The failure of American power
For decades, allies The United States lived easily in the midst of American hegemony. They built their financial institutions, communication systems and national defense on the top of the infrastructure provided by the United States.
And right now, they probably wish they hadn’t done it.
In 2022, Cory Doctorow invented the term “inhibition” to describe the cycle that has once again played in the online economy. Entrepreneurs start making high mentality promises to get new users to try their operating systems. But when users, sellers and advertisers are locked due to network effects, unbearable collective action problems, high switching costs – tactics change. The platform owners start pressing their users for whatever they can, even if the operating system is filled with lower quality slope. They then start pressing sellers and advertisers.
People usually don’t think about military hardware, US dollar and satellite constellations as an operating system. But that’s what they are. When American allies buy advanced military technologies such as F-35 fighter aircraft, they are not only a plane but also a complex related to communication technologies, parts preparation and technological support. When jobs participate in World Finance and Commerce, they regularly direct their transactions via a platform called the dollar clearing system, only by a few regulated US institutions. And when nations need to be connected to the Internet in difficult places, they are likely to rely on the constellations of the satellites-Starlink-by a single company with deep relationships with the US state, Elon Musk’s Spacex. Like Facebook and Amazon, the American hegemony is sustained with the logic of network, which makes all these operating systems separated.
For decades, US allies have accepted US control over these systems because they believed in the US commitment to “international order based on laws.” They can no longer persuade themselves. Not in a world where President Trump threatens to annex Canada, he promises to obtain Greenland from Denmark, saying that foreign authorities may be banned from entering the United States if they want “US technology operating systems to adopt world moderation policies.”
Since Trump recovered the office in January, in fact, rapid encryption has become the principle of American organization. This time around, Trumpworld understands that – in controlling the layer of financial infrastructure, technology and global security – has extensive machinery. As Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney recently stated, “the United States is starting to make money from its hegemony.”
So what does the unity do? Like solo consumers trapped by Google Search or Facebook because the main product gets worse, many still learn how hard it is to get out of the network. And like countless startups trying to create a replacement for Twitter or Facebook over the years – which is now forgotten, some successful people – other allies are now desperately trying to understand how they can build their network.
The infrastructure tends Be invisible until you start using you. In 2020, the United States imposed on Hong Kong’s chief executive, Kerry Lam, due to the suppression of democracy by China. At one point, a unique slide became acquainted with the power of the dollar clearing system – a layer of world financial machines that most people have never heard of.
