manchicken here…

So I just now had a comment on an ancient post from someone who has stated that the constitution makes the United States of America the greatest country in the world.  I’d just like to take issue with that for a moment, and point out some of the flaws that are so apparent in this ignorant opinion.

First, how does a piece of paper make a country great?  The constitution is nothing more than a piece of paper with words written on it.  Mind you it’s a very old piece of paper, and there’s a lot of history behind it, but when it’s all said and done it’s just a piece of paper with a framework for government written on it.

A piece of paper doesn’t make anything great… it’s the people in the United States that make it great.  We’ve got some good people here.  I’ve met many of them, they do exist.  The people who make this country great may follow, enforce, and protect the constitution, and sure they may believe in the political ideals that the consitution presents and appreciate the framework that it lays out, but if the constitution were to burn these people would still be capable of making this country great.

Second, I take extreme issue with this horsecrap notion that the U.S. is somehow the best country in the world.  You’d have to have the intellect of a three-year-old to assert such nonsense.  There are so many holes in that sort of thinking that I don’t have time to address them.  The most obvious one being how do you rank countries in an order from least great to most great?  What measure would you use?  Money?  Military might? Population?  Largest square footage?  It’s something that I don’t really think can be measured.

What’s the purpose of someone trying to rank their home country as the best country?  I see it as the same mentality as a 13-year-old cheerleader who shouts across the pep rally that she’s got school spirit.  It’s great to have school spirit, but that doesn’t mean you go out there and piss all over the other schools because you think you’re better than them.  You can’t use it as a justification for why and/or how you’re better than them.  There’s really no need for us to label a country as the best country in the world.  And there are certainly times at which the U.S. is very far from the greatest country indeed.  There have been very dark days in U.S. history, and we’ve got a checked past just like everybody else.

Third, I’ve been to a handful of other countries.  I’ve seen Spain, Mexico, and Canada first hand.  That’s nowhere near the whole world, I know, but you don’t have to see the whole world to know that there are other very nice places in this world to live.  Seville Spain is very nice, a bit hot for me, but the people there are just very laid back and the city is very attractive.  Mexico has some of the sweetest people that I’ve ever met in my life.  Canada, while they export only the worst of their media–thanks a lot for Degrassi, my little sister tortured me with that show for years–they’ve got some very interesting culture.  They care a lot about their people and the world in general.

I’ve also had the delight of meeting several excellent people from all over the world.  I’ve met a great guy from India named Nigel who works hard, learns fast, and laughs easy.  I’ve met Tonio from France who is very passionate about pretty much everything, but is very thoughtful about what he does.  I’ve met John from Scotland who is a little quiet but always knows how to make folks laugh.  I have a great pair of buddies named Carlos and Eddie who are from Chicago but who have strong family ties to Mexico and are some of the most fun people I’ve ever met.  Then there’s Sarah from Australia, Sebastian–I think he’s from Denmark–and so many other people who deserve honorable mentions here but I can’t remember them all.

I am an American who lives in a small town.  I was born here, I’m raising my family here, and I’ll probably be buried here… but I don’t for a second buy this lie that the United States of America is in any way better than every other country on the planet.  There are just too many countries in the world with too many awesome people for any single country to hold that title.  Maybe if we pass it around and share the title then we can go for it, but it’s not exclusive to any one country.  The USA does not have a monopoly on freedom, on honesty, on decency, or on greatness.  The USA is one of a great number of nice places to live on planet Earth.

When a country gives itself a title like the greatest country, it pushes the rest of the world down.  The rest of the world exists too.  They’re out there, I’ve seen some of it.  What we do here affects them, and what they do out there affects us.  Globalization isn’t happening… it’s already happened.  God made us all, and God gave us all the potential for greatness.

God bless the World.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 at 22:47 and is filed under Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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