The most important point you make is implicit: America’s next identity will be forged inside, not projected out. The unipolar worldview collapsed because it offered power but no purpose. Your students instinctively feel this, which is why multipolarity hits them like truth rather than theory. The question now is whether we can turn that instinct into a civilizational reboot. One rooted in place, culture, and meaning—without falling into nostalgia or tribalism. That’s the real frontier of American renewal.
You are spot on about our past - the American tradition is rooted in an English tradition (that the English elite have been working harder than our own elite to cast overboard). The entire notion of rights from those traditions is highly specific, not universal. It is the universalization of "human rights", that are truly an Anglo-American cultural product, is where we've gone astray - particularly with Wilsonian internationalism (perhaps the cornerstone of the unipolar conceit and tied to Protestant theology).
Which leads to where you go wrong. We are not a nation of blood heritage, we have an Enlightenment credal heritage. That heritage is open to people who do not look like us or originate from a small set of countries, but aspire to the same things. We are a nation of cast-offs (really, what the hell better description is there of a Puritan?) and misfits (people who wanted what their native societies would not grant them - liberty most pre-eminently). Where that has gone wrong is with the abandonment of the melting pot view of America in favor of a clan/tribal reconstitution. By applying a blood heritage, you are indulging in the same error as the cultural left that has rejected the traditional process of assimilation.
The most important point you make is implicit: America’s next identity will be forged inside, not projected out. The unipolar worldview collapsed because it offered power but no purpose. Your students instinctively feel this, which is why multipolarity hits them like truth rather than theory. The question now is whether we can turn that instinct into a civilizational reboot. One rooted in place, culture, and meaning—without falling into nostalgia or tribalism. That’s the real frontier of American renewal.
Excellent.
You are spot on about our past - the American tradition is rooted in an English tradition (that the English elite have been working harder than our own elite to cast overboard). The entire notion of rights from those traditions is highly specific, not universal. It is the universalization of "human rights", that are truly an Anglo-American cultural product, is where we've gone astray - particularly with Wilsonian internationalism (perhaps the cornerstone of the unipolar conceit and tied to Protestant theology).
Which leads to where you go wrong. We are not a nation of blood heritage, we have an Enlightenment credal heritage. That heritage is open to people who do not look like us or originate from a small set of countries, but aspire to the same things. We are a nation of cast-offs (really, what the hell better description is there of a Puritan?) and misfits (people who wanted what their native societies would not grant them - liberty most pre-eminently). Where that has gone wrong is with the abandonment of the melting pot view of America in favor of a clan/tribal reconstitution. By applying a blood heritage, you are indulging in the same error as the cultural left that has rejected the traditional process of assimilation.
Hmm. I didn’t think of it like that.
That credal heritage seems on shaky ground. How likely is restoration? If unlikely, what takes its place?
Those are two excellent questions - you should pose them to your students.
[edit] Because cynical old men like me are the wrong people to ask.
Will do. It’ll be up to them!
In my current capacity, there’s very little I could do besides pray for them. That’s probably the best course of action regardless.