Thought leadership, Design & American determination are our greatest exports
As the cover photo suggests, American culture, personalities, and ideas are the exports that last the longest, have the deepest impact, and can help shape cultures toward individual rights and democracy. More signs, parks, and things are named after JFK than any other US president outside the USA. As a congressman, JFK was an informal ambassador to the "third world." JFK created the Peace Corps and believed in the US cultural ambassadorship rooted in goodness to the world. The world as a whole shuddered when he was assassinated. Ronald Reagan stood on the Berlin Wall and demanded that it be torn down, and it was done so - in celebration. These were not vignettes in the United States. I know from my own experiences in life that the people we meet while in service of a mission, a greater good, abroad don't feel like aliens - they're people, and their perspectives change you, and you develop empathy.
Passion, culture, and an esprit that fights are the chief exports of the United States. Little boys and girls grow up in repressive regimes and imagine a cleaner, safer, fairer life in America. And they know America does not condone what they're subjected to and is on their side—the side that favors individual rights and human dignity. Every agency has its personality - and not all get along and see the world eye to eye. But it's through the prism of the American cultural vantage. Despite differences, they're so nuanced to the outside world that it's just 'The Americans' - no differentiation.
There are very few things as potent as the American spirit. American literature, since the Civil War and American industry, has been a singular exemplar of industriousness, self-determination, and persistence. The American mind was not shy when it came ot hard work. Men like Rockefeller made it clear, and the mindset post-World War 2 was to achieve abundance. And with a thought and services economy. Through software and increased intellect rooted in academic excellence in the United States, America's rise didn't slow. Although perhaps cracks emerged, they've not been felt or even seen until now.
Today, we wake up to a world that has leveled the playing field—victims of our own success. Software and many business practices put to work and exported to the world have taken hold. The world has changed, and thought leadership works. The open source software movement, fueled by the giant software tech firms in California, has opened up the world since the internet went live. Experiments created new classes of wealth, as oil did before them. Today, it might be AI. Tomorrow, embedded devices. After that, who knows? What is clear is that American ideas need to be normal in other states.
Individual states have seen a gross uptick in backbone just this year. Many states seek security and economic independence. Uncle Sugar's stream is perceived or is about to dry. The cold water on the feet of the nation's sleeping giants has startled them. And the longer they're awake, the less likely they are to fall back asleep. That could be good for America. Manufacturing and hardware disciplines have become distributed.
But ideas, education, and genius have not left the continental United States. The mindshare and critical mass of high intellect and problem-solving can't be exported. A deliberate effort by enterprising Americans to do so in the form of IP to those distributed manufacturing hubs has been a proven model for chip makers.
In the interim of re-shoring, amid calls for friendshoring, why not get protected ideas to the world's ether to make things? And why not design things for those communities? To take this a step further, why not aid those nations in their desire for security independence with American-designed weapons, systems, and integrations that are more than DIY, but less than shipped from the US?
They're needed where they're needed—there. The maritime environment becomes more congested and contested each year. A key function of global power is a nation's ability to traverse the planetary blue water. Teddy Roosevelt was determined to become the US Navy secretary because of its power and influence on American power projection.
To simplify, we won't be able to get stuff everywhere we want—especially defense stuff, not without issues and threats. Manufacturing is cheaper elsewhere. And the world is vulnerable to new ideas—like communism, oligarchy systems where the needs of the few are prioritized, or the votes of the many.
The potential for oppressive and suppressive states is now on the rise, unlike at any time in my generation's existence, other than what we studied in history books or, I guess, now on YouTube. The US must not rule out economic by, with, through actions to offset reliance on the military and land offset from the objective of democratic integrity in the world.
