There is some interesting stuff here, as ever. Thanks for publishing! You are quite right of course that the USA is more or less unique in being the kind of ‘melting pot’ they say it is. Doubtless that has given your country unique characteristics. One interesting thing to me, though, is the challenge to (individualistic, venturesome) hegemony by collectivist cultures (I’m thinking especially if China here, of course) in recent years. Indeed, China’s GDP is forecast to overtake the USA’s before terribly long. I forget the exact year. I wonder what that tells us, politically speaking.
Thanks for reading and your comment! Watching CN’s rise from the left field is an interesting exercise and presents a viable alternative to the American model. CN has been blessed with competent leadership, beginning with Deng and now Xi, who seems to be doing a good job. But thats also an Achilles Heel when it comes to collectivist cultures; they’re heavily dependent on their leadership. CN during Mao didn’t do so well, for example. We see a lot of collectivist cultures with strong but corrupt and incompetent leadership not doing so well, such as a few countries in Africa and North Korea/Mongolia and even Japan in some cases.
Well, maybe I’ll write another article praising CN’s model when their GDP overtakes the US, haha
There is some interesting stuff here, as ever. Thanks for publishing! You are quite right of course that the USA is more or less unique in being the kind of ‘melting pot’ they say it is. Doubtless that has given your country unique characteristics. One interesting thing to me, though, is the challenge to (individualistic, venturesome) hegemony by collectivist cultures (I’m thinking especially if China here, of course) in recent years. Indeed, China’s GDP is forecast to overtake the USA’s before terribly long. I forget the exact year. I wonder what that tells us, politically speaking.
Thanks for reading and your comment! Watching CN’s rise from the left field is an interesting exercise and presents a viable alternative to the American model. CN has been blessed with competent leadership, beginning with Deng and now Xi, who seems to be doing a good job. But thats also an Achilles Heel when it comes to collectivist cultures; they’re heavily dependent on their leadership. CN during Mao didn’t do so well, for example. We see a lot of collectivist cultures with strong but corrupt and incompetent leadership not doing so well, such as a few countries in Africa and North Korea/Mongolia and even Japan in some cases.
Well, maybe I’ll write another article praising CN’s model when their GDP overtakes the US, haha
good words 👍
thanks and thanks for reading!
Thanks for the restack @Heidi Zawelevsky !