating with America.
The key to America’s growth expansion and innovation has been its love of business, trade, investment, ideas and openness to dealing with the world at large.
India needs to grab this opportunity
To use an old American saying “ If you can’t beat them join them”.
