The Anti-Americans’ Vocabulary Still Hasn’t Yet Expanded to that of a Normal Adult

Doomed! America is doomed, I tell ya! Whithering away! But not whithering away too quickly to be at fault of the very opposite too – culpability for showing any comparative degree of success in anything. For that, and its’ opposite, the entire culture, people, and most of all its’ image must be smited to prop up someones’ tender feelings of needing to wallow in an envious obsession of envy and the need for a far away demon.

The silliest thing that clever people are saying about the world economic crisis is that the United States will lose its position as the dominant world superpower in consequence. On the contrary: the crisis strengthens the relative position of the United States and exposes the far graver weaknesses of all prospective competitors. It makes the debt of the American government the world's most desirable asset. America may deserve to decline, but as Clint Eastwood said in another context, "deserve's got nothing to do with it". President Barack Obama may turn out to be the most egregious unilateralist in American history.

America's supposed decline dominates the glossy magazines. Last September, Germany's Finance Minister Peer Steinbruck intoned, "One thing seems probable to me. As a result of the crisis, the United States will lose its status as the superpower of the global financial system." The German official is quoted by Professor Richard Florida in the March 2009 Atlantic Monthly, who adds, "You don't have to strain too hard to see the financial crisis as the death knell for a debt-ridden, overconsuming and underproducing American empire - the fall long prophesied by [British historian] Paul Kennedy and others." (Florida's views are more nuanced).

Ah, the buzzwords. “Empire” “Over-consuming” etc., etc. Those phrases signal who can hear the silent dog-whistle and who can’t. It’s a good thing the US can remain useful as a hobby-horse to flag their feeble careers and lack of attention by the press.