You can argue that we’re not as powerful as we used to be, that our economy is faltering, that we don’t innovate enough, and that African rap is better. But sheer firepower, dollars, box office, and music downloads objectively show dominance if not “greatness.”
Read MoreIt really wasn’t that long ago when the two greatest superpowers were vying to put satellites into space. Now, 50 nations have their own satellites in low Earth orbit. If you’re a Thailand, say, you can call Space Systems/Loral, a Canadian-owned company based in Palo Alto, California, and tell them you want to put a satellite into geostationary orbit for television broadcasting or military communications. You can have the thing in orbit 25,000 miles above Earth within two years.
