James C. Bennett and Michael J. Lotus write,
As the 2.0 state fails, we are seeing increasing awareness, urgency, and activism in response to a deepening crisis. The emerging America 3.0 will reverse several key characteristics of the 2.0 state: decentralization versus centralization; diversity and voluntarism rather than compulsion and uniformity; emergent solutions from markets and voluntary networks rather than top-down, elite-driven commands. Strong opposition to the rise of America 3.0 is inevitable, including heavy-handed, abusive, and authoritarian attempts to prop up the existing order. But this “doubling down” approach is doomed. It is incompatible with both the emerging technology and the underlying cultural framework that will predominate in America 3.0.
That is from an essay that extracts from their book. I also have a review of their book. I write,
Bennett and Lotus argue that reformed government in America 3.0 would be strong but localized. They believe that the most unworkable aspect of the American welfare state is its scale, covering a population of three hundred million.
Fascinating cultural analysis, but I wonder if America 2.0 hasn’t corrupted the culture of enough of the populace that a return to the decentralized 1.0 is practically impossible. There will be a battle royale and I suspect exit, ie seasteads and foreign charter cities, will be the answer for those fighting for the authors’ vision of 3.0, that they won’t be able to remake the current system. I think they make some very compelling arguments generally, but perhaps they’re too optimistic about that centuries-old individualistic culture having survived in most of the American populace.
This sounds right; if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. The centralized American welfare/warfare state is unsustainable. Therefore, it will end, no matter what Americans want. Culture will follow necessity. I am less optimistic than Bennett and Lotus are that America 2.0 will end without disaster.
And yet, no one can predict what the world will look like in 2040. If nothing else, new technology will surprise us and make new ways of living (or old ways of living) possible. We don’t really know what’s going to happen.
Right. Of course! What can stop the rentier coalitions chocking incentives and free enterprise to death, like they’ve done in every large empire in hitory? The culture of not having pre-arranged marriages, what else!
The single most incandescent transformation of society in the past two generations is probably the (unprecedented) decline of that very family structure which had stood more or less intact since before Bill the Conqueror landed on England’s verdant shores. Your review doesn’t mention whether they address this paradox, or if they even acknowledge it. Tradition casts a long shadow, but it still seems a mite bit optimistic to assume that an institution in the process of coming apart (pun intended) will ensure we devolve into Switzerland rather than Argentina.
Also, what does all this Anglo-Saxon tradition have to say about why the UK itself turned left sharper and sooner? As it is, it seems they’re merely following the course laid by the Continent a few decades earlier, and us a few decades behind them. And thus far even the PIIGS show no sign of understanding that they’ve already marched off the cliff and are, like a cartoon coyote, treading air. How many decades of decay might we have ahead of us still?
Jack Chan’s chart of the Interest Rate on the US Ten Year Note, ^TNX, … http://stockcharts.com/public/1094070 … shows it to be a failed investment, communicating that trust in US Treasury Debt has failed, and that the US has lost both its financial sovereignty and its financial seigniorage, that is financial moneyness, communicating the soon coming end of the American SSI Disability and Transfer Payment State, what some call the American Welfare State, as well as the US Dollar Hegemonic Empire, known as the United States of America; this coming at a time when Justin Raimondo of Antiwar writes A blank check for war.
Jesus Christ has been operating in economy of God, Ephesians 1:10, first to establish liberalism, beginning in 1971, when President Nixon, followed Milton Friedman’s advice, to take the US off the gold standard, and to pursue endless wars via the military industrial complex; and second to complete liberalism in August 2013, when the bond vigilantes drove the Interest Rate on the US Sovereign Debt, ^TNX, to 2.75%, destroying Credit, AGG.
Having brought liberalism with its policies of investment choice and schemes of credit and carry trade investing to fulfillment, Jesus Christ, acting in dispensation, Ephesians 1:10, is now introducing authoritarianism, with its policies of diktat and schemes of nannycrat control, where through a soon coming credit bust and global financial system breakdown, foretold in Revelation 13:3-4, regional leaders, that isnannycrats, will meet in summits, to renounce national sovereignty, and announce regional pooled sovereignty, in each of the world’s ten regional zones, most likely first with the Eurozone, and secondly with the North American Continent, which will become a North American Union, or NAU, a region I call CanMexAmerica. The centuries-old individualistic American culture which featured diversity and volunteerism, will be will be washed away through compulsion and uniformity, as foretold in Revelation 13:4, where John the Revelator wrote, “So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”