How Will America be Remembered?
When we go through a season – whether it is of prosperity or adversity, it sometimes seems that time stands still. It seems the experience will last forever and nothing will ever change, but soon enough – sometimes too soon (for those wonderful experiences we hope will last forever) and sometimes not a moment too soon (for those seasons when we are oh-so-glad to see the sun come up again). It is the same with Kingdoms and Empires.
“Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication! ” Times and climes change. They are in the hands of the Most High God. Kingdoms are established by Him. We read in history about the great Roman Empire, the Grecian Empire, the Great British Empire, etc. Soon enough, they fade and end, giving way to another. As the reign of the Great American Empire draws to a close, its influence, moral decadence, capitalism and individualism also draws to a close. The reign of the Great American Empire has been probably the most pervasive in the history of humanity – especially because it is the first (maybe only) to grow in might during the mass media age. Through Television, Radio and the Internet, American cultural influences have dominated the economy, music, art, speech, food, dress and entire culture of the known world. And not always for good.
Empires of old left behind lasting legacies. Egypt and Nubia from the motherland gave the world hieroglyphics, irrigation, burial masks, mathematics and blonde wigs; Asian civilizations from China and India gave the world Avatars, the Art of War, Sanskrit, ceramics, the great wall and dragons. The middle-Eastern Kingdoms of Babylon and Sumer gave us the Tower of Babel, multilingualism, clocks and cuneiform; the Mayans gave us an Armageddon calendar and the European civilizations of Rome and Greece left behind modern medicine, philosophy and polytheism. What has America given the world? Recently, I found a list on the Experience Project website as follows: “Toilet paper, the cash register, the stop sign, smoke detectors, zippers, bottle caps, bicycle seat, tractors, radio, the mousetrap, medical gloves, the muffler, remote control, nickel-zinc batteries, the assembly line, the hearing aid, air conditioning, the airplane, windshield wipers, the automatic transmission, the fly swatter, paper towel, paper shredder, suppressor, automobile self-starter, traffic lights, toggle light switches, adhesive bandages, bulldozers, the electric razor, tampons, sunglasses, chocolate chip cookies, the digital computer, shopping carts, Teflon, deodorant, the microwave, chemotherapy, the transistor, defibrillator, supersonic aircraft, video games, the atomic clock, the crash test dummy, coolers, airbags, barcodes, the artificial heart, Hard Drives, operating systems, videotapes, lasers, carbon fibre, the integrated circuit, LEDs, the computer mouse, Kevlar, CDs, floppy disk, e-mail, video game consoles, the mobile phone, wheeled luggage, Internet, GPS, scroll wheel, Java script, Flash, Bait cars, DVR and the artificial liver”. It continues: “bubblewrap”, “McDonalds, Tobacco, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, chocolate, vanilla, chillies, cocaine, turkey, pumpkins, and don’t forget Syphilis”. Someone ended the list with: “A healthy cynicism of all things American!”
Occasionally in world history, early societies were able to pull themselves back from the brink of destruction. Six centuries ago, Iceland made a remarkable recovery from imminent economic decline – the seemingly inevitable effect of overgrazing and extensive soil loss. Through community efforts, farmers allocated quotas among themselves and saved their grasslands, resulting in the preservation of the wool industry. Although America has dictated the trend on medical research, capitalism, entertainment, sports, celebritysm, global aid and policing the world, its interests are often found to be self-centred and its standards double. ‘The evil that men do live after them, while the good is oft interred with their bones’. Chances are: long after it’s gone, America will be remembered for Slave Trade, consumerism, globalisation, fast food, global warming, eating disorders, sagging pants, violent crime, rap music’s verbal abuse of women, obesity, double standards and Fahrenheit 9/11.
Everything that has a beginning has an end. Diminishing returns sets in and Empires reach their BEST BY date. How then does the reign of a Kingdom end? Just as in a game, when the whistle blows for half-time or game-over, a heavenly herald is sounded and just like that: poof! Make no mistake, although it appears to play out much more differently than that, it is exactly the same: just imagine the end of a game in slow motion. The ball stops moving, the umpire packs up, players start to exit, the crowds disperse. Soon, all that’s left is an empty arena, maybe a few stragglers might lag behind but it is unmistakable: the game is over, the season has ended. The next game will require new players, perhaps a different venue. I am hoping it would be a completely different game!
Is it too late for America to change its legacy?
