Atharv Dua Blog 6 Q2 - Gotta love 'em all!
“Gotta catch ‘em all, gotta catch ‘em all! Pokemon!” This song by Jason Paige is still fresh in my mind, but counterintuitively, my favorite line in the song was “You teach me, and I'll teach you”, referring to the collaboration required between a trainer and their pokemon to simultaneously improve both their skills to become the best. Just like Ash, currently, the US is the “best” on the world stage (militarily, economically etc), which is obviously a huge advantage in foreign policy.
Currently.
Similarly to Pokemon, getting to the top alone on the global stage is extremely hard to achieve (let me know if you usually fight fire-breathing dragons on your lunch break :). In the past, the US received an immense amount of foreign assistance, such as during the American Revolution where France provided a significant amount of money to fight Britain (mostly to counter Britain but we’ll take it), and it was in fact a German immigrant (Einstein) that led to the invention of the nuclear war which led to the end of World War II. Even now, as America has already achieved development and become one of the most powerful countries in the world, if not the most powerful, our nation is a nation built on the proverbial back of immigrants (whom many regard as outsiders). Even today, without trade, no country can survive economically, as evidenced by the immense adverse effects on the economies of both Iran and Russia due to western sanctions (sanctions literally just mean other countries do not trade with you: yes, isolating a country can destroy its economy).
It is clear that the US has not historically succeeded without other nations, and so is the interdependence of the world’s nations. Yet, instead of embracing the outside world, we often shun them. Currently, the US is raising alarm bells in Europe, as many NATO allies aren’t sure whether the US would step in to defend them against the Russian threat, and have called the US’s rhetoric and tariffs out repeatedly on the world stage. Additionally, the war on Harvard led to fear for students all across the world, as many of them are being discouraged from studying in the US as what happened to Harvard could happen to any university. Just to clarify, Republican administrations are not the only ones who do so: Johnson, a Democrat, was the one in the 1960s to escalate the hypocritical Vietnam War and lower US credibility on the world stage, and more recently, Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan also hurt US credibility with other nations.
The point is that just like Pokemon, we need to work together with other countries instead of working against them. By working closely with other countries, we could solve global issues like climate change and food insecurity that are obviously crucial. Pikachu vs. Ash might have been a cool episode in the series, but there’s a reason why over 1300 episodes focused on the way they worked together: we should too!
Hi Atharv! I loved how you chose to use Pokemon as a metaphor for the United States’ foreign affairs and relations. I have to say as I was reading your blog this week I remembered some traumatic memories from AP World last year. Can you tell I’m not a fan of history? Regardless, those examples did a really nice job of highlighting the interdependence between nations. I liked how you used more current events, like Harvard, as a way to tie back to the idea. It showed just how much internal decisions can weaken trust.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was rereading your blog I understood how important history actually is. If we don't analyze the implications of what’s happened before we are bound to repeat our mistakes. 1300 episodes seems a bit excessive, but I am a Pokemon hater—my cousins made me watch it every time I saw them. Finally, this may surprise you but I do fight dragons on my lunch break. Just not fire-breathing ones. Thank you for your thought-provoking blog this week.
The way you talk about the United States “working against” other countries instead of with them has really made me think about what our country really values as a nation. America has been clinging so hard to individualism for so long that it has become completely ingrained in how the country functions, on both an international and personal level. It makes sense as a lingering result of the Cold War, as individualism in direct opposition to the collectivist ideas espoused by the communist Soviet Union, but, as you pointed out, it is going to become a rather antiquated set of ideas pretty soon.
ReplyDeleteOn a more personal level; ever since the pandemic, I have seen people online complaining about the lack of community in different places in America. As in, neighbors who don't know each other’s names, empty streets with no children playing in the yards, and a general lack of “third spaces” (spots for people to collect and form communities without having to pay for anything). This makes me think that this shunning of the “outside world” the United States has fallen back on extends inwards as well, as many adults nowadays have little time for proper community. But this is a subject I have little credible knowledge on, so I will leave it at that.
Lastly, I do want to comment on how, for every blog of yours, you choose a unique hook that makes me doubt that you will be able to connect whatever you lead with to the quarterly theme, yet you are able to pull it off every time!
Hi Atharv, frankly upon reading your blog I found myself reminiscing about my AP world and APUSH classes (not really on apush because I'm still in the class but that's not the point). I completely agree with your argument however, that America was built on immigrants and cannot survive without them. We needed them to help us win the American Revolution, we needed them to get us out of World War 2, they ran our country through the industrial revolution and so on and so forth. Half of the top companies in the world with headquarters in America have CEOs who are immigrants, yet our government is putting their best foot forward to send our country back centuries. Why? Well, if I try to answer that my comment might be longer than your blog but regardless, I can appreciate your candor. America is a country built on immigration, I mean the pilgrims did not apparate (Harry Potter reference tell me you get it come on) onto the east coast, there is only one group of people that are not immigrants, which are native americans. Another marginalized group, on our countries growing list. But I do hope with more people will grow to possess some political awareness, which I believe you have expertly demonstrated in your blog.
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