It is a popular thing to wish for America’s demise as a superpower and to see the weakening of Western civilization and capitalism. The grass is always greener isn’t it? Well let’s see what how green the grass is indeed on the other side.

The reality is there are four countries/unions that have a legitimate shot at replacing the United States as the world power. They are, ordered by likelihood:

1. China- I think everyone agrees that China is the most likely counter balance to the United States.

2. Russia-Putin is attempting to re-establish the USSR. We’ll all regret not doing anything about it. Putin IS the most dangerous person in the world.

3. India- A considerable step below China and Russia, but they are more free than the former and that may prove to be valuable in the long run. I am a big fan of India.

4. EU- As they continue to consolidate they seem like a likely successor, but Europe has never been able to get along, what makes us think a unified Europe is stable for the long term? Besides, as the US goes, Europe goes. Europe, er NATO, is too reliable on the U.S.

Now consider the fact that India and the EU really aren’t viable when compared to China and Russia. What we have is the world’s future in the hands of either the US, China, or Russia or a combination of these with lesser, though significant, powers. Take some time to consider what your preference would be.

Alright, for those of you who chose Russia or China over the US consider the following:

China: “China’s All Seeing Eye”

Over the past two years, some 200,000 surveillance cameras have been installed throughout the city. Many are in public spaces, disguised as lampposts. The closed-circuit TV cameras will soon be connected to a single, nationwide network, an all-seeing system that will be capable of tracking and identifying anyone who comes within its range — a project driven in part by U.S. technology and investment. Over the next three years, Chinese security executives predict they will install as many as 2 million CCTVs in Shenzhen, which would make it the most watched city in the world. (Security-crazy London boasts only half a million surveillance cameras.) The security cameras are just one part of a much broader high-tech surveillance and censorship program known in China as “Golden Shield.”

With its militant protests and mobile population, China confronts a fundamental challenge. How can it maintain a system based on two dramatically unequal categories of people: the winners, who get the condos and cars, and the losers, who do the heavy labor and are denied those benefits? More urgently, how can it do this when information technology threatens to link the losers together into a movement so large it could easily overwhelm the country’s elites?

The answer is Golden Shield.

So take this, along with the well documented human rights violations, especially against the Tibetans and Uygurs and then ask yourself if that is how you want to live?

Now let’s have fun with Russia. Consider the following:

Putin’s opponents are made to vanish from TV

It is also a striking indication of how Putin has relied on the Kremlin-controlled television networks to consolidate power, especially in recent elections.

Opponents who were on television a year or two ago all but vanished during the campaigns, as Putin won a parliamentary landslide for his party and then installed his protégé, Dmitri Medvedev, as his successor.

When some actors cracked a few mild jokes about Putin and Medvedev at Russia’s equivalent of the Academy Awards in March, they were expunged from the telecast.

Political humor in general has been exiled from television here.

Way to go Russia. That’s just the kind of society that I want to live in. But that’s not all, consider the following from Instablogs own Kim in New York:

So, not only is Russia’s “prime minister” able to simply wave his hand and raise the nation’s wages (so much for the idea of capitalism in Russia! — and so much for the idea that Putin no longer rules it!) but he thinks the way to combat devastating double-digit consumer price inflation is to . . . wait for it . . . give people more money.

Yup, I can’t wait to live under the influence of China and Russia, it will be great.

But the greater concern is not that one of them could be the power, it is that they currently are strong allies and they will rule together and there secondary allies, countries who are regional powers, would be strengthened considerably. So let’s quickly consider what their closest allies have been up to:

Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday that the “Zionist regime...will soon be erased from the geographical scene. Today, the time for the fall of the satanic power of the United States has come and the countdown to the annihilation of the emperor of power and wealth has started.” This from a country that would simply become THE regional power in the Middle-east under a Russian-Chinese world.

The there is Venezuela; wonderful, wonderful Venezuela. Whose benevolent President, Hugo Chavez, took personal control of Venezuela’s intelligence operations and is requiring citizens to spy on each other and report remotely seditious activity to the government.

So, go ahead, keep trashing America, keep calling for the end of America’s influence. Continue to denigrate capitalism, which for all of it’s faults, has improved the quality of life of everyone influenced by it (capitalist poor aren’t as poor as socialist, communist, or authoritarian poor).

The fact is, it is in the World’s best interest for Western power to continue. Sure, it may be overall beneficial for a bi- or multi-polar world, but within that multi-polar world, the United States must be the preeminent player. For all of America’s faults, it is still the world’s greatest proponent of freedom and the leader in economic development and poverty reduction. The last thing I want, or any of us should want, is to live under the influence of China, Russia, and their ilk.