The American Century 2.0

The news today on my Blackberry BBC app was totally dominated by America - reminding us that, even now, with the supposed upsurge of the so-called BRIC countries, no other nation on Earth still manages to hold such cultural sway (at least in the UK): the death of Steve Jobs, the stepping aside of Sarah Palin, the ranking of CalTech as the world's top university, riots on Wall Street, and American university human cloning advances - here is a nation in ferment, capable of creating great personalities and institutions, that further human genius.  Why?  Because, cynicism aside, no other nation is as free, or expansive imaginatively.  As Jobs said, famously, we should never settle.  Find a true calling and go for it.  This is a lesson other nations, who continue to suppress their people, might heed.  For now, America remains the indispensible country, for good and ill, as the twin poles of Jobs and Palin remind us.