Help Save The Youth Of America

So it's that merry old time again, four years in coming, when I lock up the house for the night and see whether I need to start praying for the future of the human race. Yes, I've had some memorable nights following the pantomimic farce of US elections. I laughed derisively at the debacle of 2000, oblivious to how tragically far-reaching the evening's drama would eventually prove. I got very drunk and miserable in 2004 as I watched George W Bush romp to a re-election that had been inevitable since it became apparent that the Democrats had nominated a man who'd had his entire personality surgically removed. I got very drunk and happy in 2008 when Barack Obama rode in on a wave of promises, with a magic wand that could cure social injustice, and pants that could cure leprosy.

Like most people outside the United States - and indeed, like most people who can engage their brain for longer than ten seconds without going glassy-eyed and dribbling everywhere - I'd quite like Barack Obama to win again. But as always, it's a tough process to sit by and watch your planet's fate being decided in a contest over which you have no control. I find myself sympathising with the tribes of ancient Europe, who sat by and rolled their eyes as their world was dictated by the whims of half-witted Roman citizens. ("Personally, I'm voting for Nero this year. I don't like his Matricide Policy, or his Incest Policy, or his Using Christians As Human Torches Policy, but at least he'll send our troops back into the Middle East and give those Parthians a good seeing-to. Yes, I know I voted for Caligula last time, and that didn't turn out as well as we'd hoped, but I've got a really good feeling about Nero. He knows how to handle a crisis. And he's not a socialist.")

No matter who wins, the US as a nation has to get smart very quickly. Decades of an ostensibly ingrained "America is number one because God made it that way" attitude among people who should know better have to be left in the past, where they belong. God has never done anything for any nation; our current world order has been shaped by global consumerist capitalism, and as Western business has spent far too long getting rich quick by shutting down production in our nations and shifting to the cheap labour base available in Asia, it should be no surprise that Asian nations - particularly China - are now poised to overtake the West as the world's economic powerhouses.

That's enough to set alarm bells ringing among America's upper tiers, and naturally, like any spoilt brat caught doing something they shouldn't have been, they've blamed it on everyone except themselves. People with money are a very dangerous bunch when they decide to pull strings; they've bellowed to the high heavens that the reason America is in decline is because of "socialism", and that only more cavalier free enterprise will save them. If/when that doesn't work, they'll probably want a few bombs to fall, and some dirt-poor bastards to go to a foreign shore and die on their behalf. If these people get their way, I genuinely fear for us all.

The only long-term solution lies in putting people before profit. I'm not sure Obama has the bollocks to do it, but if America tried it, then it would have the sympathy and support of most of the world, and provide an example for all to follow. Of course, the aggressive ascendancy of China wouldn't go away overnight, but I honestly don't believe that the Chinese people will put up with their hyper-capitalist dictatorship forever. The 21st century does not have to go the same way as the 20th. The mistakes have been made, but they can be corrected.

Let's just start with tonight. Baby steps...