Today, in China or in Dubai, you can feel the electric hum of activity, ambition and sheer optimism about the future. Certainly, some of that is naïve, but it is also a strength and a source of energy... The alternative to grime-encrusted lenses isn’t rose-tinted glasses, but more equanimity about our weaknesses and our strengths would surely help us navigate. Unfortunately, the problem with downward spirals is, well, that they spiral downward. There is little evidence just now that we are about to break this cycle, and until we do, we will watch in awe, envy and fear as peoples throughout the world do what we used to do so well.

Excerpted from Zachary Karabell’s ‘Who Stole the American Spirit?’ in The Wall Street Journal