Today,
fielding a massive standing army fully equipped with the latest tools
of belligerent war is only a short march to bankruptcy and decline.
Ultimately, the weapons that win wars are not nuclear warheads or
nerve agents, they are barbecue grills, movies in DVD or MP4 format,
leather handbags, insurance policies, basketball hoops, shoe laces,
salad forks, breakfast cereals and every other useful
thing
we need in life manufactured by the millions. Trade is conquest.
Goods and services are the weapons of modern war in the 21st Century.
The ability to bring the highest quality weapons of war to market at
the lowest cost is victory. The soldiers of the future are consumers
by the millions and billions. Feed these soldiers, make them
beautiful, cloth them, house them, relieve their lower back pain,
maintain communication between them, train them, guarantee their
pizza on time, earn their loyalty and you will conquer the world from
your point of sale checkout. In the words of Sun Tzu, “Hence to
fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence;
supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance
without fighting.” The
Art of War III-2.
What Sun Tzu is describing is winning the hearts and minds by
cultural superiority, and such superiority can only be accomplished
by aggressively engaging in international trade. Exporting an idea
packaged in a lifestyle filled with useful things and, most of all,
purpose. Provide soldiers with these things and they will follow you
anywhere.
As
much as the Polish were caught unprepared for the future when they
committed wave after wave of their finest mounted cavalry as
sacrificial offerings before Panzers and Stukas in hope of
forestalling defeat, America is unprepared. The rules have changed,
the game board transformed, and national alliances once like familial
bonds broken. The post war years are over and the Pax Americana with
it. Military dominance has given way to market dominance. The oceans
at our flanks which protected us throughout the Second World War have
become the walls of our isolation. Most of the world shares a common
landmass and we are not part of it. This geographical fact puts our
island-like national trade at a serious numerical disadvantage.
If
you think distance doesn't matter in a shrinking world, ask yourself
how often have you paid $4.99 for a gallon of milk at a convenience
store rather than $1.99 at a grocery store ten blocks down the road?
Many more times than you can remember.
Now,
ask yourself why don't we get our bottled water from Tajikistan when
the labor and packaging costs are so much lower than American bottled
water? Shipping costs would outstrip any savings. The end result is
high priced foreign water few would buy. I can't account for Perrier.
So, I'm labeling it an anomaly and moving on.
In
America, we are still playing Post-War/ Cold War games with a Second
World War mindset. The near surreal administration of President Trump
is living proof of our disconnect from reality. Take an objective
look at the President's actions. Imagine, if you can, these actions
being performed by someone who has taken the Oval Office while you
were in a decade long coma. Imagine. How would you perceive this
President...
who
tries to unilaterally dictate terms of trade to nations with
options.
as
he resurrects the specter of Russia at home and abroad.
as
he plays to national pride in a country where an increasing number
identify as hyphenated Americans.
as
he strong arms Justin Trudeau, then buddy back slaps Kim Jong Un.
as
he insists we build a wall any old East German would recognize as a
closed border.
as
he takes up yet another foreign war of adventure while we're still
embroiled in... how many are we in now? Does anyone know? Seriously,
anyone?
as
he and your fellow citizens engage in a verbal civil war over a
single football players silent protest while the budget slips into a
$22 trillion dollar national debt spiral?
What
would you think of this anonymous President?
Now,
compare that to what you currently think of President Trump. Our
priorities and "ignorance is bliss" repose betray an Aldous
Huxleyan disconnect from reality. Since, we have adopted this Brave
New World, we better build a wall because we're afraid of criminals,
drugs, foreigners, terrorists, welfare cheats, unfettered capitalism,
uninsured motorists, the next bird flu, testicular cancer, creeping
socialism, saturated fats, male pattern baldness, glyphosate,
microaggressions, anthropomorphic climate change, and let's not
forget a hundred-hundred thousand other things we don't care to
recall. One of the few areas where we remain intrepid is repeating
the lessons of history.
When
a nation is young, it is lead by impetuous patriots filled with
revolutionary zeal. Like a
child they may hurt
others and themselves without regard because they have short
attention spans and heal as quickly as they grow. Entering maturity
the nation slows down and becomes either fantastically productive and
wealthy or incestuously
corrupt and poor. In advanced age all nations share a single
sentiment: Fear. Their place in the world is no longer growing, but
diminishing. Strong enemies, real or imagined, surround them on all
sides, if not from within. Like the elderly person, an elderly nation
fears they may fall never to rise again. Seeking safety and security
from this constant dread, the ancient nation begins to build walls.
Walls to protect what little they have left. Walls to secure their
uncertain future. Walls where they can sleep in peace. Walls of a
nation's crypt. Some decomposing nations may linger for decades,
clinging to the thinning thread of life by artificial means. They
engage in fiscal cannibalism and subsist on the flesh of their
children by deficit spending. They linger in agony until the reality
of debt extracts their final breath.
The
Chinese spent well over a thousand years building walls to keep safe
a succession of temporary dynasties which lived the lives of rising and falling nations.
Lives, gold, and effort squandered in an attempt to protect their
world from change, from decay, and irrelevance. All failed. The many
walls built, bought, and believed in over all those generations
betrayed their builders. Still, so culturally revered were these
walls, these final refuges of imperial denial that they found a place
of honor in Communist China's national anthem...
“Arise!
All those who don't want to be slaves! Let our flesh and blood forge
our new Great Wall!”
The
mythical regard for walls held by Mao's children prevented them from
recognizing the walls of Communism which imprisoned them. In tearful
Socialist pride they sang their anthem with their Father's Red Book
held in hand on high. Living proof of their disconnect from reality.
They were already slaves and would remain so until recently
discovering how to tip walls over and turn them into roads. These
recovering wall builders are sending armies of commerce down those
newly laid roads to the battlefields of the marketplace.
Meanwhile.
Back in America, we’re reversing this uplifting tipping trend by
erecting walls and restricting trade again. It’s the World War Two
mindset that we can’t seem to shake. So, let’s build some more
tanks, huh? World War Two ended with one very abrasive man spending
his final days shouting orders to barricade the roads from a bunker
in one grand disconnect from reality. Then, after nearly taking his
adopted nation with him, he committed suicide. Yes, reality always
catches up with the disconnected. Let’s not follow in his hoof
marks. When translated into English, “Deutschland Uber Alles”
sounds a lot like “America First”. The global game we’re
playing is called Capitalism, not nationalism. Remember the rules?
It’s about meeting and exceeding Consumer demand, not building walls
and making battle plans. History demonstrates with cyclical regularity that
reality always catches up with the disconnected.
America…
Tag. You’re it.
