America: the Last Empire

America was been a powerful nation that has been in the center of global affairs. There is no denying that we are a force to be reckoned with. Our size is massive and we have been in the spotlight of the entire world for the past century. Our nation was born through defying a feared world power and as we departed from one empire, we forged our own.

Many great feats came from America. Inventions like the lightbulb, airplane, telephone, motion picture camera, and the mass production of the automobile were just a few of America's crowning achievements. America has been "liberators" to various countries. Our country has been through many wars, but no foriegn power has brought our nation to its knees.

It is safe to say that America is an empire. Our control is great and our power is strong. It is also obvious that America is a declining empire. Our greatness was not what it once was. Other nations have passed us in their development. We now rely heavily on other countries to supply us with what is essential for everyday function.

In my opinion, to say that America is the last empire is a little too drastic. We may decline, we may become a weaker reflection of what we once were, we may even colapse either economically or at the hands of invaders, but to after America has descended in its glory another world power will rise up and become the new dominant force in the world. It appears that Europe is beginning to rise as an empire. Though they are seperate nations, they are unified. Film studios have begun releasing films in Europe before they are released in America, because the opprotunities for profits have become greater across the see. This unified Europe is becoming a prominent force in world politics, and they are forming an empire like the world has never before seen.

Bayblon Empire.

History is full of empires that have risen and fallen only to be replaced by another. Babylon rose to power and conquered all of Mesopatamia. They formed an empire, but it collapsed and ended. The Persians rose to power and built an empire, and they too declined. Alexander the Great expanded Greece into a massive Empire, but his empire met its end as well.

The Roman Empire was one of the most powerful and influential on all of existence, but like all empires it declined and became replaced by another. Dynasties in China rose and fell. Ghengis Khan began the Mongul Empire which became the largest Empire in history. It no longer exists today. The Ottoman Empire rose to power till they were disbanded following the events of World War I.

The British Empire and the Soviet Union were world powers that declined as the United States maintained its own stability. America was not the first empire, and it would be very unlikely to be the last. As long as humans continue their existence there will always be a nation on the top of global dominence. To assume that no power will rise after America would be absurd, but the decline of the United States is inevitable, unless we can turn the tide and change our fate.

Technology and the Way We Think

Display of global internet use.

Technology is a big part of our lives, and hit has great effects on the way our society thinks. We have been turned from a species of hunters and gatherers whose only goals were to survive by finding food, water, and shelter, to a complex society where technology has pushed are neccessities to be the least of our worries. We can fly to the other side of the country in half a day where it use to take months to cross the country and so many peopled died, that by the time they reached their destination they were practically a completely different group.

The internet has been the most prominent technology of the twenty-first century. Over the past decade it has exploded and now it is such an intricate part of our lives that not having it would be a peril close to death. The internet is basically the access of everything at the fingertips of its user. We can access practically any peice of knowledge we want, and yet, our society is getting dumber. We have all of knowledge at our grasp and we use this gift on talking to friends down the street and looking at pictures of cats. The ability to access unlimited knowledge has made knowledge less valuable.

In our society we have replaced what we need with what we want. Our desires have become our necessities. We live in a country without any real essential needs that we make the biggest deals over the smallest obstacles. A term know as "First World Problems" are the only things that we have left to complain about, so naturally we make them into something bigger than what they really are.

We frustrate ourselves over the minorest set-backs and refuse to see how blessed and incredible our lives really are. Technology has vastly improved our lives, but it has made us soft. Suicide and depression have increased. How can we cope with big problems if we can't even handle the little ones. We are a culture blinded to our blessings yet able to point out the tiniest inconveniences. We curse every tear and forget every smile. Our existence is at its highest, but we  are mentally at our all-time low.

We live in a time where anything we want can be sent to us in an instant. We can call someone across the world. We can google anything on our minds. We don't even have to watch a television show on its airdate. We get whatever we want whenever we want it. We are a society without patience. People use to think that air travel and microwave dinners were making people impatient, but now people's mentallities are much more selfish, and they will continue to get worse as technology gets more advance. I can imagine how an invention like a teleporter or flying cars would effect the way our society thinks.

