America's Dependence on Imported Goods and Services
America depends nearly entirely on imported goods and services from the rest of the world to keep things running smoothly. To maintain the flow of all of this market without resorting to the use of armed force, the US has implemented an imperialistic foreign policy. The informal empire in the United States is driven by a number of factors, one of which being economic factors.
The Ideological Roots of the Informal American Empire
Regardless of what economists might show, it has long been obvious that maintaining sovereignty over specific regions of the world is necessary to keep access to those resources. This means that the informal American empire has ideological roots to the idea of American Exceptionalism that has shaped our behavior in the belief of exercising unique prerogatives based on an s[ecial mission (The Film Archives 10:27). This has predisposed us to the informal empire that we have created and the security element seized by a determination to prevent 9\/11 by establishing control over the Middle East. This initiates a discussion on the U.S foreign policy based on American Exceptionalism, expansion of liberal international order under U.S hegemony, geopolitical strategic superiority and lastly interventionism.
A Mythic Version of American History
A very large number of all American citizens are content with a mythic version of American history and are unwilling to examine how we rose to global primacy. Over a period of 100 years, the story of America\u2019s rise to preeminence is a dramatic story in which America indulges in not only moral retrospective but also an immoral. For instance, several stories shaped American history, they include the Cold War, the collapse of European control in the Middle East, the rise of Arab nationalism, a series of military conflicts and an ever-growing Western dependence on the Middle Eastern oil. This all ended up creating instability in the political systems due to a blunder of enormous proportions.
The Attack on the Liberal World
The liberal world that is based on a system of open societies and borders have become increasingly under attack by anti-capitalists and any nationalists that fumigated globalization.The new populists have blamed open borders and open societies for economy\u2019s decline, moral decline, and insecurity which promises a homogenous society with a much tighter control over borders and territory (Speck 1).
The Crisis and the Role of the President
The Quasi-permanent crisis during the cold war and the war on terror has had a disastrous impact on our constitution and that the American citizens have eventually allowed it to happen. At least since the election of John Kennedy, an image of the president has resulted in the Imperial Presidency that has treated the president as a Demigod and that has been part of the crisis due to an allusion. An imperial president has to work under a variety of constraints where some of the constraints have been global while others have been domestic. America, therefore, needs to return to the governance model that closely has a reflection on the first intentions of the framed constitution. Congress needs to function as a body that needs to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities which take precedence over partisan issues which are committed over the common good rather than the commitment to serve the desires and needs of other interests groups with a particular attention on those that are going to get them reelected. For this to happen the two party system needs to be abolished to end America Exceptionalism (McCoy 12).
The Exploitation of Public Intellectuals
Sheldon Wolin discusses contemporary politics based on the role of intellectuals against the responsibility of public intellectuals. The faceless anonymity of the corporate state has not always defined a demagogue of charismatic intellectuals. This is because of the face of politics in the electoral system, civil liberties, the Constitution, press freedom and the Judiciary independence. This has always seized all the power mechanisms to render the American citizen impotent. Inverted totalitarianism has always aimed at exploiting public intellectuals. Driven by competitive aspirations, the majority of them yearn for political stability over political involvement over the Constitutional power that creates instability that keeps citizenry off the passive balance of power. Political campaigns based on perceived intellectuals center on manufactured personalities, sophisticated public relations, empty rhetoric and slick advertising that loops to the public of their intellectuals ability to get what they want to hear (Hedges 2).
The Need for Engaged Public Intellectuals
Public intellectuals are therefore deemed irrelevant as they are nothing more than spectators that are allowed to express their opinion in terms of voting and once they have had their chance are forgotten and lobbyists end up in the business of rulings. This political discourse that leaves the public intellectuals fragmented and emotionally charged with antagonists distract attention to consequential politics that leaves the assumption that the public is not needed in the existence of a coherent whole. To be politically effective the public intellectuals have been hidden from the society through economics that has dominated politics. With the domination different forms of ruthlessness arise where a showcase of democracy results in the emergence of political intellectuals (Shev 16:22).
The Role of Universities in Developing Public Intellectuals
There are numerous liberal attempts that aim at divorcing intellectual activities form the reign of politics. The practice of freedom and not the pursuit of truth should be involved in institutional schooling to develop public intellectuals. Engaged intellectuals should aim at developing an ethical imagination through a sense of social responsibility so that power and politicians can be accountable. This will often deepen the overall society\u2019s possibilities to live a life that is infused with decency, liberty, justice, and dignity. Universities, therefore, should press this claim as they are the foundation of such intellectuals in the community. Economic and social justice can only be achieved through the disturbance of the status quo that is perceived by many to asserting intellectuals that makes certain voices to be heard in all spheres of public life. Today their society is engulfed with struggles of power, identity, agency, social imagination, and identify many of which have resulted in exploitation and capitalism. As many intellectuals appear out of place in the sense claimed by many intellectuals being errant and intellectual on the roof has a disciplinary sphere in the protection of academic territory (19.44). Intellectuals are not similar in terms of academics but through a narrow disciplinary patch on the regimes of domination. The social and civil death of ghostly presence offers possibilities of alternative ways of imagining how the future will be and the necessity of public criticism without that moment of recognition (Giroux 1).
Works Cited
Giroux, Henry. “Noam Chomsky and the Public Intellectual in Turbulent Times.” 12 May 2014. Truthout. 12 December 2017.
Hedges, Chris. “Sheldon Wolin and Inverted Totalitarianism.” 2 November 2015. truthdig. 11 December 2017.
McCoy, Alfred. The Geopolitics of American Global Deline. Global Changes. Washington: HuffPost, 2015.
Peter Shev. “Can Capitalism and Democracy Coexist.” Online VIDEO CLIP. YouTube. YouTube, 20 November 2014. Accessed 11 December 2017.
Speck, Ulrick. “The Crisis of Liberal Order.” 12 September 2016. American Interest. 11 December 2017.
The Film Archives. “The End of American Exceptionalism: A Government Transformed into an Imperial Presidency.” Onlive VIDEO CLIP. YouTube, 27 August 2017. Accessed 11 December 2017.
