The Future

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The Future Page 56

by Al Gore


  Nicole Perlroth, “Malicious Software Attacks Security Cards Used by Pentagon,” New York Times, Bits blog, January 12, 2012, http://​bits.​blogs.​nytimes.​com/​2012/​01/​12/​malicious-​software-​attacks-​security-​cards-​used-​by-​pentagon/.

  258 powerful data collection system that the world has ever known

  Bamford, “The NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say).”

  259 caused public outrage and resulted in congressional action

  American Civil Liberties Union, “Congress Dismantles Total Information Awareness Spy Program; ACLU Applauds Victory, Calls for Continued Vigilance Against Snoop Programs,” September 25, 2003, http://​www.​aclu.​org/​national-​security/​congress-​dismantles-​total-​information-​awareness-​spy-​program-​aclu-​applauds-​victory-.

  260 against these proposals, resulted in the withdrawal of both

  Jonathan Weisman, “After an Online Firestorm, Congress Shelves Antipiracy Bills,” New York Times, January 21, 2012.

  261 eavesdrop on any online communication

  Robert Pear, “House Votes to Approve Disputed Hacking Bill,” New York Times, April 27, 2012.

  262 “habits of the heart and resisting the allure of the ideology of technology”

  Michael Sacasas, “Technology in America,” American, April 13, 2012.

  263 norms and values that reflect the American tradition of free speech and robust free markets

  Gross, “World War 3.0.”

  264 Brazil, India, and South Africa are following

  Georgina Prodhan, “BRIC Nations Push for Bigger Say in Policing of Internet,” Globe and Mail, September 6, 2012.

  265 as a last resort for protecting confidential, high-value information

  Gross, “World War 3.0.”

  266 “walled garden” approach

  Ryan Nakashima, “Ex-AOL Exec Calls Facebook New ‘Walled Garden,’ ” Associated Press, May 1, 2012.

  267 attempted to slow down or make more expensive

  Claire Cain Miller and Miguel Helft, “Web Plan from Google and Verizon Is Criticized,” New York Times, August 10, 2010.

  268 laws that protect free speech and free competition

  “Protecting the Internet,” editorial, New York Times, December 18, 2010.

  CHAPTER 3: POWER IN THE BALANCE

  1 “closing of a 500-year cycle in economic history”

  “China Became World’s Top Manufacturing Nation, Ending 110 Year US Leadership,” MercoPress, March 15, 2011, http://​en.​mercopress.​com/​2011/​03/​15/​china-​became-​world-​s-​top-​manufacturing-​nation-​ending-​110-​year-​us-​leadership.

  2 first time since 1890 that any economy

  Charles Kenny, “China vs. the U.S.: The Case for Second Place,” BloombergBusinessweek, October 13, 2011.

  3 International Monetary Fund require support from 85 percent

  “Profile: IMF and World Bank,” BBC News, April 17, 2012, http://​news.​bbc.​co.​uk/​2/​hi/​americas/​country_​profiles/​3670465.​stm; Thomas J. Bollyky, “How to Fix the World Bank,” op-ed, New York Times, April 9, 2012; David Bosco, “A Primer on World Bank Voting Procedures,” Foreign Policy, March 28, 2012.

  4 it has effective veto power over their decisions

  BBC News, “Profile: IMF and World Bank,” BBC News; World Bank, “World Bank Group Voice Reform: Enhancing Voice and Participation in Developing and Transition Countries in 2010 and Beyond,” April 25, 2010, http://​site​resources.​worldbank.​org/​NEWS/​Resources/​IBRD2010​Voting​Power​Realignment​FINAL.​pdf.

  5 members of the U.N. Security Council when Brazil

  CIA, The World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html.

  6 some have already preemptively labeled it the “G2”

  C. Fred Bergsten, “Two’s Company,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2009.

  7 there were episodic warnings that American power was waning

  Josef Joffe, “Declinism’s Fifth Wave,” American Interest, January/February 2012; Samuel P. Huntington, “The U.S.—Decline or Renewal?,” Foreign Affairs, Winter 1988/1989; Victor Davis Hanson, “Beware the Boom in American ‘Declinism,’ ” CBS News, November 14, 2011, http://​www.​cbsnews.​com/​8301-​215_162-​57324071/​beware-​the-​boom-​in-​american-​declinism/.

