Fascinating stuff, guys. MM, I don't think you're offbase with your suggestion--now that you've suggested it, I'm put to mind of "Red Son" and the implications that held, like Watchmen, for having one major superhero standing between you and your enemies.
But while I recognize the power the States holds, I don't think I've ever thought of it as a lone superpower. There are too many variables to the idea of a contemporary superpower for that to be true, if it ever really was. Like David says, financially we rely on other countries, but there's also our food and our oil and our production, all of which has increasingly, if not originally, moved to other countries. In many ways, the States is as vulnerable as it ever was.
I thought we produce far, far more food than we consume and generally import luxury foodstuffs that people could easily do without if the imports dried up?
Oil and everything that's manufactured (other than Chryslers) I can see crippling foreign dependence on, though.
Venture Brothers fans will appreciate the conversation Emmett and I had over breakfast at a sidewalk table.
Emmett: "I licked a doorknob once."
Me: "Yeuch! Don't do that. Not only is it covered with germs, but you're leaving spit on the doorknob. That's gross."
Emmett: "Dogs lick everything."
Me: "Including each others butts."
Emmett: "They don't lick each others butts. They
sniff
each others butts. They lick their own genitals. It's...a conundrum."
I used to watch that religiously.
There are a number of contenders to the title.
Heh. We were just watching Little Shop this morning.
Cover of Buffy Season 8 Issue 2: [link]
Description contains many spoilers. If you don't want to know, know this - the cover looks the business.
