*Or, "The future is becoming the present faster than the present is becoming the past."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/10/opinion/10brooks.html
http://blogs.forbes.com/melikkaylan/2010/09/09/what-decade-are-they-living-in/
@chris23:
the political crisis in america is a symptom of our fractured identity as our self-appointed role as global leader comes to an end.
the confrontation of the american myth with the reality of the 21st century poses an existential threat to the american psyche
what is the USA if not number 1? within authority lies control. in the face of change, control is challenged and authority turns to fear.
yet for america, shaken confidence can become an opportunity to reinvent ourselves. it's the transition btwn old & new that really aches...
*Obviously, an American rebranding campaign is in order! We got all these pundits loudly complaining in the few remaining newspapers and magazines... It's election season, and there's not a single politician in sight with any remotely plausible platform for successful American reform... The financial collapse is itself on the verge of collapse, and even if the United States of America gave up the tragicomic misbehavior that has characterized it since the end of the Cold War, a *relative* American decline is inevitable.
*So:
2010: The United States of America
2030: The Former United States of America, the xUSA (this is almost too easy; it's a commonality among former white-guy continental superpowers; it shows a sad lack of imagination).
*Let's try much harder:
The Confederate States of America 2.0
Los Estados Unidos de América del Norte
Brasil, Junior
Baja Canada
Imperial Decline 'R' Us
American Telephone & Telegraph & Some iPhones
Predatorstan
Dollaria
The Fifty Chinese Colonies
The Sovereign Union of Lawyers, Doctors, Financiers and Consultants
The Reservation
The Shining City in the Pits
Greater Tornado Alley
The Permanent Foreclosure Zone
RePoland
The Democracy of Arsenals
Malaise-ia
The Supreme Allied Commander of a Just World War That Ended Ninety Years Ago
The Self-Pitying Pre-emptive Invaders
Leader of the Fee World
The United Races of Whites, Hispanics, Blacks, Asians, Native Americans, and Polymorphous Otherly Types
The Mississippi River Drainage System, Some Plains, and Some Former Forests
