It is a rare thing in human history that one can experience the rise and fall of a great nation in one’s own lifetime. It took more than a thousand years for ancient China to come and go, six hundred for Rome, perhaps two hundred each for Spain and England. In the case of America, it has happened in about fifty years.
Immediately following World War II, we were the most powerful nation on earth. Our technology was unrivalled, our production unprecedented, our self-image secure, and we were held in high respect by the peoples of the world. Today, we are on the way down. Our standard of living is decreasing, our output is diminishing, our self-image is in tatters, and we are the most disliked, if not outright hated, nation in the world.
What has happened? I think it comes down to three things: a loss of our spiritual grounding, a breakdown of our political system, and the results of irresponsible spending. As my father used to say, if we live too high on the hog for too long, eventually we are going to have to pay for it.

Loss of spiritual grounding
This does not mean we are any less ‘religious’. What it does mean is that too many of our citizens have been content to lapse into false religions. The huge interest in astrology, the lottery and other forms of magic is bad enough. But the real problem is that large numbers of Christians have simply begun to worship false idols ­ belief in Biblical literalism, thus making the Bible itself an idol, belief in a false God who can be persuaded by us to do something if we do something in return (a vision rejected by Judaism and Jesus more than two millennia ago),
and belief in our own superiority which we justify to ourselves by claiming to be the only ‘children of God.’
When Thomas Althizer and Harvey Cox announced the ‘death of God’ in the 1960s, they were really calling people to reject the old, magical, God-with-a-beard-in-Heaven kind of God. At that time, most people in Europe understood what was being said and refused to go along with the false Christianity that had held sway there for hundreds of years. They left the churches in droves. But in America many people instead retreated into the refuge that the false God provides ­ certainty in our own righteousness, bliss in our own ignorance, safety if we blindly follow the God of wrath and judgment and Laws. Today more than 75% of Americans claim to believe in the virgin birth and a physical Heaven and Hell, and almost as many insist their God created the earth in seven days.
The result is a nation deeply divided between people who are concerned about real-life issues ­ war and peace, social justice, the health and welfare of the people ­ and people who are concerned, instead, about ‘values’ -- by which they mean dependence on a magical God, adherence to ancient taboos, the necessity for everyone to believe as they do, and safety in raw (though often hidden) power. Such a nation cannot prosper, because its prevailing religion is internally corrupt, divisive, and an offence to the God of love and justice.

The breakdown of our political system
A fundamental principle of American government has always been that a genuine unfettered flow of information and public discussion is essential to its success. Jefferson famously remarked that ‘an enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic.’ And Edward Carrington, a friend of Jefferson, told him that if people become inattentive to public affairs, ‘you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, judges and Governors, shall all become wolves.’
Today citizens depend almost completely on the mass media ­ radio, TV and the press ­ for their ‘enlightenment’. But most of the mass media are now controlled by about six huge conglomerates. Whereas
in 1920 we had more than 700 cities with two or more competing newspapers, the number today is less than a dozen. Instead of information being open to many voices, today it is carefully, subtly, and quietly constrained by the demands of the marketplace and the opinions of the owners. There is no effective countervailing power in
Washington. Business is in control of government. We have become ‘one market under God.’
In addition, television ­ the process, never mind the ownership­ has fundamentally changed the way people perceive the world. We are now in the third TV generation. More than 90% of people living in America today grew up with television. Neil Postman points out in Amusing Ourselves to Death that TV persistently trains people to feel rather than to think. Heart replaces mind. Attitude replaces cognition.
A number of commentators on the recent election have pointed out that Kerry supporters tend to be conversant with facts and issues, while Bush supporters rely on how they feel. ‘Bush makes me feel secure’ is the
mantra chanted by millions.
Thus the wolves have crept in. Politicians are replaced by celebrities. Appeals to facts are replaced by appeals to emotions.
People elect movies stars. The President creates and acts on the basis of a whole world that is at odds with the facts ­ and so do the voters.
Thus 75% of Bush supporters continue to believe that Saddam Hussein had a role in the 9/11 attacks, and 72% believe that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction ­ even after the President himself admitted it isn’t so.
With the communication media under control of a handful of multinational corporations, and with much of the public trained to think less and feel more, the political system cannot be expected to meet the
needs of its citizens.

