The view from elsewhere

Whatever happened to Prussia?

This club started about nine years ago in cafes in Seattle. Most members are still from the Puget Sound area. The pandemic forced us online which changed the mix of membership. It was no longer confined to locals. Most of the English-speaking world could now join. That wasn’t the plan, but many did. (Maybe because philosophy isn’t a parochial thing.) Plus, for unrelated reasons, I moved to Mexico about four years ago, making me also no longer a local. As a consequence, I was exposed almost everyday to what others outside of the U.S. think of the U.S. Born and raised there myself, and not being much of a international traveler until recent years, I was very rooted in the U.S., even focusing on its history as an undergraduate many decades earlier, and having lived for a time on all three U.S. coasts.

In grade school, I was taught the U.S. was the greatest, most powerful country in the world, that I was very lucky to be a citizen of it (I don’t know what you younger folks are being taught these days, fill us in). All that was good was here. It was wealthy, enlightened, and could accomplish anything. Quite literally, the sky was the limit: I was 16 when we landed on the moon. Immigrants from less fortunate parts of the world were clamoring to be let in if you needed more proof...

Living abroad has encouraged me to learn what the rest of the world thinks of the country I was born in. As I write, even countries that once saw the U.S. as the land of opportunity, as the hope for the future, are showing signs of looking elsewhere for opportunity and inspiration. The “American Empire” is declining. No, this is not all about Trump. He may be the icing on the cake, but the decline started decades before he came on the scene. Perhaps, with Vietnam, and certainly with the Gulf wars, and current global events suggest there is no stopping the decline now.

Philosophically, by the way, I am not suggesting “the decline of empires” is a bad thing, anymore than getting old is. Adjustments will have to be made... Do nation states age and die as individuals do? History says yes. Some do it gracefully, some not as much. Some disappear, some are consumed by others or transformed but they never stay recognizably still for more than a few centuries at best. If they hang on too long, toward the end, even dementia, I think, afflicts some. They begin to hallucinate and forget.

Old people do have to die so that younger ones can have their day. Why should it be any different for entire nations? (I know transhumanists disagree on the necessity and inevitability of decline, but I address them elsewhere.)

I fear irreversible decline is happening to the U.S. Mostly for sentimental reasons, not rational ones.

For this topic, I especially invite our international members to tell us what people think of the U.S. from their perspective looking at us from abroad. Is the U.S. still a beacon of hope, enlightenment, an inspiration? Was it ever? If so, why or why not? And, whichever, is this changing?

From where I am living now, Mexico, a country many "Americans" still think of as Third World, the U.S. is an object lesson in how to go gracelessly.

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The deeper philosophical question here is ancient. What exactly is the moral function of being “patriotic.” Why be loyal to any smaller subset of your conspecifics, whether it is to family, tribe, community, or cohorts under any description? As opposed to a set as broad as your capacity for imagining can extend? From Aristotle to Diogenes, from Heidegger to Simone Weil (whom we just covered) this has been debated.

Maybe we’ll get to this more general part of the discussion, but first I would like to take advantage of our international reach to get some perspective.

Notes and opinions

Prussia has at least one claim to fame, even if it doesn't exist anymore: Immanuel Kant.

In "Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism: Our primary allegiance should be to the community of human beings across the entire world," philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum rekindles an old debate going back to the ancient Greeks. How expansive should our allegiances be? Is being patriotic immoral or not? Nussbaum takes inspiration from the Cynic school of ancient philosophy pioneered by Diogenes, the quintessential cosmopolitan.

Jeffrey Sachs, a long time up close observer of U.S. government behavior, offers suggestions as to why the empire is declining: Jeffrey Sachs Just Exposed the Truth They Don’t Want You to Hear.

Sabine Hossenfelder's view from Europe.

A lawyer addresses escape anxiety among different classes of people in the U.S.: To leave or not to leave? "Is it time to leave the U.S.?" Leeja Miller.

"The Collapse of U.S. Tourism (and Why Americans Are Fleeing)" The "surreal" view from the tourism industry: "Millions of tourists are avoiding the United States — and now a record number of Americans are thinking about leaving too. In this video, I break down why U.S. tourism is collapsing, why 42% of citizens might be fleeing, and what it means for the future of America."

And it's not just poor retired folk, according to Andrew Henderson, whose channel caters to the merely rich (as opposed to the filthier sort), worried millionaires, too, are exiting or planning to.

"Approval ratings of selected world leaders." Comparatively, India is happy with its leader. Most of Europe is not. Things are changing rapidly in North America. The head of state of the U.S. (as his friend in Argentina) is fast losing his shine. Just as fast, Mexico’s is making history at 85% and rising, making this, last month’s, chart out of date. There are only two women on the list. One of them may soon – if not already – be the most popular leader in the world. There are two kinds of political efficacy: hard and soft, military and diplomatic. Popularity is essential to the second.

"World Happiness Report by Country | 2025"