# America’s Big Stick

By [Brian Connelly](https://paragraph.com/@brian-connelly) · 2023-04-07

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Since Brenton Woods, America has carried a big stick: the US dollar. Despite Teddy’s advice, when you have a big stick, you can speak softly or yell at the top of your lungs the results are likely the same.

However, after a while, even the most beaten-down folks will risk it all and fight back. Hence [BRICS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BRICS); is putting together a golden stick to beat back American paper.

In 2014, the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) created the New Development Bank (NDB), also known as the BRICS Bank. The bank was created as an alternative to the traditional World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), dominated by Western countries.

In 2019, BRICS leaders agreed to establish a standard payment system to reduce dependence on the US dollar in international trade and transactions.

And let’s not forget the [Bitcoin folks](https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesonlopp/2021/07/04/bitcoin-redefining-f-you-money/?sh=1c95aca93c3b). It seems the sins of the past are coming home to roost.

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency that allows for peer-to-peer transactions without needing a central authority like a bank. Bitcoin has gained popularity as a way to circumvent traditional financial systems, particularly in countries with unstable or unreliable currencies. Some countries, such as El Salvador and Ukraine, have even passed legislation recognizing and regulating Bitcoin as a legal payment.

The reign of the big stick is starting to show its age; the wood is full of holes and throws off more dust than fear.

![](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/3cbce697a34ac96b95571546c3e2a64404130c5b848d93394e32ccd67f717fc3.jpg)

_Democracy has become a business plan, with a bottom line for every human activity, every dream, every decency, every hope. The main parliamentary parties are now devoted to the same economic policies — socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor — and the same foreign policy of servility to endless war. This is not democracy. It is to politics what McDonald’s is to food._

**John Pilger**

Let us make no mistake that the big stick is the overwhelming military power and the capability to produce that power. Today’s conflicts are fought as much economically as they are military. Sanctions have beaten down Russia and left China shaking in its boots. Every other country is asking, “Are we next?” So they are making plans to thwart the stick.

It’s time the current holders of the “big Stick” realize that the world of today is not the world of Teddy Roosevelt. It’s time to embrace the change, understand it, and position America to come out the other side in a better position than it is today.

_“The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.”_

**Rupert Murdoch**

It’s best to start at home; getting our house in order will show the world that even if the American dollar is not something they want to play with, American values are still worth striving for. Let’s look at [income inequality,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism_for_the_rich_and_capitalism_for_the_poor) political polarization, and racial injustice in America and fix those before we try to control others who resist that control vehemently.

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*Originally published on [Brian Connelly](https://paragraph.com/@brian-connelly/america-s-big-stick)*