  8 the U.S. was in danger of quickly falling

  Joffe, “Declinism’s Fifth Wave”; Huntington, “The U.S.—Decline or Renewal?”; Victor Hanson, “Beware the Boom in American ‘Declinism.’ ”

  9 1940s to roughly 25 percent in the early 1970s

  Stephen M. Walt, “The End of the American Era,” National Interest, October 25, 2011; Robert Kagan, “Not Fade Away,” New Republic, January 11, 2012.

  10 remained at that same level for the last forty years

  Kagan, “Not Fade Away.”

  11 largely at the expense of Europe, not of the United States

  Ibid.

  12 when it first became the world’s largest economy

  Charles Kenny, “China vs. the U.S.: The Case for Second Place,” BloombergBusinessweek, October 13, 2011.

  13 suffered casualties 100 times greater than those of the United States

  Irina Titova, “Medvedev Orders Precise Soviet WWII Death Toll,” Associated Press, January 27, 2009; Anne Leland, Mari-Jana Oboroceanu, Congressional Research Service, “American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics,” February 2010, http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf.

  14 Stalin’s 1939 pact with Hitler

  “The Day in History: August 23rd, 1939. The Hitler-Stalin Pact,” History.com, 2012.

  15 which formalized the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency

  “Beyond Bretton Woods 2,” Economist, November 4, 2010.

  16 which later evolved into the Common Market and the European Union

  European Commission, “Treaty Establishing the European Coal and Steel Community, ECSC Treaty,” October 15, 2010, http://​europa.​eu/​legislation_​summaries/​institutional_​affairs/​treaties/​treaties_​ecsc_​en.​htm.

  17 “the father of the United Nations”

  Cordell Hull Foundation, “Cordell Hull Biography,” http://​www.​cordellhull.​org/​english/​About_​Us/​Biography.​asp.

  18 “when goods cross borders, armies do not”

  Jill Lerner, “Free Trade’s Champion,” Atlanta Business Chronicle, February 13, 2006.

  19 “the end of history”

  Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: Harper Perennial, 1993).

  20 three waves of democracy that spread throughout the world

  U.S. Department of State, Bureau of International Information Programs, “Democracy’s Third Wave,” http://​www.​4uth.​gov.​ua/​usa/​english/​politics/​whatsdem/​whatdm13.​htm.

  21 aftermath of the American Revolution, produced twenty-nine democracies

  Ibid.

  22 carried a picture of George Washington in his breast pocket

  John F. Kennedy, “Remarks at an Independence Day Celebration with the American Community in Mexico City,” June 30, 1962, American Presidency Project, http://​www.​presidency.​ucsb.​edu/​ws/?​pid=​8748.

  23 twelve by the beginning of World War II

  U.S. Department of State, “Democracy’s Third Wave.”

  24 the number of democracies to thirty-six

  Ibid.

  25 decline to thirty from 1962 until the mid-1970s

  Ibid.

  26 with the collapse of communism in 1989

  Ibid.

  27 decline in the number of democratic nations in the world

  Economist Intelligence Unit, Democracy Index 2010, 2010, http://www.eiu.com/democracy.

  28 fourth wave of democratization

  Larry Diamond, “A Fourth Wave or False Start?,” For
eign Affairs, May 22, 2011.

  29 increased in absolute terms to the highest level since 1945

  Kagan, “Not Fade Away,” January 11, 2012; Todd Purdum, “One Nation, Under Arms,” Vanity Fair, January 2012.

  30 almost equal to the military spending of the entire rest of the world

  Purdum, “One Nation, Under Arms.”

  31 more pilots for unmanned vehicles than it trains pilots of manned fighter jets

  Christian Caryl, “Predators and Robots at War,” New York Review of Books, August 30, 2011; Elisabeth Bumiller, “Air Force Drone Operators Report High Levels of Stress,” New York Times, December 19, 2011.

  32 drone pilots suffer post-traumatic stress disorder

  Caryl, “Predators and Robots at War.”

  33 U.S. stealth drone and commanded it to land

  Scott Peterson, “Downed US Drone: How Iran Caught the ‘Beast,’ ” Christian Science Monitor, December 9, 2011; Rick Gladstone, “Iran Shows Video It Says Is of U.S. Drone,” New York Times, December 9, 2011; “Insurgents Hack U.S. Drones,” Wall Street Journal, December 17, 2009; “Iran ‘Building Copy of Captured US Drone’ RQ-170 Sentinel,” BBC, April 22, 2012.

