Keep Your Coins, I Want Change

In Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition, author Jack Snyder seeks to explain why overexpansion has been so common among the great powers. Sometimes, Snyder argues, states over-expand so aggressively that their actions risk the survival of the states themselves, as was the case of Germany and Japan in the World War II era. Snyder explains that the ‘central myth of empire,’ which he considers ‘defensive realism,’ is that states think that their security can only be safeguarded through further expansion. Snyder explains that this myth of empire is the counterproductive aggressive foreign policy that was the major force that propelled

The penny must be eliminated as quickly as possible. The United States is in massive debt and instead of cutting programs which are vital to the economy and to citizens of the United States, the United States must find ways to cut expenses in parts that are often over looked. One great way to cut down on unnecessary spending is the penny. Believe it or not, the penny, the smallest denomination of currency in the United States is a huge waste of money. The one cent denomination has no use. You can no longer “buy anything with a penny” anymore. (William) The only use the penny has is to pay for the taxes, which, can be rounded off to the nearest nickel thus obliterating the need for a penny.

Hegemony is the ability to act in any foreign area one needs to, without significant resistance from rival states (Gaddis at 26). The two hegemonies that America was involved in the twentieth century were controlling part of Germany and all of Japan. America gained the power to rule over them in the Paris Peace treaties following World War II. Germany, whose overseers included multiple countries, including the United States, did not unite again until more than forty years after the World War II (Gaddis at 47). In contrast, America had sole power over Japan. America was able to resurrect Japan’s ruined economy just five years after the war because they focused Japan’s industries on two things, automobile and electronic manufacturing.

Huntington’s initial article argued that in the post-Cold War era the fundamental source of conflict would not be ideological or economic, but cultural. He continues by arguing that nation states will continue to be the most powerful actors in global affairs, but the conflicts of global politics that are to occur in the future will happen between

At this point in time, the main actors in the international system are nation-states seeking an agenda of their own based on personal gain and national interest. Significantly, the most important actor is the United States, a liberal international economy, appointed its power after the interwar period becoming the dominant economy and in turn attained the position of hegemonic stability in the international system. The reason why the United States is dominating is imbedded in their intrinsic desire to continuously strive for their own national interest both political and economic. Further, there are other nature of actors that are not just nation-states, including non-states or transnational,

According to Gramsci, Hegemony is when a ruling group adopts a popular system of ideas and maintains it through media, education, and other systems. This ideology is so powerful in certain societies that is often seen as common sense to the people living in that society. As a result, it is very likely that America also has hegemony in its society based around the idea of capitalism. Capitalism dominates american thinking as every citizen wants to realize the “american Dream” and be individually wealthy in society. It is even often argued, a person isn’t american if they aren’t capitalist. Ironically, the idea of capitalist hegemony in American’s is the core topic of this song above all the other themes in Kendrick’s song. Kendrick is arguing that americans only want to be wealthy and think it comes with happiness. Although this is not the case for Kendrick as he raps in his first few verses, “This is seen in his opening verse “What money got to do with it, When I don't know the full definition of a rap image?”. He is saying here that thought it would be all good when he got rich, however now it has experienced this new found wealth and is more unhappy than ever. He now has new set of problems that come with the wealth such as living up to an image, along with battling his hood

Both authors, Samuel P. Huntington and Francis Fukuyama, don’t have any conflicting views but have different perceptions as to how they see the world after the revolution and the cold war. Samuel believes that the west is dominating the world, changing cultures and customs of other countries. However, Francis analyzes the positive aspects of how the liberal democracy in the west is more powerful than all other democratic nations and he portrays how western dominance is effective and healthy for most of the nations.

A world of system designed to keep people in unjust and unequal positions is held in place by several interrelated expression of "power over": political power, economic power, physical force, and ideological power (Bishop, 1994: 36). So, we can say power is defined as a possession of control, authority or influence over others. In terms of power of dominant groups over subordinate groups, we define power as domination of one group of people over another in major important spheres of life. Power inequities have been in existence throughout the history of humanity and the ways of manifestation evolved from extreme overt oppression to subtle, covert oppression. Three major forms of power inequalities discussed in this paper are

