American exceptionalism (was Re: [lbo-talk] Re: IAC/ANSWER ...)

[Carl Remick]

>From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
>
>Chris Doss lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org, Tue, 06 Jan 2004 07:19:57 -0500
>
>>Brian:
>>>And I'm still unclear on why this "hyperpower" business is supposed to 
>>>mean. For one thing, how did the U.S. become a "hyperpower" when it was 
>>>previously a "superpower?" And exactly how has this status changed war? 
>>>Apart from some relatively minor technological tweaks, there doesn't seem 
>>>to be much difference at all (I mean, beyond the collapse of the Saddam 
>>>regime within a month and a half).  I see no need to work up this 
>>>neologism of "hyperpowers" unless one is a Jean Baudrillard fan. If war 
>>>isn't awful enough to get  people motivated, then dressing it up with 
>>>cutesy words ain't going to help much.
>>---
>>I agree. The idea that the US is a godlike "hyperpower" is part of the 
>>collective delusion that got the Bushies into the whole Iraq mess. The US 
>>is good at bombing defenseless countries but that's about it.
>
>The idea is that the US used to be one superpower whose greatest 
>geopolitical ambitions were checked by another superpower and vice versa.  
>With the Soviet Union no more, there is no superpower that can check the 
>US.  France is no substitute for the USSR.  Hence the US's transformation 
>into a "hyperpower," a term that was reportedly coined by former French 
>Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine.

I think the concept of "hyperpower" doesn't represent objective omnipotence 
so much as it does the advanced state of megalomania the US has fallen into 
since the end of the cold war.  The US is far more reckless and 
trigger-happy now than when the USSR existed.  The US may indeed be a 
hegemon in decline, but its fantasies of limitless power will remain a rich 
source of misery for the rest of the world and for Americans themselves.

Carl

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