A few weeks ago in my Economics course, my professor proposed a simple question, " Is America the greatest country in the world?" This encouraged a few of the usually quiet, but apparently overly-patriotic students in the back to create a bit of a hoop-la. Roars of American exceptionalism were mixed together with the normal tone of red, white, and blue dissidents. On the former side of the argument you will hear that due to our cultural, political, and socio-economic histories, our nation has been somewhat of a "city upon hill," if you will. I use that metaphor for I feel it is a proper homage to one of our Puritan founders, John Winthrop's, original hopes for his future home of Massachusetts. Essentially this new land would be a beacon, a model for the rest of the world. And I profoundly believe that those philosophical roots have woven their way throughout the fabric of our American identity. Perhaps such an ideal in itself is necessary to drive a sovereign nation within our somewhat modern nationalistic organization of civilization, but either way, we as Americans have a sense of pride. Which we should. But I do think it is fair to state like all things, too much of something may not be good.
On the dissident side you tend to hear the common imperialistic argument. That is via warfare, economic influence, and other means our culture and beliefs have created a hegemonic like net over the rest of the Western world. Moreover, the issues we now face in areas such as the middle east are fundamentally based off of these cultural struggles. Some will point to our exceptionally large military, which is stationed all across the world, as evidence. Others will state that the tangible moralistic depravity has not only corrupted our society, breeding a hedonic, materialistic generation of wantons, but it has also spread throughout the very foundations of our society, as evident within political and private sector corruption. This is all a tad bit extreme. But like the other side's argument, there are some points to be made here as well. Americans do tend to place heavy value on consumption, which to be fair is something rooted within our very biological nature. As animals we need to consume in order to survive. There is no getting around it. Still, perhaps rather than focusing on the items that we value for conspicuous or ostentatious purposes, we should more or less value the vessels throughout which the consumption is experienced; ourselves.
Do I believe America is the greatest country in the world? I don't think that is a fair question. Not because I value some other country out there or I am "anti-American." That is far from the truth, for I love everything about my basic identity, including the nation where I was born and currently reside in. But I don't find it to be a fair question because I don't think a question such as that is one with a straight answer. Sure, there are many historical instances or cases we could easily point at and say, "that is definitely not a time and place I would want to live in." Perhaps it was the Assyrian empire, or maybe for modern purposes it is North Korea. So yes we can easily falsify this statement, to speak in a scientific tongue, but it is not something we can state as empirically true. To do that we would need to create a list of criteria which based off the basic flaws of logic and reasoning, would be subjective and bias to our conditioned preferences of Western values.
Do I think America is the most powerful country in the world? Surely, without a doubt, when it comes in terms of military capabilities. But I don't think that is the purpose of a nation. To me you could have many great nations, but neither one would truly be above the other as long as they serve the basic purpose of those who reside within their geographic and political boundaries. As long as a nation seeks to assist and offer security of a social group, so that said social group can pursue economic and sociological ventures in order to achieve biological, psychological and internal forms of happiness and peace, while simultaneously offering a breeding ground to support and nourish said groups socio-economic cultural identity and history, then that nation is one that is moralistically sound and legitimate.
Now obviously things such as education, healthcare, economic opportunity, and general infrastructure of a sovereign nation are all factors that will contribute to the greater goal. And yes these are aspects that we as Americans do in fact have. Yet if you look at some of our rankings, such as our overall performance in terms of education, there are obviously rooms for improvement. So I suppose the purpose of this little piece is merely to encourage a tad bit of humbleness. Perhaps you could say I am merely arguing the virtue of humility, American humility. For while we have obviously had a great wealth of resources and opportunities in the past, this is not all due to our will and ability alone. A lot of this merely comes down to the winds of fortune, and sometimes the winds change directions. Let's make sure we have our sails in the right position.
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