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Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt.
- Julius Caesar, Gallic War, III:18.
. . .
Why? Because it is not in our nature to see things for what they are. We prefer to believe in fanciful notions that are untrue. Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia 1431 - 1501) once said that men are so simple they will believe anything. The Borgia Pope, while the spiritual leader of the Church, was, if anything, a homme du monde; and, for all his faults, a keen observer of human nature, noting that it is a defect in the human character that we would rather listen to lies than believe the truth we can see with our own eyes. Even when forced to confront the facts, we deny them and make up excuses.
In The Prince (modeled after Pope Alexander’s son, Cesare Borgia), Niccolo Machiavelli wrote about the state and its rule as it is rather than as it should be, for which, after five centuries of experience, he continues to be roundly condemned. It is a social preference for what we choose to believe, though false, over what is in fact true. Great Caesar was right when he wrote: "Men willingly believe what they wish to be true."
A lie can be more credible than the truth because the truth is whatever it is, while the lie is crafted to fit into the prejudices of the audience.
I'm 23 and i have never seen a country that's in such terrible shape. I wish people would second guess their selves for a minute and acknowledge that without the truth we will continue to fall. I'm broken hearted. Why do we have to fight the opinions of others so much? Why can't we just get our whole media on board?
Well, I guess you're taken a first step by not actually expressing an opinion at all.
I am six years older than you. I've been to many countries, I have to say that I enjoy traveling, but if you know how to invest and save, if you are creative and hard working, America is STILL the greatest country on earth. (Not one of the best, THE best.)
I'm in my 50s and I've traveled the world extensively and lived in another country. While the U.S. is a nice place, it is far, far from the greatest country on Earth. I'll take Denmark any day of the week. There's a reason Danes are the happiest people in the world. We have a lot to improve on and a lot we could learn from other nations. It's arrogance in the extreme to puff our feathers and pretend we're superior to everyone else on the planet. Kind of like white supremacists thinking they're better than everyone else. It's not only absurd, it's dangerous.
I'm 23 and i have never seen a country that's in such terrible shape. I wish people would second guess their selves for a minute and acknowledge that without the truth we will continue to fall. I'm broken hearted. Why do we have to fight the opinions of others so much? Why can't we just get our whole media on board?
You haven't seen the kind of shape Russia, Mexico and Venezuela are in?
I am six years older than you. I've been to many countries, I have to say that I enjoy traveling, but if you know how to invest and save, if you are creative and hard working, America is STILL the greatest country on earth. (Not one of the best, THE best.)
Does that not depend on what you are measuring?
infant mortality - #34, just below Cuba
Education - we rank 26 in Math and lower in Science and Reading compared to other countries, while we spend $115,000 / student compared to Slovakia at $53,000 with a better score
#6 with highest quality of living
#2 for teen birth rates
#1 in largest income inequality gaps - 1 in 7 people in the US are in poverty.
While I think we have a good lifestyle generally, there are many things that have fallen behind since the 80's.
America is much better now than it's ever been, unfortunately we have 24 hour "news" and blogs that make it seem like the world is ending.
There are people sitting here, in the United States, decrying a system that has produced such incredible prosperity that the median household income amounts to around $53,000 per annum as of the most updated figures, putting a typical American family in the richest 0.28% of the world. You can be perfectly mediocre in this country and you’ll still end up richer than 9,972 out of every 10,000 families alive.
And that’s after considering the struggles of the lower class as measured by the inflation-adjusted change in the lower class over the past 30 years! A system that can provide that sort of comfort even during times of struggle is not something one should take for granted.
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