  34 More than fifty countries

  David Wood, “American Drones Ignite New Arms Race from Gaza to Iran to China,” Huffington Post, November 27, 2012, http://​www.​huffingtonpost.​com/​2012/​11/​27/​american-​drones_n_2199193.​html.

  35 right to unleash deadly fire when threatened

  Ibid.

  36 doubt that the social, political, and economic foundations in China

  Walt, “The End of the American Era”; Thair Shaikh, “When Will China Become a Global Superpower?,” CNN, June 10, 2011, http://​www.​cnn.​com/​2011/​WORLD/​asiapcf/​06/​10/​china.​military.​superpower/​index.​html.

  37 experts warn that the lack of free speech

  Walt, “The End of the American Era”; Kagan, “Not Fade Away,” January 11, 2012; Martin Feldstein, “China’s Biggest Problems Are Political, Not Economic,” Wall Street Journal, August 2, 2012; Frank Rich, “Mayberry R.I.P.,” New York, July 22, 2012.

  38 the concentrated autocratic power in Beijing

  Ibid.

  39 high levels of corruption throughout China

  Feldstein, “China’s Biggest Problems Are Political, Not Economic.”

  40 an estimated 64 million empty apartments in China

  “Crisis in China: 64 Million Empty Apartments,” Asia News, September 15, 2010, http://​www.​asianews.​it/​news-​en/​Crisis-​in-​China:-​64-​million-​empty-​apartments-​19459.​html.

  41 windmills constructed by China are not connected to the electrical grid

  “Weaknesses in Chinese Wind Power,” Forbes, July 20, 2009.

  42 largest internal migration in history

  “The Largest Migration in History,” Economist, February 24, 2012.

  43 “180,000 protests, riots and other mass incidents”

  Tom Orlik, “Unrest Grows as Economy Booms,” Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2011.

  44 fourfold increase from 2000

  Ibid.

  45 building in response to economic inequality

  Feldstein, “China’s Biggest Problems Are Political, Not Economic”; Wendy Dobson, Gravity Shift: How Asia’s New Economic Powerhouses Will Shape the Twenty-First Century (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009).

  46 intolerable environmental conditions

  Dobson, Gravity Shift.

  47 autocratic local and regional leaders

  Orlik, “Unrest Grows as Economy Booms.”

  48 wages have been increasing significantly in the last two years

  David Leonhardt, “In China, Cultivating the Urge to Splurge,” New York Times Magazine, November 28, 2010.

  49 sources besides the participatory nature of their system

  Daniel Bell, “Real Meaning of the Rot at the Top of China,” Financial Times, April 23, 2012.

  50 “form the fundamental principle of Mao Zedong Thought?”

  Deng Xiaoping, “Speech at the All-Army Conference on Political Work: June 2, 1978,” in Selected Works of Deng Xiaoping, vol. 2 (Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1984), p. 132.

  51 corporate lobbies to sit in the actual drafting sessions

  Laura Sullivan, “Shaping State Laws with Little Scrutiny,” NPR, October 29, 2010, http://​www.​npr.​org/​2010/​10/​29/​130891396/​shaping-​state-​laws-​with-little-​scrutiny; Mike McIntire, “Conservative Nonprofit Acts as a Stealth Business Lobbyist,” New York Times, April 22, 2012.

  52 routinely rubber-stamp laws

  Sullivan, “Shaping State Laws with Little Scrutiny”; McIntire, “Conservative Nonprofit Acts as a Stealth Business Lobbyist”; John Cassidy, “America’s Class War,” New Yorker blog, June 8, 2012, http://​www.​newyorker.​com/​online/​blogs/​comment/​2012/​06/​wisconsin-​scott-​walker-​class-​war.​html.

  53 longest running corporation was created in Sweden in 1347

  “Sweden: The Oldest Corporation in the World,” Time, March 15, 1963.

  54 common until the seventeenth century, when the Netherlands

  “The taste of adventure,” Economist, December 17, 1998.

  55 United Kingdom

  Joel Bakan, The Corporation (New York: Free Press, 2004), p. 6.

  56 South Sea Company scandal

  Ibid., p. 7.

  57 England banned corporations in 1720

  Ibid., p. 6.

  58 The prohibition was not lifted until 1825

  Ibid., p. 9.

