Today, reading a New York Times article titled “China Has an Army of Robots on Its Side in the Tariff War” stirred a deep well of sadness in me for America´s dilemma. The piece described how China’s massive investment in automation, artificial intelligence, and infrastructure is giving it a formidable edge in global manufacturing—despite rising tariffs from the U.S. It reminded me how deeply America has misunderstood the complexity of modern industry.
Manufacturing dominance can’t be restored with a trade barrier or a slogan. It takes decades of sustained investment in education, technology, and the welfare of a nation’s people—investments China has prioritized, while the U.S. has spent trillions on foreign wars and military supremacy.
For generations, American military spending has been sacrosanct. Whenever government budgets are cut, the defense department is spared. Could this be part of a lingering cowboy culture mindset? Just look at what’s come out of Hollywood and major media studios into American homes via television and video games: Mixed in with family programming is extreme violence, including sexual violence, sarcasm, and moral degradation often used as a twisted foil for “what is right.” This American cultural export is global.
(My mother, God bless her, wouldn’t even let me watch The Three Stooges as a child because Moe was always furiously poking Curly in the eye.)
For the past several years, my wife and I have made our home in a village in Mexico. From here, I can see more clearly the unraveling of a country I once believed in. The U.S. is struggling—with extreme polarization, mental illness, homelessness, economic inequality, addiction, and a cultural obsession with violent spectacle. The soul of the country seems adrift, fixated on dominance rather than dignity. Even with its flaws, Mexico feels more human. Here, people still center their lives around family, community, and simple shared rituals. There’s a sense of belonging and continuity that is vanishing in the States.
If America is to find its way again, it must look beyond brute strength and return to nurturing its human foundations. The path forward lies not in isolation or fear, but in courageously investing in its own people—educating minds, caring for hearts, and building communities rooted in mutual respect and purpose.
The attack on universities, the consolidation of power by self-serving elites, and the growing destruction of compassion—replaced by an “us vs. them” attitude—do not bode well. I grew up holding my hand over my heart every morning at school, facing the flag and reciting: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