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States was the unquestioned hegemon of the western world acting in a unipolar world. However, recently the United States has fallen into a series of deprival causing its reputation to fall as a state. Despite this, under the Bush Doctrine, the United States currently has a preemptive hegemonic imperative policy. Under this policy, the United States takes into account that the world is a perilous environment in need of a leader to guide and to control the various rebel states unipolarly. Under this policy though, the United States acts alone with no assistance from other states or institutions. Global intuitions that would assist under other types of policies are flagrantly disregarded in this policy in spite of its emphasis on the international level. As well as not participating in international institutions, this policy states that the United States should act entirely in its own wisdom. The UN (the United Nations), GATT (General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade), along with other institutions advice is not heeded within this self-made policy. Though the United States currently acknowledges these global organizations, it no longer takes them into account with severity. Instead of acting under the international system, the United States currently acts through its military, and large economy to instill fear within the various actors in the intercontinental system. According to this philosophy the

Amy Chua, from the very beginning dives into her thesis, which she argues from the introduction continued all through part one of “ Day of Empire” and without a doubt, throughout the entire book. Chua’s clear, distinctive thesis can be condensed into two main points. To begin with, she explains how for every society that has been allowed to be called a hyperpower have been – at the time, considered to be “tolerant”. In every instance to achieve supremacy, every hyperpower had to enclose a certain quantity of tolerance, the extent of freedom that an individual has to prosper in all aspects of their life, ranging from religious, cultural, linguistic, to conversing with people of different upbringings. Tolerance is suggested as the prerequisite for global domination. However, conversely she also indicates that intolerance has been shown as the reason for the downfall of a hyperpower or a result of the demise. The second concept she introduces in her thesis is the idea, for a great nation to become a hyperpower, they must have “glue” that binds, and embraces them together. Critics argue that modern America is in the first stages of losing its identity, with nonchalant laws of immigration, granting just about every immigrant into the states. Chua acknowledges to some degree that, hyperpowers have fallen as a causality of lost identity; however this reverts back to her first notion. When the population succumbs to disjunction, it’s most likely the repercussion of intolerance

Hegemonic internationalism by definition is a paradox within itself. Internationalism suggests cooperation among nations for common good, while hegemony is an instance when one nation has power over another nation. This leads to the belief that hegemonic internationalism is, in reality, one nation pursuing its own national interests at the expense of other nation. Nazi Germany, Iran and the United States are all examples of a nation pursuing hegemonic internationalism.

In a country of complicated decisions made by politicians about far away places and the people that live there, it's only a guess as to the motives behind each of these decisions. In Noam Chomsky's book "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance", Noam gives a scrupulously researched critique of America's quest for dominance at any cost that not only has cast us in the role of a rogue superpower but also jeopardizes the very survival of humanity. From reading this book, I will give an account as to what Chomsky says about American hegemonic ideals and give him credit for the attempt that he has made to expose historical truth.

Hegemony is the political/cultural dominance of the classes whom hold the power in society over all others by using the media to naturalize/universalize dominant ideology and repress alternative or oppositional points of view (Brym, p.103). An example of hegemony can be seen in the film when Felix explains that he does not get to choose what stories are ran in the New York Times. Ned begs him to write an article on the budding HIV/AIDS epidemic but Felix explains that even though he has a great deal of power in his career, he cannot write about the epidemic because his boss does not believe the public will respond well and may reject the paper. Instead his boss has him write articles about fashion and art directing the public in a more vain direction. The media in contemporary North American society practices hegemony by filtering what is reported in the media.

Cultural Imperialism is the social phenomenon of accepting and establishing one culture over another. Those who are in power set the cultural norms in American society. The set of values that people in power have establish the standards and structure of a society. The dominating culture prevails in society because regulations and policies are communicated as normal. Western civilization is the “accepted” culture in the United States, America benefits and takes from other cultures while oppressing that culture at the same time. When discussing social justice issues it seems to always lead back to asking who is in power? For example, President Donald Trump has expressed his views on American Immigrants in this country and the rejection of any culture that isn’t “western.” Yet our society takes from different cultures; fashion, food, and language but are only seen as normal when consumed by the dominant culture.

The dominance model represents the perspective of business critics. Society is in a pyramid but only a small group of privileged (corporations, government and business leaders) control society. Power and wealth are mostly concentrated in a selected group. In this model society does not have any control and it would probability experience difficulties. The corporations and the government take advantage of society. Business have too much power, changes in the systems is crucial.