Our culture, no matter how good we got it, always wants the nex best thing. The Iphone 4s no longer matters, we all need the Iphone 5. Having a flip phone is practically being a second class citizen. We will continue to want more than we have. It may propel us to unimaginable technilogical feats, but it will decay our humanity, our relationships, and our identities. We could live in the perfect eutopia and we would still not be satisfied.

English Only

Speaking another language apart from English in the United States is often looked down upon. Majority of Americans are by no means bilingual. Hispanic and Asian communities have continued to speak in their native tongues in the presence of their community. The more culturally diverse a country gets, the more languages will get integrated into its society. America has been very stubborn with integrating other languages besides english.

Dispite what people think, learning more then one lanuage might be beneficial. It is no secret that Americans lack behind acidemically compared to European countries. I had friends who lived in South Africa and they needed to know not only English, but French and Afrikaans as well. My father is hispanic, but I was never raised speaking Spanish. I regret not learning when I was little, not only because there is a lot of Spanish in my life that I can not engage in, but also because I feel like I am missing out on so many experiences that are just passed of as foreign and not worth the time of us English-speakers.

Percentage of populations that onlyspeak English.

A big problem is that it is not a heavy influence in schools. Two years of Spanish in high school will make you as fluent as the average hispanic four year old, and majority of the students who take the classes will forget ninety percent of what they have learned. Trying to learn a new language an hour each day, unwillingly, to students who have been fluent in only English their entire lives, will only it make nothing more to them than pointless busywork with no relation to real life, like their algebra homework. 

The main reason people do not want to integrate other languages is because they are either unimformed or not willing to learn. Laziness might be the biggest factor contributing to English Only policies. If the United States decides to initiate more languages into our society it must be done through education. People are more likely to learn a language if they begin while they are young, that is why adults find it so challenging. If children in grade school are reqcired to learn another language in adition to learning English, then it might stick better with them. Learning other languages can help people grow more familiar with other countries and cultures, and diminish the prejudices against other nationalities. It would also increase our foreign relations and diplomacy. Though in America being bilingual can often be looked down upon, unless purely recreational, in other countries it is considered very prestigious and respected. If a President was fluent in several languages, then he would probally be more relatable and accepted globally.

Having children learn multiple languages through out the course of their schooling would make them more fluent and more efficient acidemically. Instead of trying to force bilingualism upon the stubborn adults who refuse to learn, it can be integrated into our culture through the education of our youth. The solution would take time, but the more generations pass through schooling, the more languages would become more integrated throughout our society.

Violence in American Culture

To say that America is a violent culture might sound a little extreme, but we are definitely a culture that is enticed by violence. Our nation was forged in violence, even if the cause was just. The American Dream tells us that we have the right to get what we want when we want it. That is a belief that can act as a catalyst for violent actions when someone gets in the way of what we want. The infamous tales of rough cowboys living in the lawless lands of the west have only encouraged America's love for violence.

Professor Robert R. Dykstra claims that the wild west was no more violent than any other place in the country. "Dodge city had a low crime rate in the decade of 1876-1885." This may be true, but a low crime rate does not guarantee that there was no crime, just that it was not reported. A good modern day example of this is that the Antelope Valley has considered the methamphetamine capitol of the nation, but in reality there is more methamphetamine production and distribution in Los Angeles, there is just less of it being reported. The Antelope Valley has a higher rate of reported child abuse than Los Angeles, but not because there is more child abuse, but because there are more reported.

Three men killed during the O.K. Corral showdown.

History is full of events, such as the O.K. Corral shootout and the Blackwell gunfight, that show the violent customs of the west. David T. Courtright explains that the west was populated by cattle, mining, and lumbering frontiers. The western frontier's population was mostly single, young men surrounded by saloons and prostitutes, which would often stir up conflict that lead to gunfights.

There is one, of many, reports of a stabbing in the mining town of Atlanta, Idaho, where the suspect was drunk when he stabbed the victim and yet there was no arrest. Wild Bill Hickok was a famous gunfighter during his time, but he was shot and killed while playing poker. His killer, Jack Mcall, was tried but was later freed on account that his actions were for the sake of revenge. History is full of records of lawless towns infested with violent people.

Symbol of the Zodiac Killer.

