American Autonomy
Let's return to the strategic vision that made America special, and reinvent the world again.
George Washington’s strategic vision for America was that it should leverage its relative isolation and newness to disentangle itself from the conflicts and hatreds of the old world, to avoid the wars and conflicts that periodically drained and debilitated it.*
Instead, Washington urged, the US should focus on trade with everyone and prosperity for all. Until the end of the Cold War, the US followed that advice.
Since then, the US has lost its way, a Cold War mindset run amok, being drawn into petty foreign conflicts driven by the ancient hatreds of the old world. Meanwhile, it has funded a massive state complex that becomes increasingly inefficient with every passing year.
It’s time to change that. We need to revert to the mindset that allowed us to prosper during most of our history. Let’s dig in.
America’s Role
America’s role in the world isn’t that of the world’s policeman (a temporary post-World War II role foisted upon the US due to the Cold War) or as the destination of immigrants (for most of the 20th century, when we saw the most significant increases in individual incomes and quality of life, the US didn’t accept many immigrants). Instead, the role the US has played throughout its existence is as the world’s leader in the production, adoption, and socioeconomic integration of new technologies. We figured out how to do it successfully first, and the world followed. We did it with;
Trains.
Electrification.
Telephones.
Cars.
Planes.
Appliances.
Space.
Computers/Internet.
It didn’t matter which country discovered the technology. Americans built more of it, deployed it faster, and adopted it quicker than the rest of the world, and prosperity followed. In short, this ability to transform new technologies into something universally beneficial ahead of everyone else is America’s true superpower.
A New Opportunity: Autonomy
A new opportunity for the US to lead the world in the production, deployment, and adoption of a transformative technology is now available. If you haven’t noticed, AI-fueled autonomous vehicles have arrived. Vehicles that can;