The Loss of Soft Power
American deaths in the Middle East have long stopped being headline news. Yet still, occasionally, there will be a blast large enough to warrant comment. In China, news of the war causes a few raised eyebrows and a lot of heads shaken. My family, at the dinner table, will talk about how terrible it is. The conversation goes something like this: “See? This is what happens when you interfere with other countries’ internal affairs.” Followed by a rhetorical question, aimed in my general direction: “So why do you suppose the US invaded Iraq? If they just knew enough to mind their own business, they wouldn’t be having this problem.” And finally the smug suggestion: “America should learn from China. China makes friends wherever it goes, not enemies. That’s because we don’t try to tell them what to do.”
Rosemary’s Q&A
Tickled as I was to see that old rascal Roman Polanski at the Beijing Film Academy Q&A on Monday, October 27th, the event quickly devolved into a study on how not to stage a Q&A. The sprightly 75-years-young director, looking not a day over 60, appeared onstage to resounding applause, only to discover that the Q&A was inanely planned and transparently bureaucratic, with audience members barred from asking but a single question at the end. Forget it Roman, it’s Chinatown.
Obama for President
The question confronting the American electorate is this: are we a decadent power? This query should not be misconstrued; I am not sure whether America’s finest days are behind her, nor is the goal of this essay to prove that they are. Rather the following must be understood as an attempt to understand the full implications of the current electoral cycle.
The past does not guarantee the future. Although the United States will still be the preeminent power in the world in 2012 regardless of who is elected as the next President, there is significant danger that the 2008 election could mark the beginning of the end of the American Century.
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