What makes the USA the greatest country in the world? Or is it?

I read a lot of Mark Steyn (his book After America is great and depressing). This speech has some of the same themes and I can get behind some of what was said in the video.

My one comment is that we are still the greatest country on earth but, we are within a decade of being thrown on the ash heap of history. We already are the brokest country on Earth and if things are not changed America will no longer exist.

To answer the question why are we the greatest country on Earth. We are the greatest country on Earth becuase our culture and rule of law has freed more people from poverty and tyranny than any other country in human existance.
 
Every group has a "pride of membership" that derives from its abilities to exclude and to influence and there is nothing wrong with enjoying that pride...whether you are part of a senior's home winning shuffleboard team or the most powerful military nation on Earth (although China has more people than we have bullets). The problem is when we use jingoism as a substitute for a philosophical foundation. As our influence fades, the pride of membership fades as well.

Politicians have learned that when they give us an apparent threat, we react to an extent that increases the power of the state. They have also learned that the less a population thinks, the more it can be directed in its reaction. The problem isn't that we are no longer great (if we ever were)...the problem is that we no longer pursue or value greatness.
 
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