In the 1960's the Zodiac Killer emerged. He killed several people, taunted the police, threatened school children, and inspired dozens of copycats. He has never been caught and his violence has practically idolized him to many people. Today he is not necessarily seen as a monstrous serial killer, but villain, much like those seen in movies whose actions can mesmerize an audience.

Though today we have more rules to keep us from being a violent country, we have those rules because we are constantly surrounded with violence in the media and news, and because at heart we are all still violent. Incidents like the Columbine Shooting or the Virginia Tech Massacre show that the violence in the media can have an influence on people and compel them to do horrific things.

James Holmes.

One of the most recent accounts of our violent culture was the theater shooting at Aurora, Colorado. James Holmes murdered many people during a showing of the Dark Knight Rises. People could not get enough of the story; they were so enticed by the incident they called horrific and the man they called a monster. He definitely is not idolized like many have idolized the Zodiac Killer was, but people he has a whole nation focused, though horrified, on his deeds.

America is very violent. Though we do not always show it, we think it. It was violence that created this nation and it is violence that will destroy it.

Corporations and American Freedom

The power of Corporate America has been a controversial issue for over one hundred years. Corporations abusing their power is an issue that goes back to the Gilded Age when tycoons such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Morgan were considered "Robber Barons" for the way the treated their workers, created monopolies, and used their power to influence the government.

Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller

John S. Gordon claims that Rockefeller and Carnegie earned their power through establishing the oil and steel industry and that their products greatly improved the life of the American consumer. Though they are credited for improving society with their industries, the ways which they used their power to create monopolies and manipulate the government is a completely different matter. 

According to Howard Zinn, Rockefeller made secret agreements with railroads to ship his oil and eliminate his competitors from shipping. Rockefeller started a monopoly. As said by one of his competing refiners, "If we did not sell out, we were crushed out. There was only one buyer on the market and we had to sell at their terms." Rockefeller soon spread his monopoly over the iron, copper, coal, shipping, and banking industries. 

When Carnegie entered into the steel industry a high tariff kept foreign competitors at bay. Carnegie sold his company to J. P. Morgan for almost five million dollars. Morgan combined Carnegie's monopoly with others and made sure that Congress kept tariffs high to keep foreign competitors out of the market. William Whitney was a millionaire and secretary of the Navy during Grover Cleveland's Presidency. He built a "steel navy" by purchasing artificially high priced steel from Carnegie's plants.

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison attempted to monopolize the film industry when the studios first began. Edison and a few other companies with similar interests formed the Motion Picture Patents Company or better known as the Edison Monopoly and demanded licensing fees from all filmmakers for using Edison's motion picture camera. 

Edison had control over the entire industry, except for the underground filmmakers. Eventually the government intervened in 1915 and disbanded Edison's Monopoly. Filmmakers were once again allowed to create their own businesses free of Edison's control. 

Big Business used its power to further divide the line between the rich and the poor. They influenced the government to create tariffs and benefit their industries in various ways. Big businesses have bullied smaller businesses into selling out. All of these things still occur today. Even today Big Business is abusing their power and manipulating anyone that stands in their way.

Today a huge monopoly is Netflix. They have been almost solely responsible for shutting down video rental stores all over the nation. Due to their mail system and digital rentals the Blockbuster and many other rental stores have closed down the majority of their shops. There are very few options when it comes to video rentals. Netflix is a monopoly on the rise and an industry that can control what people watch may play a part in politics in a near future.

Perhaps the biggest industry with the most control over the American people is the oil industry. Oil is in high demand so the companies can choose whatever price they see fit. Oil companies have influenced the government to limit the amount of drilling in the United States in order to slim down the competition. This has forced a great amount of oil to come from foreign drilling sites, which greatly increases the price. It is impractical to retaliate against the oil industry since the use of gasoline for cars is so essential to our society. Although shipping oil from other countries does increase its price, oil tycoons are making a fortune from all the money that people spend on gas to get to school, work, hospitals, and anywhere else that is necessary for everyday life. Any corporation that produces a product that is essential to the lives of the American people, has power that they can use to manipulate the government or the people. If corporations want to be treated as people then they should treat their consumers in a way that reflects their humanity.