It’s a common complaint online that America wields its superpower status in ways other nations can’t match. What critics often miss is how power actually works in practice. “With great power comes great responsibility,” Uncle Ben told Peter Parker in the 2002 Spider-Man movie. But the less-quoted part of that lesson is what responsibility actually entails: the obligations, costs, and trade-offs that come with the job. Peter Parker’s journey showed this clearly: once you have the power to act, choosing not to act has consequences too.