America is NOT the greatest country in the world anymore.... But we sure used to be..

[19Herr_Rapp86]

Caution Strong Language.

A new HBO miniseries called The Newsroom
This clip is from the first episode. It's 3 and a half minutes.
As an American this is the most powerful 3 and a half minutes I've ever watched... Because it's so true

[Takeda Shingen]

I'll bet that every generation since time immemorial has thought that the next generation was the worst ever. I'll also bet each of those generations looked wistfully back at a golden age that likely never existed. The good old days; they weren't always so good.

[vienna]

I'll bet that every generation since time immemorial has thought that the next generation was the worst ever. I'll also bet each of those generations looked wistfully back at a golden age that likely never existed. The good old days; they weren't always so good.

Amen to that. Its always good to try to keep things in perspective...

...

[Betonov]

Reminds me of another little nation that I know. That in 1991 belived it was more powerfull than the US and Russia combined.
Lost it all due to ideological bickering between left and right.

[CaptainMattJ.]

Exactly.The a difference between being proud o f your country and believing your country is the greatest ever. People like to feeel like theyre a part of something great what what greatness are you talking about? The only advanced and top notch thing about our country is our military. we are so far behind in education and collective social growth that we no longer possess anything particularly spectacular when compared to the rest of the 6.7 billion people on earth except our corruption. The fact is that we cant seem to accept that socialism works. Incorporating a mix between socialism and capitalism that improves on the worthless system we have now benefits everyone. Its been proven everywhere else. We may have banned monopolies but ill be damned if we arent as close to them as possible. Wall street, for example, in both the great depression and recession, invested billions of dollars that they didnt have to spend and lost everything. the Food industry is now almost dominated by about 3 companies. If any of these businesses crash, so does a chunk of the population.

We have so much potential yet we squander it on the most ridiculous things...

[Rockstar]

America never was the greatest.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen

I'll bet that every generation since time immemorial has thought that the next generation was the worst ever. I'll also bet each of those generations looked wistfully back at a golden age that likely never existed. The good old days; they weren't always so good.

My dad tells me stories about what his dad predicted about my dad's generation (end of civilization). My old man sure waxed pessimistically about ME and MY generation.

Of course they were both wrong. Each generation produced the good, the bad, and the ugly and the US survived quite nicely.

However, when I moan about the younger generation being the end of civilization, it is different.

Ah these kids with their crazy rock and roll, you call that music?

Get off my lawn!

And would it kill you to get a haircut?

[JU_88]

Originally Posted by Platapus

And would it kill you to get a haircut?

Over here some of the trendy 'hipster' kids have about 3 haircuts in one.
Ill ask them to donate some to your area.

[Ducimus]

Personally i think the proof is in the statistics like education, infrastructure, etc. So i think that clip is spot on. We always just assume we're the best because that's what we've been brought up to believe, and we ride on the coat tails of our forefathers success, while we have yet to make similar achievements ourselves.

[Sailor Steve]

I thought the clip was trite and melodramatic. Good for a sound bite, but not worth anything. The ideal that America brought forth 200 years ago did indeed change the world, but the country and its people are no better, no worse and no different than they were then. The ideal of freedom is a great one, perhaps the greatest, but associating the ideal with the country itself is arrogance at its worst.

Yes, there are many things wrong with America, just as there are many things wrong with any country, group or person. Part of the problem is that people disagree about exactly what is wrong and exactly what should be done about it. America is no less great now than it was fifty or two hundred years ago. It's the ideal that is great. Lose sight of that and you lose sight of the only thing that counts.

[Ducimus]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

. It's the ideal that is great. Lose sight of that and you lose sight of the only thing that counts.

Idea's are like dreams. Worthless without deeds.

[Hottentot]

Originally Posted by Ducimus

We always just assume we're the best because that's what we've been brought up to believe, and we ride on the coat tails of our forefathers success, while we have yet to make similar achievements ourselves.

My thoughts exactly, only concerning Finland and not America. I see this especially on the Independence day every year. "Patriotism" is boasting how great our former generations were (understandable to a point on that day, of course), but never asking: "Hey guys, how could we improve this?"

Instead we often ask: "This sucks, why doesn't anyone do anything about it?" That's in general a big problem at least with us Finns. We are always talking about: "Yeah, I'm in...if someone else goes first". It's all empty talk in the Internet and in the magazines, but when it would be time to do something, "it's raining", "I have to work", "My favorite soap opera is on TV"...

Commenting the thread title a little, I have always had a problem understanding the concept of "the greatest country in the world", no matter which country we are talking about. I like Finland. It's a fine country. But is it the best? I have lived abroad and seen that some things are better there, some are worse and some are just different. I see no reason to call any country I have lived in "the best". Whenever I'm in one, I miss some things from some of the others. I suppose I could start ranking them, but I'd be more interested in bringing the good things from one country to another instead of that.