  59 civic and charitable purposes, for limited periods of time

  Justin Fox, “What the Founding Fathers Really Thought About Corporations,” Harvard Business Review, April 1, 2010, http://​blogs.​hbr.​org/​fox/​2010/​04/​what-​the-​founding-​fathers-​real.​html.

  60 “bid defiance to the laws of our country”

  Thomas Jefferson, “To George Logan,” November 12, 1816.

  61 expanded by an order of magnitude, from 33 to 328

  Bakan, The Corporation, p. 9.

  62 New York State enacted the first of many statutes

  Linda Smiddy and Lawrence Cunningham, “Corporations and Other Business Organizations: Cases, Materials, Problems,” LexisNexis, 2010, p. 16.

  63 increased considerably with the mobilization of Northern industry

  David C. Korten, When Corporations Rule the World (Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 1995), http://​www.​third​world​traveler.​com/​Korten/​RiseCorpPower_WCRW.​html.

  64 huge government procurement contracts

  Ibid.

  65 building of the railroads

  Ibid.

  66 corporate role in American life grew quickly

  Ibid.

  67 decisions in Congress and state legislatures grew as well

  Ibid.

  68 The tainted election of 1876

  “Compromise of 1877,” History.com, http://​www.​history.​com/​topics/​compromise-​of-​1877.

  69 wealth and power played the decisive role

  Korten, When Corporations Rule the World.

  70 “government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations”

  Ibid.

  71 Between 1888 and 1908, 700,000 American workers

  Ibid.

  72 approximately 100 every day

  Ibid.

  73 lawyers and lobbyists flooded the U.S. Capitol and state legislatures

  Ibid.

  74 U.S. Supreme Court voided and made unenforceable

  Jack Maskell, “Lobbying Congress: An Overview of Legal Provisions and Congressional Ethics Rules,” CRS Report for Congress, September 14, 2011, http://​digital.​library.​unt.​edu/​ark:/​67531/​metacrs1903/​m1/1/​high_res_d/RL31126_​2001Sep14.​pdf.

  75 “all the injurious effects of a direct fraud on the public”

  Ibid.

  76 “measurin
g the decay of the public morals”

  Lawrence Lessig, Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It (New York: Twelve, 2011), p. 101.

  77 Georgia’s new constitution explicitly banned the lobbying

  Ibid., p. 101.

  78 “where the price of votes was haggled over, and laws”

  Matthew Josephson, The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalist 1861–1901 (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2010), p. 168.

  79 Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company

  Bakan, The Corporation, p. 16.

  80 some historians believe was written by Justice Stephen Field

  Joshua Holland, “The Supreme Court Sold Out Our Democracy—How to Fight the Corporate Takeover of Elections,” AlterNet, October 25, 2010.

  81 court reporter, who was the former president of a railway company

  Ibid.

  82 “the court does not wish to hear”

  Pamela Karlan, “Me, Inc.,” Boston Review, July 2011.

  83 “We are all of the opinion that it does”

  Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific, Justia.com, 1886, http://​supreme.​justia.​com/​cases/​federal/​us/​118/​394/.

  84 laid the first transoceanic telegraph cable in 1858

  “Cyrus W. Field,” Encyclopaedia Britannica, http://​www.​britannica.​com/​EBchecked/​topic/​206188/​Cyrus-​W-​Field.

  85 resulted in Stephen’s appointment to the Supreme Court

  Lincoln Institute, “David Dudley Field (1805–1894),” Mr. Lincoln and New York, http://​www.​mrlin​colnand​newyork.​org/​inside.​asp?​ID=​56&subjectID=​3.

  86 subsequent massacre back to the United States in real time

  Mike Sacks, “Corporate Citizenship: How Public Dissent in Paris Sparked Creation of the Corporate Person,” Huffington Post, October 12, 2011, http://​www.​huffingtonpost.​com/​2011/​10/​12/​corporate-​citizenship-​corporate-​personhood-​paris-​commune_n_1005244.​html.

  87 followed in the United States, as it unfolded, on a daily basis

  Ibid.

  88 Franco-Prussian War that month and the struggle

  Alice Bullard, Human Rights and Revolutions, edited by Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom, Lynn Hunt, and Marilyn B. Young (Oxford: Rowan & Littlefield, 2000), pp. 81–83.

  89 first symbolic clash between communism and capitalism

  Marx, however, wrote in The Communist Manifesto that the 1848 French revolution was the first “class struggle.”

 

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