Pondering the Question of Statehood

A couple of days ago, a friend asked me if Puerto Rico should have statehood or not, and for me the answer was quite simple. With the progression of our communications technology, the world has become a much smaller place, and I believe that sometime in the future, though maybe not the near future, Earth will be united as one country; it is for this reason that Puerto Rico should become a part of America.

Past models have shown that as technology increased, human communities have grown larger. Ten thousand years ago the majority of humans lived in small villages that had little communication with similar villages. Yet, as time progressed, the population grew and these villagers began to expand; we see the creation of cities and kingdoms. More time passed, roads were created and we see the creation of empires. As mankind pushes forward, our communities, for lack of a better word, grow in size and population. Thus, it is logical to conclude that the multitude of countries we have right now is only another step in the growth of human communities.

This idea has been portrayed many times, yet is rarely ever stated outright. Almost all science fiction lore that depicts the future of Earth paints it as a unified globe. In fact, it is implied that once the Earth is united, humans will seek more land to add to this conglomerate of land by colonizing other planets and so forth. This may seem silly from an early 21st century point of view, yet the company Mars One has already planned colonization efforts for Mars due to launch in 2023. Our world is shrinking, and before we know it, even the galaxy will seem like a small area.

For this reason, it is important that the United States realize that a distaste of imperialism is an outdated state of mind. Now, more than ever, we should be pushing to increase the size of the United States. If there is a country willing to enter the United States, then they should have been accepted immediately, and plans to further increase the size of our country should be made. Of course, I understand that many countries would be averse to the growth of our country, and for this reason the United States should pursue imperialistic policies in a discrete fashion, somewhat similar to what we are doing today. Increase outside countries dependence on our military, slowly draw them into our culture, involve them in our decisions and in time they will be ready to join our nation.

If the United States does not take action in this way then it, like so many other great empires, will find itself slowly losing power until it is a shadow of its former glory and will perhaps disappear into the annals of history forever. Simply put, if we do not move first to create a larger nation, another country will do so. Even in the past few decades examples of this can be found; for example, the Russians created the USSR as a powerful combination of East European countries that only fell apart due to the cooperation of western nations in NATO. Similarly, while it is not a country, the EU represents a step towards a more united European front, perhaps the first step in creating one European body of government.

These attempts at unification, with the exception of NATO, are a threat to the United States global supremacy. With unification comes more power and more resources. In addition, it would not be difficult for a unified continent to displace the United States as the world’s major superpower. In the interests of global supremacy and a patriotic desire to see our country expand into a global nation, I truly believe it is in our best interests to immediately pursue these imperialistic, or expansionist, policies.

Great empires come and go, and it is only the ones that continually assert their dominance in the world that remain. Accepting Puerto Rico as a state is the correct move to make for a successful American future, but we cannot stop there. We must keep pushing forward in the hopes that one day, on a planet far away, there will hover an American flag that represents all our country has ever done and will continue to do.