Okay, so globalism bad, we should just keep to ourselves and not bother the rest of the planet, right?

Yeah, that so isn’t going to work.

America was born in humble beginnings – we were a podunk backwater that only attracted riff raff and no respectable person went. But we grew up into a podunk backwater with a lot of perfectly respectable folks and some really big ideas about liberty and freedom. We were by nature cocky and self assured – that happens when you get used to relying on yourselves and not handouts. We were also way more cocky than we had the moxie to back up.

It took us eight years to wear down the British enough that after one particularly humiliating loss they just decided to call it quits. This is the same British that spent a hundred years at war with France. The English Channel was one thing; having to haul your entire military across the Atlantic to beat up a podunk backwater, that was quite another. Still, they stuck it out for eight years.

This is probably what Washington was most worried about when he gave his famous farewell address. Rambunctious, young and cocky – these are not the best options for building a new nation on but you build with what you’ve got. Still, staying unified, not getting too attached to our political parties – yeppers, those were the first two warnings he gave – and not getting all up in other nations business was awfully good advice to a young nations feeling its oats.

There’s wisdom in Washington’s words even now. We certainly took them to heart back then, as long as you don’t count the War of 1812. Hard headed from the beginning, that is America. Still, smarting from that near defeat (the British didn’t bother sticking it out), we decided to listen to the Father of our Nation and keep our noses out of Europe’s business.

We’ve had a strong isolationist streak ever since. It has served us well at times and it has come back to bite us in the backside as well. We might still be rambunctious and cocky. We’re definitely still hard headed as all get out. But we are no longer young and we are not a podunk backwater anymore. We growed up since then.

A lot. We went from barely eking out a victory against the British to being the mightiest nation on Earth, barring absolutely none. We’re now the ones that have to decide to give up in order for other nations to win against us.

That power comes with tons and tons of responsibility. It doesn’t come with perfection. So we make mistakes and try to do our best. Sometimes the results are outstanding; sometimes we wonder why we came. Nation-states aren’t any smarter than regular people. They just shoulder more responsibility.

It’s easy to long for the good old days when we were just making our neighbors miserable and stayed our of Europe’s mess. Especially nowadays when it’s the whole world’s mess, not just Europe’s.

Problem is, Spidey can’t get himself unbitten. Once Spidey had the spidey powers, he had no way back to just being plain Peter Parker. Same is true for the United States of America – we can’t go back to being a podunk backwater no one cares about. We have the great power and the great responsibility. All we have left is the choice of how we will use it.

Oh, stop feeling sorry for ourselves. The world is a dang site better place because so far we’ve done a better job using that power than any nation-state has a right. More often than not, we live up to those big ideals of ours and we don’t make excuses for ourselves when we don’t. Not too shabby for a nation-state of any origin.

But there is no finish line. We constantly have to reevaluate what we are doing and what we are going to do. That’s tough for any one single person; get’s a mite complicated for 330 million folks to sort out. Still, that’s the job. Doesn’t matter if we have a date with Mary Jane when Electro decides to go on the rampage. Being a superpower, like being a super hero, never really stops.

So that’s it? We’re stuck with a globalist world that drains away American jobs and we should just lump it and like it? Nope, not at all.

Being a superpower comes with perks. We have every right to renegotiate. We don’t have the right to be jerks or to just dump all our obligations. We’re a grown up superpower. We do have responsibilities but we also have the power to change things.

Our greatest obligation is to use that power responsibly. To make the world a better place for our presence when we can and at least clean up after ourselves when we screw up. We don’t get to be shortsighted. We don’t get to be negligent.

But we do get to sit down at the table and help straighten out this silly contract. What made sense after WWII is no longer serving us or the world particularly well. We do need to change it.

But without pulling the rug out from under all the weaker nation-states dependent on us.

I personally think some aspects of globalism are worth keeping in the longer term. But before we decide, let’s talk. What are the benefits? What are the costs? How can we improve it? What could we replace it with that would be better? How can we test things out without making life miserable for anyone?

Dang, being grown up is work sometimes. But we have the coolest webshooters ever. Maybe someday we’ll retire and pass the webshooters on to another nation-state. Today, however, we’re still the super hero. We have to use that great power responsibly.

Besides, web slinging is a blast! Almost as much fun as being American!