Irresponsible spending
Wall Street analyst Raymond deVoe updated Karl von Clausewitz’s famous dictum about politics and war to hold that ‘economics is war by other means’, and we can begin see that America has allowed itself to become
economically vulnerable. The barbarians are at our gates, only now in the guise of the iron laws of economics. The United States has the largest negative balance of trade in the history of the world ­ almost $2 billion going out every day. We have the largest total debt in the history of the world ­ a shift from a surplus of $2 trillion four years ago to a deficit of over $3 trillion today. This amounts to $27,000 for every man, woman and child in the nation. And it does not include the Social Security monies that the Congress has stolen and spent, which
would raise the individual debt to about $100,000 for each citizen.
Finally we have the largest individual debt in history, as we buy goods at an amazing pace, financed by mortgages and credit cards.
No nation, no matter how wealthy, can do this for long. We have been content to spend an avalanche of borrowed money, which our grandchildren will have to repay. At present, China and Japan are
covering our daily outgo of $2 billion by buying a similar amount of US Treasury notes ­ promises to pay ­ which allows the banks and the Fed to print more money daily, a conveyor belt not unlike the drug lords washing their money. China and Japan do this so we can keep buying their cheap goods. But now China is beginning to show its power. It is beginning to put its money into Treasury notes of European nations instead of the US. And people around the world are starting to shy away from our Treasury notes because of the low interest rates. What happens if we don’t get that $2 billion every day?
We face two equally bleak prospects. Either we keep interest rates low, in which case people around the world will completely stop buying US Treasuries since they can get better rates elsewhere (and the money-producing conveyor belt will stop); or we raise the rates, in which case businesses and people at home will no longer be able to borrow money for almost nothing, which in turn will slow both production and consumption ­ and increase unemployment. The alternatives are deflation and collapse of the dollar, or inflation and collapse of the economy.
Meanwhile, China, with a population far larger than ours which is willing to work for far less than we will work, and with at least as much natural resources as we have, is waiting at the gates. The barbarians are meaner and leaner than we are, and this time it is war by economic means ­ and we have begun to lose it.

A flawed vision
The day following the election New York Times commentator Thomas Friedman asked himself why he is so upset by this current Bush election, when he wasn’t as upset about Bush’s first election or the election of his father. I know why I am upset. It is because the electorate came out in record numbers, after each candidate had clearly stated his position, and they consciously and intentionally validated Bush’s view of the world and the role of America in it. I am upset because this election endorses a vision of the nature and role and soul of America for many years to come which I find deeply flawed and downright scary.
It is a vision of America trying to control the rest of the world, a vision that is couched in black and white -- either you are for us or against us. It is a vision of True Believers, who have the religious and political Truth, and want to make everyone, in America and overseas, bow to that Truth. It is a vision that justifies any means to achieve our ends. It is a vision that bows to a God of mammon and power, then calls it the True God. It is a vision that refuses to understand that other people may have other definitions of ‘freedom’. It is a vision that creates a Fortress America against the rest of the world. It is a vision that finally pits all against all.
And for these reasons, America will fail. We have had our time in history. We have had our opportunity to bring about peace and justice, to help feed the hungry of the world, to spread the wonders of technology in ways that would give everyone -- not just ourselves -- a better life. We have failed in all that. Now we will see other nations
rising to the task, while we take an ever smaller role in the affairs of the world. One of the ironies of history is that empires have always started to fall at just the moment of their greatest apparent glory.

4 November 2004

William F. Fore studied at Yale University Divinity School (BD), was ordained in the United Methodist Church, and received his PhD from Columbia University and Union Theological School (1971). He was Executive Director of the Broadcasting and Film Commission of the National Council of Churches (1964-89). He served as chairperson of the Advisory Council of National Organizations of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (1972-75) and as President of the World Association for Christian Communication (1982-90). In 1989 he became Adjunct Professor at Yale Divinity School, teaching communication and cultural studies.
Upon retirement he taught at United Theological College, Bangalore, India, helping to establish a Masters’ Programme in Communication, returning in 2001 to assist in establishing the first Doctoral Programme
in Communication and Religion in India. He is past President of the Foundation for United Methodist Communication.