Who Follows America?

 

It is my impression that America is going down the tubes. She may have more vitality in her, but she is looking increasingly decadent. Abortion and the death of the family look like civilization-killers. Who might replace her as civilization’s vanguard?

Not Europe; Western Europe is further down the road to decay than America is. Perhaps Central and Eastern Europe; but they are fastened to a dying animal.

East Asia without China seems to lack the heft. Japan seems to have lost its energy. And I expect China, given its present regime, to collapse before the US does.

India looks like a candidate. But I wonder if Hinduism can offer sufficient moral direction and backbone. It seems a bit of a morass. 

I have hopes for CANZUK; but at this point, it would require a cultural U-turn of the four countries; some kind of cultural renaissance. I would not realistically expect it anywhere else; I should not expect it here, simply because I want it to happen. Seems like wishful thinking. Also, in population terms, CANZUK is still a lightweight.

Here’s another thought. 

Historically, when an empire declines and falls, the new power seems to emerge from just outside its zone of influence—from the barbarian fringe. Here it is able to develop independent systems, immune to the collapse, while soaking up what was best from the former power. So America replaced England. So Macedonia replaced the Greek city states, so Rome replaced Macedonia, so Manchuria conquered China, so the Arabs took Persia, and the Turks Byzantium.

On that principle, perhaps we should expect great things from Latin America. It seems the one part of the world that most closely fits that historical bill: just outside America’s zone of control. In principle, it shares the US’s commitment to liberal democracy and human equality. It shares America’s and Europe’s Judeo-Christian moral traditions. So taking over the reins would not be a cultural stretch. It has the necessary demographic strength. It has been held back until now by corruption and bad governments, but that seems to be improving. Such corruption and misgovernment cannot be inevitably embedded in the culture, since parent Spain has gotten past it. As has Romance and Catholic France. And both Spain and France have previously shown the strength to dominate the world.