Advice for President Obama on Who We Are

Max's advice for March 25, 2009

Dear President Obama,

Max grew up as the son of a man who knew 'ALL' the answers to the problems of the world. Max's father said so! Many times, his father let everyone know that anyone who didn't know that he had the answers was a turkey or a knucklehead.

The famous Ma Bell, the second most powerful force in the world (next to God of course), thought so much of Max's father's opinions that she made him 'Supervisor of Troubles'. This is true!

The advice Max promised you, President Obama.

Recognize that, for better or worse, we are the leading nation in the world!

Max knows that power abhors a vacuum. He has always had an interest in how great nations arose and what led to their eventual collapse.

Mr. President, you most certainly can see that the United States is still viewed as the leading power in the world. Even with the financial collapse, this country still controls most of the world's wealth. That is the good news.

Every nation-state that has ever risen to the position that the United States finds itself in has eventually fallen out of power. Most interesting, these falls were seldom the result of conquest as such. Even when conquest was involved, the nation-state was already in servere decline.

If the United States wishes to be a power a century or more into the future, the nation is going to have to change the way things work.

There are a number of strategies that past nation-states have used to extend the life of the nation. Some proved to work for a while. Other strategies were quickly bankrupt.

Placing power in a single person was the approach the Romans used as their decay set in. It was perhaps the single worst solution one could have tried. A short term success will be followed by eventual failure, as body and mind fail.

A solidly socratic state is a possible solution. The shortcoming of this solution is the ponderous amount of time that it takes to determine anything. States that have tried this approach have gone the way of the dictorships.

Preserving our form of government while including more parts of the world in the American dream seems like something that has been tried in the years after the Second World War, with some notable success.

History can repeat itself if the people of a time choose to allow it. Much of the world needs a Marshall Plan; some because they have been ravaged by war, while other parts because they have been ravaged by disease and famine.

Just as the Marshall Plan differred from country to country, that difference needs to occur based on need now.

The United States loves its stock market. It rejoices in the bell at the end of each trading day. Yet the value behind that market lies within the boundaries of 170 plus nations. Many of their people have never heard of a stock market or a bell not used for animals.

Much of what we have built is an institutional structure that can permit a nation-state to play a dominant world role for centuries. Some of what we have built is flawed and needs to be carefully changed to stand up over time.

Building a nation with potential for the future also means reforming how public officials are elected so that the amount of money raised is not the deciding factor. Public officials are corrupted by the sources of the money independent of the amount.

Rebuilding the political infrastructure to allow us to grow into the next century will be a difficult and unpopular action.

Max wishes you well in all your willingness to make tough decisions.

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Link one is an article on the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Link two is about the fall of Athens.

Link three is about the fall of Rome.