Nations Double-Down on Status
Years ago I noticed that when my kids tried out a new game, those who won more wanted to play it again. And parents often try to make sure kids win at stuff they want kids to do more. We come to like things in part due to seeing ourselves win at them.
Nations seem similar. Yes, nations value some activities more, and engage in those more as a result. But nations often double-down on stuff after seeing themselves as win at it in ways that they personally respect, and expect others to respect. Nations continue to do that stuff lots in part to remind the world of how grateful it should be for their contribution.
For example, the US has seen itself as pioneering and greatly advancing democracy, free speech, medicine, higher education, basic research, legal due process, mass production, mass media, space exploration, entrepreneurship, the internet, and global military suppression of nazism, communism, and terrorism. This helps explain continued record US spending on medicine, education, military, and legal process.
Other nations act similarly. For example, Britain doubles down on law, parliaments, and anti-racism. France doubles down on liberties and fancy food. India doubles down on yoga and spirituality, Russia on war, sacrifice, and anti-decadence, and China on development.
If you want a nation to do more of X, maybe praise what they’ve already done on X.
This makes good sense. In terms of comparative advantage it's best to invest your skill points in things you're already good at, to become even better.
To what extent does this contradict your observations about the world converging on a monoculture? This directed-investment effect will tend to make individuals, and countries, spikier instead of more uniform.
I would say that the US is actually was pretty good at mass production and mass media. We don't do a lot of manufacturing (<10% of gdp) and our mass media is becoming more and more monopolized. We are still fairly good at basic research although we are losing ground in that area because we are losing funding for it. The US was pioneering in legal due process but that lasted only for about half a century, and our legislatures and court system are in the process of destroying civil rights. Higher education is under assault because it is being bought off by corporate interests. And the focus of this country has never been the advancement of democracy, at least with respect to our foreign policy. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars on power projection and imperialism on an annual basis and are about to expand this amount to trillions - to what end? As for the suppression of authoritarian ideologies, we prop up more authoritarian regimes than we have ever successfully overthrown. The nations of the GCC, Israel, Equitorial Guinea, Indonesia, and numerous historical examples that I will not tire you with have literally been our allies. Saddam Hussein was our ally. We helped fund a brutal war between the Iraqis (indirectly but substantially) and the Iranians that killed millions - again to what possible end? With respect to terrorism, we often covertly fund the terrorism you suggest we have been fighting in the so-called "Global War on Terror". We often fund proxies that are little more than terrorist groups (Contras, Mujahideen, KLA, etc.). I agree that we are still good at space exploration. You got this one right. To paraphrase what someone said about another era, I think I would comment that NASA and the crew of Artemis II have saved 2026.