“We proved that for all its imperfections, America is still the beacon to the world, an ideal to be realized, a promise to be kept. There’s nothing more important. Nothing more sacred. Nothing more American. That’s our soul. That’s who we truly are. And that’s who we must always be.” - President Joe Biden, Thursday, September 1st, 2022
With all of his shortcomings, President Biden delivered an alluring and timely speech this week. The address was a call for national unity, harkening to the core of America and our Constitution. Although well overdue, this is a necessary stride to get our untied states back to a common thread. Though, there is always a [underlying] theme in these speeches that requires addressing [with a hermeneutic of suspicion, of course; thank you, Prof. Quinn].
Why do we need national unity? Well, to prevent a collapse of a nation or potential civil war, of course, but pragmatically, we require unity in a crisis. America is plagued with the aftermath of the pandemic, inflation, supply chain issues, Russia’s “special operation”—the list goes on. Helen Mears wrote, “In a time of crisis, any tradition can be used to unify a people behind an aggressive program. Such traditions are not the cause of war. They are appealed to as a technique for achieving unity behind a war program once a war is decided on by policymakers for other, less esoteric reasons.”
In his 24-minute speech, Biden said “democracy” 31 times; lovely democracy, if only one could be so sanguine. With such a hellish backdrop, Biden’s staging crew only provided me a sense of cold comfort. Domestic policy is one thing; we must unite as a country. On the other hand, our foreign policy is mostly a mirage—we are sincerely peace-loving, or we are not. We failed to show the slightest degree of conciliation in Ukraine, so if we are not anti-war… you can figure out the rest. The American playbook is to maneuver some threat “X” into the position of firing the first shot without allowing too much danger to America—then declare it a “national security” issue.
Our “right” to punish Russia [and inevitably China] is not based on popular emotion or idealism; it is based on the decisions of the United States State Department backed by the industrial and military might of the United States as a major power. Backed by the “greatest force of air, sea, and land power the world has ever seen”—and now a space force—America is terrifying. Our power seems so innocent, so almost unaware of itself. The majority of Americans are not even aware of our nation’s arsenal. We are the modern Crusaders; instead of a cross and sword, we wield democracy and nukes. We control the seven seas and space and can infiltrate digital infrastructure anywhere. We sell arms, fighter jets, and missiles across the globe, seeking freedom in the name of democracy. Look at the world map; the United States is in-between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with a world-class navy able to maneuver around the globe in ways even the [obsolete] British Empire could ever dream of.
On another note, though—more fundamentally—where do you want to live? Would you move to China? Do you know anyone that wants to move to China? Please comment if you do, because I frankly know none. Even with its flaws, people want to come to America. Yes, American immigration policy is atrocious. Yes, America needs to reform the H-1B and H-4 visas. But these are not unresolvable problems. We can solve this by refining America’s goals and continuing to increase skilled immigration. In the words of George Friedman, we need to abandon what Americans were in favor of what they will become. People come to the US to move faster and go further than they were ever able to in their home nations. America sits in the lap of luxury, one of extravagance and overabundance, but because of our wealth (land, natural resources, and finances), we can take more chances than any other nation. Combined with liberal principles of free speech and private property, entrepreneurs and capital allocators will continue to [hopefully] make the world a better and happier place—the only way is up.
The First Amendment protects the freedom of speech, the precursor for our freedom to think—this is the basis for all other freedoms liberal orders want to protect. Recently, however, people have begun to believe that words are “actual violence”; based on Michel Foucault’s philosophy, “biopolitics” & “biopower” have indoctrinated people to believe that “words itself constitute violence and thus make them feel ‘unsafe’ and subject to traumatic stress.” There is a difference between nasty words and physical violence; Foucault argued that as words are expressions of power, if asserted, they can make people “feel” unsafe. But these are merely feelings, and it’s a slippery slope if one begins to build an “objective truth” around feelings and intuition versus an empirical approach.
Some are trying to redefine everything in life, but for us to confront real problems, we cannot be distracted by fake ones. A “woke” cult cannot preoccupy us; armored in false virtue, they are exclusionary, divisive, and intolerant. If you disagree with their views or policy, you are labeled as a racist. Yet, these “anti-racists” judge everyone based on race and only befriends self-hating whites and self-victimizing minorities. They are racist; those truly “colorblind” understand that race is only one’s appearance and human nature, suffering, and happiness is shared—regardless of the color of one’s skin. Injustices and atrocities of the past perpetrated by one’s ancestors cannot be used to judge people living today. Imagine our society in a hundred years; what type of “atrocities” are we committing now that our progeny will condemn?
What is the “current thing” now? Posts of black screens for #BLM, posts of “Slava Ukraini,” when in January, many Americans didn’t even know Ukraine existed—or much less its location on a map. Social media has allowed us to increase consciousness about injustices throughout the world which is good, but it has also allowed people to “mistake speech acts for acts that affect outcomes in the real world.” Perhaps we are satisfied with a mere simulation of reality from reposts & interactions online. Social media is an outlet for people’s feelings about social justice but relieves them of any real change. As Fukuyama writes, “It remains the case that there is an objective world out there beyond our subjective minds and that if an alternate reality strays too far from it, it will be impossible to accomplish real-world goals, no matter how much we may want that alternative reality to be true. We can swallow the wrong color pill, but eventually, we will wake up from the dream.”
