September 30, 2003- The Great Wall

A few millennia ago, there was a society on Earth that was rather advanced for its day. They gave mankind lots of advances in fields like mathematics and engineering, and was looked up to by other societies that they came in contact with as a very good society to live in. That ancient society was China, a very old and history rich society. The people in China lived very well for living in the time that they did. However, China was plagued by a big problem, and that was the egos and paranoias of its Emperors. Some of these Emperors thought that the only way to keep China the way that they liked it was to seal it off from the outside world. These Emperors feared that some other society would come in and wrest away what they had, and they did not want that to happen at all. So, what one of these Emperors came up with was the idea of constructing a wall around China to keep outsiders away. So, over the succeeding few centuries, various Chinese Emperors had the Great Wall Of China built around the perimeter of the land to keep the outside world away from China. It worked like the proverbial charm. Once that wall was constructed, no one from the outside had any chance of getting into China except through the gates that were continually manned by Chinese Military men. So only those deemed "acceptable" by whatever Chinese Emperor or government was in charge were able to get into China, and that was pretty much no one except the Chinese themselves. For century after century, China remained sealed off behind this Great Wall, closed to the outside world. After a few centuries of this, the isolation began to take a toll on China, as it lagged farther and farther behind the rest of the world. However, they had no idea that this was happening, as the isolation was that complete. Life in China remained the same long after the rest of civilization had moved beyond that level. However, man made the world a smaller and smaller place as he improved his technologies and the like. Eventually, these advances led the outside world to China's doorstep. Since things were far more advanced then they were when the wall was constructed, China was no longer able to keep the outside world out. That was when they discovered just how far that they had fallen behind the rest of civilization by being isolated like they were. They ended up getting taken advantage of very badly by that outside world because of that fact once they were no longer totally isolated. China found out that despite the nation's size, and the fact that they had approximately twenty percent of the world's population, they were relegated to second-class status amongst the nations of the world due to their centuries of isolation. China has been playing catch-up on that issue to this very day. Even now, in the 21st century, China still lags far behind the rest of the civilized world in many areas, including prestige. They know now that all that time that they spend hiding behind the Great Wall and zealously keeping the rest of the world away has cost them dearly in terms of progress of civilization. So they are now doing everything that they can possible think of to try and rectify that fact. However, they still face many problems due to that isolation. Things like the fact that many parts of their society remain very isolated and cut-off are a big part of the problem. China is going to be paying the price for being so isolated behind their wall for many years to come, it shall be a few generations yet before they can start to catch up to the rest of the world. So erecting a Great Wall to keep all outsiders out was not a good idea for Chinese civilization in the long run. A textbook example of why no society should ever isolate itself from the rest of the world, an example that everyone would learn and from and act accordingly, at least that is the way that common sense would look at it. However, America does not seem to be paying any attention to that. They are busy erecting their own version of the Great Wall around their society. America is isolating itself from and antagonizing the rest of the world at a frightening pace. The international reaction to President Bush's pleas for help with the Iraq situation has shown that. The rest of the world is tired of America's selfish attitudes. You have a president that feels that he should get whatever he wants from anyone and everyone, no matter what it is, with complete disregard for the viewpoints and interests of others. The America people echo this attitude too. They scorn and berate the countries that they see as not unequivocally supporting America, such as France. You have all this anti-French sentiment in America today, just because they did not support Bush and his warlust in Iraq. As a result, America is doing all that it can to isolate itself from the French. They are also doing all that they can to isolate themselves from the rest of Europe as well. Americans are taking a hostile attitude towards the rest of the world. Many of them see the current state of world affairs as a case of the rest of the world being against America. Many Americans feel that the rest of the world is jealous of America and what that society has and now they are all acting on it. That may be true in some cases, but it is not the prevalent attitude. The rest of the world just wants America to be more reasonable about things. They don't want America to be storming all about the world meddling in this and that all the time, fucking everything up just to satisfy their own selfish agendas. America does not want to hear that, they have the attitude that just because they are considered the most powerful nation on Earth, that they have the right to do whatever they please, and everyone else is sick of that. So America has taken this opportunity to isolate themselves from the rest of the world as much as they can. Although they have not built actual mortar walls around the perimeter of their country, they are erecting walls around themselves just the same. They are shutting out the outside world because they feel that it is against them, same as the Chinese Emperors thought many centuries ago. America feels that since they are the most economically advanced country around, that they can isolate themselves and be totally self-contained, that they do not need the outside world for anything. More and more, American society is drifting towards this way of thinking. They feel that it is better for them to live behind walls and ignore everyone else. America is becoming a very isolationist society, which is going against the trend of the 21st Century of a global society. Modern day America is developing a mentality not unlike that of ancient China, and acting in somewhat the same way.

