If you ever questioned American superiority, just look at the olympics. We have the best talent in the world in a lot of the ways that talent is measured. We win all the time, because we are built to win. How so? We have a built in cheat code. You see, America, by virtue of the power of immigration, can import the world’s best talent and make it our own. Unfortunately, this design we have created has an expiration date. That date has already passed.
Here is the problem as I see it: American society is predicated on the idea that we, and only we, can be the best. We don’t need help from anybody and we take charge of everything. This worked well for two world wars and something slightly resembling a third brewing in the middle east. Only now, this American exceptionalism is in the crosshairs of an enemy it cannot defeat: The Internet.
The web is a large, multi-user idea and information aggregator that refuses to be controlled by a single national entity. Through the web you can seek out the greatest collection of talent the world has to offer and bring them together under the banner of purpose, not nationality. With such a model in place, the need for nationality can crumble in the face of a global village. National pride can be superseded by idea mobs and flash projects, thought driven financial enterprises that pick and choose physical territory in order to avoid laws they choose to ignore. We are consumers so, yes, we will still buy the products created by these non-national entities. In doing so we weaken the strength of the American brand and slowly count down the demise of a nation that refuses to evolve with the time.
The U.S. as a melting pot provided the framework and inspiration for the creation of the modern internet. However, as a nation predicated on the idea exceptionalism, we cannot survive this new digital era.