Center of the world

Proof of the United States’ position as the center of the world requires only a look at a world map in any American bookstore. Don’t, however, check the world maps in European or Chinese bookstores where they take center stage.

Despite American pretension of supremacy the world is a matter of viewpoint. To the world the United States is just another developing region. The United States is unique in many ways and it may be the world’s most heterogeneous society. It was not always so leading up to the Civil War the country was primarily Anglo-Saxon living in either a northern or southern cultures.

In the post war years a flood of immigrants began to fill the vastness claimed by manifest destiny politicians. Joining the immigrants were migrations of those displace by the conflict and a new culture emerged that of the westerner. The three cultures remained distinct well into the 20th century. The newly arrived immigrants tried hard integrate into the cultures of the American dream. Moving up in society meant moving out of ethnic ghettos. It was the three cataclysmic events of the 20th century that insured cultural assimilation. The two world wars and the great depression brought the cultures together in common cause. Soldiers returned with broader perspectives and joined a now mobile workforce. Telephones and most of all television moderated regional differences, the future looked grand.

Minorities began to notice that they did not have “FDR’s chicken in every pot,” and began to campaign for a seat at the table. Ethnic awareness not became a goal. No longer did the minorities want to be just Americans, the cry now was to become hyphenated Americans. The minorities won seats at the table but created hyphenated social regionalism. This regionalism does not have common interest and form frangible points in the nation.

In the euphoric glee of Cold War victory the United States encouraged ethnic minorities of the former Soviet Union to break away into independent balkanized States. Precedents have been established for ethnic states’ right to secede with foreign support.

The ethnic riots of the late 20th century in the United States demonstrate that the American Dream is fragile. Local and national politicians now exploit the frangible point in order to establish their own power base.

It is way past the time for enlightened leadership to emerge with visions of inclusion and grand strategic goals for the nations. Failure to do so may well result in the nation fracturing along hyphenated lines with a gleeful world providing aid to a now balkanized America.