So you think the US is doing poorly? Hong Kong offers bounty to five more activists

“So you want to be a rock ‘n’ roll star. “Now listen to what I have to say,” the Birds once sang in the 1960s. Based on the song by the legendary rock band, today you can say: “So you actually think the US is on the A…? Then listen to what Fareed Zakaria has to tell you.’

Zakaria is a leading American intellectual. He has a weekly TV show on CNN, has written several books on geopolitical topics and just corrected the shifting view of the US with an impressive essay in ‘Foreign Affairs’.

The USA-is-in-decline version of the Bird song is a hit. Vladimir Putin repeats it incessantly, Xi Jinping yodels it at every opportunity, and several heads of state from the Global South happily sing along. (A close-knit group of Watson users also chime in with deadly certainty whenever the US is mentioned.)

But above all, it is the Americans themselves who are convinced that they are among the losers. Survey after survey shows that a majority believe that the economy will not be as strong as it is today by mid-century, that their children will one day be worse off than they are, and that the country is on the wrong track.

Donald Trump has contributed to the bad mood. During his 2016 election campaign, he repeatedly reiterated how desolate the situation in the country was and how little respect the US government had abroad. The highlight of Trump’s orgy of complaints was his legendary inaugural address, in which he even spoke of “American carnage.”

Current politics in Washington do not provide a constructive picture, to put it mildly. The childish bickering over the national budget that is repeated again and again, the government shutdown that was averted at the last minute, the sloppy behavior of the Republicans in helping Ukraine, and the possibility that a notorious liar with a penchant for fascism could return. could enter the White House – all this provides ample material for the US in decline.

But that’s only half the truth. Zakaria formulates the other as follows:

Incidentally, the business magazine ‘Economist’ came to the same conclusion in the spring. And by the way: the Dow Jones Index just set a new record.

Anyone looking to write off the US should therefore keep the following six points in mind:

Does this mean that the US will largely remain the sole superpower and that the rest of the world will have to follow its tune? Not at all. The development towards a multipolar world is a fact and will continue to intensify. The US will have to get used to this and adapt. However, they will remain the leading power in this world – unless the Americans shoot themselves in the foot and isolate themselves from the rest of the world.