In America's next decade, change and challenges
A new decade finds Americans in an uncomfortable and yet familiar position: running scared.
Almost three-fourths of them, according to a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, don't like the way things are going in the country.
Given economic deprivation and political division, plus war, terrorism and a warming world, who would?
But during the next 10 years, our fright may be our salvation. Americans often suspect they face the worst of times and, as a result, try harder to make the best of them.
Whether it's the launch of Sputnik in 1957, the fall of Saigon in 1975 or the economic challenge from Japan in the 1980s, "there's this persistent conviction that our best days are behind us," says George Friedman, founder of STRATFOR, a private intelligence service. "We always think that the U.S. is finished."
DECADE IN REVIEW: Looking back at the past 10 years
Yet Americans' assumption that they're at the brink is what saves them from going over it. Instead of underestimating challenges, we overreact. In a competitive world, Friedman says, "it's a key to our success."