The US is resting on its laurels. We HAD an opportunity to exert a tremendous positive influence on the world when the Soviet Union collapsed. But we decided to gorge ourselves on BMW's, 10,000 square foot homes and lattes instead. Not to mention tech stocks and real estate. Rather than provide global leadership, we elected to pursue global domination. Instead of ideas, we flooded the world with TV shows like Sex And The City, American Idol and Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? We followed that up with an onslaught of gansta rap and memorable movies like Dumb & Dumber, Part II. We have been profligate with our moral capital and have thereby let the opportunity slip through our fingers. It was an opportunity that will not come our way again.
The US today is economically, morally and politically bankrupt. Hardly a prescription for a so-called "world leader", is it?
But such words are anathema to the populace, who cannot fathom why we shouldn't be able to continue our profligate ways in perpetuity. The most common expression one hears is "Hey. This is AMURRICA!!!!" As if that removes us from ever having to give an accounting of ourselves.
America IS a great country with a tremendous amount of creative energy to be tapped. It is stuffed full of good hearted people. There WAS a window in time when we were, to use the popular expression, THE SHIT! But that time has come and gone. We are just another country among many now. We don't like saying so. But it's long past time for us to grow up and act like a mature society, instead of one that thinks it is somehow "exceptional" and exempt from all the things that brought the Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire, among others, to their knees.
Everything you need to know about global affairs can be gleaned from a close reading of "The Three Little Pigs".