If Americans want to ensure that their society loses its position as the most advanced society in the world, all that they have to do is to continue this for a number of years. For no matter how advanced a society is, they cannot shut themselves off behind walls, for that society will eventually crumble. It was true in antiquity when China did it, and it is still just as true today. The American people feel that they no longer need the rest of the world, that it is the rest of the world that needs them. This has raised more than a little resentment from the rest of the world, because even though it has all that money and material wealth, the fact is that America only has approximately four percent of the world's population. That means that ninety-six percent of the world does not live in America. Nowhere on earth has a situation where a small minority rules a much larger majority ever been tolerated by that majority very well, and it is not in this case either. Especially in this case, because using that other ninety-six percent is a big part of how America came to get all that money and material wealth that they make such a big deal out of. Exploitation of the rest of the world is a main part of America's monetary success. Without it, they never get to where they are. For that reason alone, and isolationist attitude is not smart for America. For all its problems and shortcomings, America has figured out the capitalist scene like no others. They have figured out how to use that to glean wealth from everywhere in the world. Now that man has dome just about all that he can to make it a truly global society, America cannot afford to isolate itself from everyone else. Because those others will just say fuck America and go about doing business amongst themselves and cut America out of everything. This will be tough at first, since America has itself pretty well involved in everything, but if they continue to be isolationist about things, the other countries will find ways around them and be able to conduct business around them. That is part of happened to China when they built the Great Wall, they lost al business with the outside world and fell behind. They never factored that into things because they never thought that it would happen. They thought that they were so far above and beyond the rest of the world that no one would ever be able to catch up to them. Kind of like the way Americans think today. What America has to realize is that since it is truly a global world, that no one can that far ahead of anyone else, since there are no secrets anymore. If America really wants to lead the world from here on out, they have to cooperate with others, not shun them. A superior attitude does no good anymore. The problem with America in the eyes of the rest of the world is that they still have that fuckin' superior attitude towards everyone else. As such, they think that they are the only ones that can solve problems and set things straight. The fiasco in Iraq has proven to everyone except America that this is so. Yet, America insists that their ways are the only ways and that they are always right. When others try to explain that this is not so, they are met by the Great Wall. Sooner or later, they are just going to stop trying to communicate with America altogether. We see this happening already with things like the European Union, other countries banding together to form an entity to rival America in size and population and resources, and hopefully in world leadership too. Yet America continues to isolate itself from these other entities, insisting that it can remain behind its Great Wall and continue to thrive, just like ancient China did. America truly feels that it can never be caught, let alone left behind and passed up, so they continue to feel that they can afford to continue with isolationism. They cannot, at least not for too long. Too many other countries are catching up to America very quickly in many areas, challenging the US supremacy in these fields. Many of these countries are making great strides real fast and cutting the gap between them and America faster than anyone ever thought possible. If America continues to live behind its own version of the Great Wall, that gap will shrink in no time. America's economic superiority is not anywhere near as solid as it once was. They laid out a blueprint for everyone else to follow. That is what they said that they wanted to do, spread the American ways all across the globe. The thinking was that no one could ever outdo the Masters, the originators, as America saw itself. That thinking was quite wrong, as many of the pupils are now ready to outdo the teachers in everything. The worst thing that America can do right now is to alienate the rest of the world through its arrogance, and that is exactly what it is doing. Americans look at the rest of the world as if it is part of America rather than seeing America as part of the rest of the world. If America builds walls around itself and shuts out everyone else, they shall suffer the same fate as China, they will fall behind and have to play a near hopeless game of catch-up. It can happen to America, despite what the citizens and the White House may think to the contrary. I have said many times that the only ones that can destroy America are not the terrorists or any foreign powers, but America itself. If the American people put up walls around their society by being hostile to everyone else and isolationist, they will be sowing the seeds of their own destruction. The mortar Great Wall that China erected around themselves ended up doing them far more harm than good in the long run, and the virtual Great Wall that America seems to be erecting around itself is also going to do far more harm than good if it is allowed to continue. So the most prudent thing to do is to tear down this Great Wall that America is erecting, except that prudence is not usually the way that America deals with things, especially these days, so it remains to be seen whether or not this wall is going to go down before it is too late, because unlike China's Great Wall, America could never make a tourist attraction out of their Great Wall, so it would be even more negative to its society than China's ever was.