In the eternal drama of global dominion, masters are somehow indelible and short-lived. The specters of such bygone powers as ancient Rome, imperial China and industrial Britain still loom, almost legendarily, as ever-present reminders of nation and empire in their grandest forms.

Yet though the empires of old are eternal in our historical consciousness, the extent of their global dominance is usually finite. Thus, our pressing question, especially in a time of perceived economic and social deterioration, becomes not if but when will American dominance end?

Popular columnist and TV personality Fareed Zakaria addressed this and other questions regarding America’s place in a new global community in a compelling lecture here at Duke Monday. In his estimation, the stagnation of American investment in education and growth industries smacks of a potential death knell to our throne atop the world, just as it has for the crowned rulers of the past.  If that is the case, then we, the next productive generation and members of a spectacularly educated class of potential future leaders, hold in our hands the keys to American destiny: no pressure, but our time is now.

The validity of Zakaria’s warning is no more apparent than here on campus, where the best and brightest upon whom a nation pins its hopes overwhelmingly choose paths of personal stability at the risk of broader stagnation. Without slighting those here who are at the forefront of fueling education and innovation, it is clear that those who opt for old guard careers such as finance, consulting and specialized medicine are still numerous. It perpetuates a trend of major talent flocking to established, internalized sectors largely devoid of the sort of global productive power that molds great nations.

The problem, as Zakaria would put it, is that there is no growth. Finance pushes money around, producing only “financial instruments” that most recently were the root of a near-collapse in global economics. Consulting enhances the rigidity of finance hegemony by advising said institutions in strong-armed market power brokering and consolidation. And apart from the extent to which American doctors can treat the patients of the world (only the obscenely wealthy at this point), health care remains an ever-ballooning, intranationally financed drag upon earnings and production in comparison with the rest of the developed world.

The merits of growth in one sector over another need not be debated because the facts are clear: these are examples of professions in sectors that are indeed essential, but whose dogmatic centrality to the new American economy has weakened its capacity for adaptation and true growth.  It would be more illuminating to discuss the propensity for our generation to overwhelmingly flock to the safety of those established fields or, perhaps more accurately, our hesitance to take the bull by the horns and forge something new in the way that Zakaria advocates.

Zakaria had his own historical take on this as well, reminding us that the Cold War generated a social mandate for personal contributions to the advancement of science, education and technology in the 1950s and 60s, which largely contributed to our current (or former) dominance in those fields. The 2009 analog to that mandate would seem to be a selfish desire to take what’s ours in the form of safe employment, driving us in the opposite direction. Say what you will about the right to choose one’s own path, but there’s something a little unsettling about our generation’s conspicuous consumption culture in contrast with the sacrifices of past generations.

Then again, maybe the onus falls upon our nation’s leadership to make it “safe” to invest our labor in the country’s future as opposed to the future of Goldman Sachs (with the hope that they are independent of each other). Just as a cold war government invested heavily and propagandized shamelessly for the sake of a unified fight for superiority, perhaps their contemporaries can make it worth our while to participate in the recovery of “American dynamism,” as Zakaria put it). Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened yet, and therein lies our generation’s greatest challenge: If it doesn’t ever happen, will we choose of our own accord to make America’s business our own business?

There is no doubt that our generation is up to the challenge. More young people are service oriented than ever before, with a desire to effect real, beneficial change. Shrinking job markets in traditional sectors have encouraged us to look elsewhere for opportunities, and some of those that we find will undoubtedly make strides in the right direction. Even better, if we choose to make a concerted effort to work for our collective benefit as a nation, then we may yet embody the greatest generation of our time.  Now is the time to make our choice.

Mike Meers is a Trinity senior. His column runs every other Friday.