But America is slowly waking up. We know that for our national security, energy independence is imperative. The European Union, lost in their dreams of a zero-carbon and “green” society, has become blind to reality; dependent on [cheap] Russian gas, they’ve become intoxicated, losing coordination and judgment amidst their blurry vision of a future. In the coming weeks, the EU will have to “support” Ukraine or reverse course and beg for Gazprom’s elixir. Even Japan’s Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, has begun talks to restart nuclear power plants further and develop “next-generation” nuclear reactors. (C’mon, Germany, what are you doing? Restart those reactors!) A lot of the opposition to nuclear power has been from so-called “green groups” who want a green future yet offer no bridge between today’s hydrocarbon dependency and a cleaner tomorrow. Thus, I propose rebranding nuclear energy; let’s call it “Green Fission,” then the media and green groups would love it. (Uranium stockpiles are pretty high; thus, uranium prices haven’t increased too much; I will do a deep dive into energy stockpiles/investing opportunities soon).
To wake up means to face the realities. Perhaps I am a bit too scrupulous, but it appears Hollywood is gearing up for war. We see Top Gun: Maverick breaking records in theaters and digital sales since May. Next summer, we have Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer slated for release. (J. Robert Oppenheimer is the “father of the atomic bomb” and known for his reciting of the Bhagavad Gita, stating, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”)
The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
We take peace for granted, but I fear that we’re starting to go too far and that a global war could be inevitable. In 1948, Helen Mears wrote, “to build up any nation as a military power at this stage of scientific development of instruments of death is rashness beyond understanding. Our current foreign-policy leaders, lost in their dreams of power and glory, have become as blind to reality as the Japanese militarists before them. The question for Americans to answer, and to answer at once, is whether we have already allowed our power machine to get out of control or whether we can still take over and reverse our direction.” (And this was written before the Cold War). The US’s military aid packages to Ukraine, Taiwan, and Israel continue to increase. In the 20th century, supplies—guns, ammunition, etc.—from the democracies (US, Great Britain, Netherlands) made it possible for the Manchurian Incident, Marco Polo Bridge Incident, Pearl Harbor, etc. to occur. (The US, British, and Dutch empires supplied the Empire of Japan with 85% of their essential war supplies in the 1930s.) In the 21st century, supplies—guns, ammunition, etc.—from the democracies (US, Great Britain) made it possible for the invasion of Iraq, war on Al-Qaeda & Daesh, Taliban’s return to Afghanistan, arming of Israeli & Saudi forces, defense of Ukraine, Taiwan… History may not repeat itself, but it managed to look as though it did. Under the tutelage of American hegemony, the wings of democracy and peace may—once again—lead us down the warpath once more.
The United States giveth, the United States taketh. Blessed be the United States.
We are a prisoner of our propaganda, “is it only other people’s crimes we can recognize, or do we believe that crimes committed in the name of democracy are automatically purged of their guilt.” The United States is an odd nation that is insecure yet full of hubris. We see threats everywhere, yet all of them are ghosts. We outsourced manufacturing abroad, but we are now bringing it back home—besides, we are our own best customers. We have the technical superiority to bring down unit costs, deliver higher wages, and make it unnecessary to use sweatshop labor abroad. The future is made in America; thus, there are a few things to consider. What stays the same, and what will we always need? Energy, food, water, communication, and security infrastructure. With the future of automation, low energy costs will be one of the only determining competitive factors, so a future of abundant, clean, and cheap energy is essential. Nuclear power delivers all of this now, so we will see a resurrection of this industry going forward. (Maybe fusion in another twenty years).
This essay merely scratched the surface of what I want to cover, but I appreciate everyone reading and supporting this Substack. The more I write, the more topics I want to write about—wow, what a luxurious dilemma. With that said, I want to close this essay with a timeless quote from President John Quincy Adams; it was written on July 4th, 1821, yet still applies today. Thank you and as always, I am lost in the right direction.
“America, in the assembly of nations, since her admission among them, has invariably, though often fruitlessly, held forth to them the hand of honest friendship, of equal freedom, of generous reciprocity; she has uniformly spoken among them, though often to heedless, and often to disdainful ears the language of equal liberty, of equal justice, and equal rights; she has in the lapse of nearly half a century, with but a single exception, respected the independence of other nations while asserting and maintaining her own; she has abstained from interference in the concerns of others, even when the conflict has been for the principles to which she clings as to the last vital drop that visits her heart. She has seen that, probably for centuries to come, the contests of… the European World will be contests of inveterate power and emerging right. Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions, and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy… She will recommend the general cause, by the countenance of her voice and the benignant sympathy of her example; she well knows that by once enlisting under other banners than her own, be even the banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extrication, in all the wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy, and ambition, which assume the colors and usurp the standards of freedom. The fundamental axioms of her policy would insensibly change from liberty to force; the frontlet on her brow would no longer beam with the ineffable splendor of freedom and independence but, in its stead, would soon be substituted an imperial diadem, flashing in false and tarnished luster, the murky radiance of dominion and power. She might become the dictatress of the world; she would be no longer the ruler of her own spirit.”
The Elites control the government, the president of the US is purely a puppet; left and right wings politicians get paid by the same group of people to further divide the country so that they are lost in the “democrats vs republican” reality and not the “people vs the secret elite” reality.