Reflective Post Week 3

I found this week’s reading quite interesting. The reading The Unipolar Illusion Revisited by Christopher Layne taught me a lot about the United States. I had never heard of hegemony before this class so this idea was completely new to me. So in order to understand the concept of hegemony, I decided to turn the idea into something that I already know pretty well, the world of Pokémon. One may think how do these two things go together? Let me explain.

So first we have to establish the hegemon. We all know this is the United States. But in the Pokeworld this is Charizard. One may argue Charizard is not as supreme as I make it out to be, but this is my version of hegemony, so just listen for a bit. Charizard is the most powerful Pokémon. He can pretty much defeat any Pokémon in a single blow. The exception is Blastoise, for he is a water Pokémon. Blastoise can defeat Charizard, since he is a fire Pokémon. This analogy is not saying that the any one country can defeat the US. I am just using this example to show that the US in not indestructible, and that maybe in a few decades a new hegemony may arise and take over the United State’s spot.

Charizard is both economically powerful and powerful when it comes to the military. Just like how the US is both powerful in the economy and military. For example, a holographic mass produced Charizard is one of the most valuable Pokémon cards out there (besides the Illustrator Pikachu card). Therefore Charizard is an economically powerful Pokémon due to its card status. Charizard is militaristically powerful because that is how it was raised to be. Charizards normally attend the Charizard training camp in the Charizific Valley where they are trained the reach their potential and become stronger. This way they will have the most powerful military regime of all the Pokémon.

Charizard is benevolent, like the USA. He comes across as a compassionate and generous Pokémon. He would do anything for his trainer Ash. The US can also be considered benevolent, like Charizard because we give aid to other countries and try our best to combat terrorism. Charizard would be willing to help any Pokémon or person out, including Pikachu, and Team Rocket. No one feels threatened by Charizard so therefore no one decides to pick a fight with him.

My last note is that no one worries about Charizard because he is a flying Pokémon and is usually in the sky. There are not many flying Pokémon, and of those Pokémon none of them really messes with Charizard. None of the land Pokémon are worried about Charizard since he is in the sky and not on the land. The land Pokémon only worry about other land Pokémon. This is similar to the US because our bordering countries are not worried about us, so they don’t bother us. The only threatening countries to the US are across the ocean, but they are usually fighting more amongst themselves so they do not bother with the US. We can also think of Ash as being the UN, since Charizard (or the USA) belongs to him. And Gary Oak to be the rest of the World not in the UN.

http://nintendoguy78.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/charizard.gif