America And The Future

(I wrote this as a speech for a 4th of July celebration.)

I’ve talked a lot about what America means to Americans. I’d also like to talk about what America means to the world, and to the future. 

Americans are notorious idealists, but our ideals haven’t stayed within this country. The American conceptions of virtues— democracy, freedom of speech, human rights—have influenced every major country, most obviously with our friends and allies, but even our rivals. People laugh when the Chinese government calls itself democratic or when Putin claims he’s invading Ukraine to protect human rights, and yes it’s very funny, but it also shows how influential American morals are. And when a society keeps hearing the pretense of American morals used to justify itself, then slowly the pretense will start to become more real.

That’s the biggest reason American morality has spread so far and so deeply: sometimes our wealth has helped and sometimes our might has helped, but mostly it’s our spiritual power. American ideas are actually very good, and when people hear them it makes sense, and they want to live up to the ideals as much as you and I do.

We also can’t forget that America is the driver of humanity’s technological progress. Cars, airplanes, nuclear power, solar power, the phone, the transistor, the internet—for eighty years this country has been the source of every major technology breakthrough, and that won’t change any time soon. From Paris to Shanghai, prosperity is built out of American inventions. The greatest feat in the history of the species was landing men on the Moon. And when we landed, we left a memorial that says “WE CAME IN PEACE FOR ALL MANKIND”.

And as far as this country has already led the world, we’re not done. Every one of us here knows our country still has huge moral problems to overcome. Some of us here are organizing to overcome them. With every step forward, the world will watch, and follow our trail if they still like where we’re going. Every one of us here knows how much the world needs better technology. Some of us here are inventing it. I don’t know what technology is going to lift the next billion people out of poverty, but I can guess where it will be invented.

And this isn’t only our work. When our time is past, our children will pick up the torch. Our grandchildren will carry it to places we can’t even imagine.

Some day, when alabaster cities gleam on every rock in the Solar System, not all of them will be American. But all of them will be there because of America.

This essay was originally posted on July 4, 2023.