[19Herr_Rapp86]

Originally Posted by Hottentot

Commenting the thread title a little, I have always had a problem understanding the concept of "the greatest country in the world", no matter which country we are talking about. I like Finland. It's a fine country. But is it the best? I have lived abroad and seen that some things are better there, some are worse and some are just different. I see no reason to call any country I have lived in "the best". Whenever I'm in one, I miss some things from some of the others. I suppose I could start ranking them, but I'd be more interested in bringing the good things from one country to another instead of that.

That was the idea behind the melting pot. The best of all worlds right here. If I may....

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Emma Lazarus, 1883

And we still have the best of everything right here. But, all these comments about not calling one country or another the greatest... I can see the point of that. But it's part of the problem. Political correctness has run a muck. We don't want to strive to achieve the great deeds we used to because were too worried about offending some other country that can't accomplish the same thing. We're too worried about our image in the rest of the worlds eyes instead of worrying about being able to look at ourselves as a nation and focusing on how it makes us feel about ourselves. We've gone astray. We're so concerned about world opinion that we've quit focusing on what's wrong here and what we need to continue to strive to achieve. We built the Hoover Dam. People of all nationalities united together as Americans. Germans, Greeks, Irish, Chinese, Russians, French, British... We dug the Erie Canal. The Panama Canal. Mount Rushmore. We flew the first airplane. We put a man on the moon. We freed the slaves. (The confederacy broke away from the Union so it wasn't the United States.) The Trans-Continental Railroad. You know, this is turning into a speech but, I feel obliged now... We called the WWII generation the greatest generation. There are stories of men committing suicide here in the States because the Army, Marines, etc. wouldn't take them. I don't believe in suicide, but I can't help but think about stories like that. My Grandfather was part of that generation. He was a Marine on Guam. I listen to his stories of what our country was like during that time, and listen in awe. I graduated high school in 2005. A week later I was in San Diego, California at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot. Yeah we all talk about a golden age. I joined for that reason. I wanted to feel that. Like I was part of something great. And I did feel that way, no matter what anyone says about Iraq, which is where I was deployed for 18 months. And I did feel that way. I was part of something great. But then I look at all the other people my age. Jobless... And proud of it. They've been to prison and talk like it was an accomplishment. Made them tough. Ha. They don't vote. They don't care. They wear their pants sagging down their hips, have haircuts that make you think what the hell kinda deranged mind cut that for you that way. Ball caps sideways. Throwing up their "yo's" and hand signs because they think it looks and sounds cool, but people like me look at them and wonder if we should call 911 because we can't tell if that's their way of communication or if they're epileptic and having a spas attack. Like Ducimus kinda said, our deeds make us great. But when our deeds involve acting like morons, not voting, or voting without having the slightest clue about what we're even voting for, we're just voting because Bobby and Kenna said they were voting for this guy without any explanation as to why.. Hell, I mentioned men on the moon... We don't even have a space program any more. We hitch a ride with the Russian's. Team USA at the Olympics wears uniforms made in China... Grandpa told me stories of a time where if it didn't say made in the USA it was considered complete and utter crap. We've lost our way. Speaking of World War II vets... That reminds me of another great quote by a great American... One of the best... Who loved America so much that the only income he asked for as President... So concerned with service to this great nation, instead of this great nation serving his status... He requested a dollar a year.... "Ask not what your country can do for you! Ask what you can do for your country." John Fitzgerald Kennedy
That's the problem with my generation. Lots of unemployed because of choice. Not because the jobs aren't there. They are there. I work in a radiator shop. Wasn't the only place I submitted an application. I applied at O'Reilly Auto Parts as a store clerk for minimum wage, a feed lot to shovel cow crap for minimum wage, and as a street sweeper and garbage man for the city. I didn't care what it was I did or for whom I did it. I sure as hell wasn't going to live off welfare. To this day, I have never received a dollar of unemployment, and have never drawn welfare. That's the problem with my generation. Most of my neighbors do. The jobs are there. But its a small town I live in, and I know my neighbors because they are people I went to school with. People my age. They refuse to work. Never worked a day in their life. All 23, 24, 25 years old. You know what the screwed up part is? They are living better than me... On welfare. Oh well though. Won't stop me from working. I'll make my living the same way most others who came here have, since the 1600's.

[STEED]

Originally Posted by Platapus

Get off my lawn!

And would it kill you to get a haircut?

Here in the UK we would say..

Hey you kids get off the lawn!

Get your hair cut hippy!