The Rise of Socialism, Inc.less

Becky VanDyke
Advanced Journalism
Public Affairs Analysis
The Rise of Socialism, Inc.less
With the current chain of events that has taken place so far this month, The Fall of America, Inc. is a very timely article, full of insight from our past and into our present and future situation. This article, written by Francis Fukuyama, explores America’s capitalist ideals and influence on a world-wide scale. Most articles written over the past few weeks and months delve into great detail about our national financial crisis, local economic problems, and the candidate’s plans for the mix; but few articles have made the case that this article does. This article addresses the global nature of the problem at hand and the massive effect our meltdown in economics and foreign policy has had on the world’s view of America’s “brand”. The Republican brand has been discussed time and time again, yet America’s brand as a whole and the way the world now perceives it has rarely been a prominent topic of conversation. This article presents that very issue, an issue that should have been on the forefront of political discussions more often than it has been, and it presents it in a very clear, understandable manner.
First of all, this article’s headline is genius. It’s catchy, intelligent, funny, fitting, etc. The sub-title is a good insight to the rest of the article and sums up the thesis very directly. The wording in “a certain vision of capitalism has collapsed.” is a particularly good choice of words, the word “certain” helps explain the points he makes later that capitalism cannot be abolished all together, just the “certain” form it has been practiced in so far. This word, “certain”, ties into his pendulum references he later talks about when discussing the drastic changes that people tend to make when something isn’t working right.
I was reminded of my own writing style when I read the first paragraph. The events that have taken place over the last few weeks are listed by means of several fragmented sentences, a technique that I think is usually quite effective in an introduction. After the picture is painted of the current situation Fukuyama does an excellent job of citing his thesis point at the end of his lead and linking the previous fragments to the global perspective of the American “brand”. His introduction continues into the next two paragraphs, making the first three paragraphs to comprise a somewhat long but necessary introduction. The second and third paragraphs separately introduce the two areas that Fukuyama believes are the most affected areas of our “brand”, deregulation and democracy.
As the article continues, Fukuyama mixes stories of past issues in history such as European Socialism, more recent history of our own nation such as the Bush administration’s policies, and current events like the presidential election in order to give background, insight, and understanding to the situation we’ve come to find ourselves facing. The way he incorporates past, present, and future ideas with foreign and domestic matters is very effective in uncovering this multi-layered problem our nation is facing. History mixed with clear examples gives the reader a good understanding of the problem, the reason for the problem, and later, how the problem may be fixed.
Fukuyama also does a good job of not over using this year’s election throughout the piece. He doesn’t mention either of the candidates until the fifth paragraph and then only discusses them a few more times in the rest of the article. Though I am a political junkie, this technique is refreshing. The election is already going to be on the reader’s mind, and will be thought of through out the article without it actually being pushed in the readers face in every paragraph.
His article, for the most part, tries very hard to put forth a fair balance between the candidates when it does actually discuss them and also tries to be fair when it’s not discussing them. However fair the writer may be trying to be, the article still leans in Obama’s favor. The writer’s tone remains pretty fair, but the actual content is left-leaning and therefore, naturally seems to be more in support of Obama and Obama’s policies.
Aside from trying to be fair to the candidates, the article gives a very fair portrayal of opposing economic philosophies and unbiased views of different ideals. The article seems to be stating the downside of our past economic practices; and though some may say that it shows bias, I think it is simply stating the obvious. Just because the obvious is negative, doesn’t mean it isn’t fair.
One of Fukuyama’s writing techniques that stood out to me was his ability to effectively refer back to things previously stated in his article. Things such as Cheney’s statement of “deficits don’t matter” were stated and then later referred back to in order to make a point clearer and refresh the reader’s memory of past points and topics discussed. Sometimes it is helpful to the reader, as it was to me, to have a connection made apparent, a “brain break” as I like to call it.
The format of this article makes the connections easy for the reader to put together also. After the introduction, which is separated into three clear pieces, deregulation and democracy are discussed individually and at length. Once the reader has a clear understanding of the two problems America’s brand is facing, Fukuyama begins his conclusion with a change in tone, “if” paragraph, and solutions.
His tone changes at the fifth paragraph from the end. He starts talking about how America can and will recover. He proceeds to give what I like to call an “if” paragraph in which he has previously given the reader hope but then further explains that this positive and hopeful outcome can only come IF certain measures are taken and specific things are changed. He does this in the paragraph immediately following his tone change, beginning, “Still, another comeback rests on our ability to make some fundamental changes.” And finally he warns about problems to avoid and offers up solutions in the ending couple of paragraphs.
The actual conclusion does a great job of unifying the entire article which is key to making the whole piece work. Like the sub-title, the conclusion is able to sum up the main ideas of the article with just a few short sentences and, as I previously discussed, refers back to points previously addressed throughout the article. The conclusion is nothing innovative or risky as far as format; but it’s solid and unifying and considering the deep topics of the article it is also fitting.
The style of the article was straight forward and consistent, but the content of the article itself was very intelligent as well. Many profound points were made, cases presented, and ideas put forth. So not only was this a well written and laid out article, it was also full of valuable thought, ideas, insight, and conclusions.