So You Wanna Be a Superpower...

Why? The question has occurred to me, and I put it to you: What is the benefit of being (or living in) a superpower?

[Note: I don't usually get political in my blogs. And I don't think this is very political, or at least not ideological. Just an idea. Accept or reject, as you will]

I live in one of the last superpowers, and I look around at friends in the great many major powers and regular powers and even relative non-powers, and see a lot of them just as happy and materially well-off as myself. And surrounded by a lot less fear.

Oh, I've heard a few arguments. "We have to protect out interests," for example. But those other nations seem to protect their interests pretty well, and they do it on a much smaller military budget.

"We have many enemies." Of course, a major reason we have those enemies is because we're one of the last superpowers; I somehow doubt Toronto has been living at Orange Alert for the past 4 years. London and Spain have had their trouble, but then they're much closer targets.

"We must protect our freedom." Yes, a popular refrain when one's bag is being searched on the subway here in New York. (I doubt that happens much in Toronto, either.) As with security, above, this is something else other nations manage pretty well. I'm quite convinced that the main dangers to our freedom come from threats nor foreign but domestic (but that's another blog).

"We have to protect the rest of the world (but we're not trying to be the world's police force)." Ah, well, there's something to this. After all, what about when China finally gets its feet under it?

So... I suggest we pass the crown on to someone else. I nominate Australia. (I'd say Japan, but that'd be just a little too close to Certain Other Powers for their comfort) They did a kick-ass job in WWII, and they're used to living in a hostile environment. Plus, should things go nuclear, most of the radioactive fallout will happen on that side of the world. Also, they're pretty much run by English-speaking White people, which I suspect is a requisite if anyone here is going to go along with this.

We hand Australia all the nukes, the fighter jets, the stealth bombers, the blackhawks (well, not all; even Switzerland has an army). We keep the computer industry, the entertainment industry, the arable land and the New York Stock Exchange. We invest what we had been putting into the military into something with better financial returns -- say, loans to African nations.

There would be a number of other benefits to this. For one thing, by renouncing power, we would gain new respect around the world. Sort of like Cheney did in Washington when he announced he would not run in 2008. Combine this with our control of the world's mass media, and we'll be in a position (for better or worse) to sculpt culture and opinion around the globe.

Another benefit is the quality of movies. One of the things I disliked about the end of the cold war was that we stopped making decent spy movies (Mr. Cruise, you are no Sean Connery). Instead of cool gizmos, the heroes simply shouldered RPG launchers. Maybe I'm too much the Sensitive Man, but movie explosions never did it for me. I'll take Bond Girls over Cruise Missiles any day.