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Not every city has its own flag--but my hometown of New York City does. And for sheer, unadulterated history, I put the blue, white & orange right up there alongside the red, white & blue.
I love the American flag. I think it is beautiful. When I was growing up I didn't think it was all that pretty, but after six years of personal military service and ten years as a military wife I love it and the country it represents.
I want to start by saying, who gives a crap about the American flag? In my view, no one should give a crap about the American flag, on any side of the political spectrum.
I can remember when I was a kid, thinking about how lucky I was to live in the "greatest country on Earth". At least, that is what I believed it was, largely as a result of the media and the people in this country constantly saying it over and over again. I really believed that people in most other countries didn't even live in cities, or have anything modern. That I could have just as easily been born in some other country, and I thought it must have been horribly miserable for the people that live there.
Of course, that isn't reality. America simply isn't the greatest nation on Earth by any decent measure. And I probably would have been much better and happier if I had been born somewhere in Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
So why is America great exactly? Many will say because it has the largest economy. Sure it is the largest, but per-capita it isn't that great, and income inequality in this country is downright awful(it is more similar to 3rd-world nations than Europe). Is it because we are so charitable? Not according to this list, which puts us about 1/5th as charitable as Sweden and Norway, and we are about 50% less charitable than even Canada. And less than half as charitable as broke, bankrupting Spain. So, is it because we have a great history of liberating countries? Eh, sort of. We did play a pivotal role in many wars. But our entry into those wars was generally late. A generally neutral Canada actually has a much better track record of fighting in "good wars" than we do(and staying out of the bad ones). And our wars lately are usually in opposition to the UN, to the European countries, and end up being condemned as pointless, while being called illegal by many. Is America really the home of the free? According to this website. We are 9th, behind notable countries like Canada(6th), Denmark(8th), and Australia(3rd).
So why is America great? The truth is, America is great for much the same reason that people are worried about the "future greatness" of China. China does absolutely nothing that anyone should consider great. They have a horrible record of racism, inequality, civil-rights abuses, and aggressiveness. The only reason China even matters is because it is a large country with a huge population, and lots of resources. Otherwise, it is an utter craphole. Much the same thing can be said for the United States.
As for liberals and the flag, none of you should really care about the flag. Most liberals believe that nationalism is a disease, that we are all one people in the world, and that the US government should always capitulate to the United Nations. The conservatives should be for small government, especially states' rights, and should think that an overglorification of the US flag as being the seeds for an intrusive and overreaching federal government.
If I was to make a list of the actual greatest countries on Earth, the United States wouldn't make the top 10.
Last edited by Redshadowz; 08-30-2011 at 05:59 AM..
I want to start by saying, who gives a crap about the American flag? In my view, no one should give a crap about the American flag, on any side of the political spectrum.
I can remember when I was a kid, thinking about how lucky I was to live in the "greatest country on Earth". At least, that is what I believed it was, largely as a result of the media and the people in this country constantly saying it over and over again. I really believed that people in most other countries didn't even live in cities, or have anything modern. That I could have just as easily been born in some other country, and I thought it must have been horribly miserable for the people that live there.
Of course, that isn't reality. America simply isn't the greatest nation on Earth by any decent measure. And I probably would have been much better and happier if I had been born somewhere in Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, etc.
So why is America great exactly? Many will say because it has the largest economy. Sure it is the largest, but per-capita it isn't that great, and income inequality in this country is downright awful(it is more similar to 3rd-world nations than Europe). Is it because we are so charitable? Not according to this list, which puts us about 1/5th as charitable as Sweden and Norway, and we are about 50% less charitable than even Canada. And less than half as charitable as broke, bankrupting Spain. So, is it because we have a great history of liberating countries? Eh, sort of. We did play a pivotal role in many wars. But our entry into those wars was generally late. A generally neutral Canada actually has a much better track record of fighting in "good wars" than we do(and staying out of the bad ones). And our wars lately are usually in opposition to the UN, to the European countries, and end up being condemned as pointless, while being called illegal by many. Is America really the home of the free? According to this website. We are 9th, behind notable countries like Canada(6th), Denmark(8th), and Australia(3rd).
So why is America great? The truth is, America is great for much the same reason that people are worried about the "future greatness" of China. China does absolutely nothing that anyone should consider great. They have a horrible record of racism, inequality, civil-rights abuses, and aggressiveness. The only reason China even matters is because it is a large country with a huge population, and lots of resources. Otherwise, it is an utter craphole. Much the same thing can be said for the United States.
As for liberals and the flag, none of you should really care about the flag. Most liberals believe that nationalism is a disease, that we are all one people in the world, and that the US government should always capitulate to the United Nations. The conservatives should be for small government, especially states' rights, and should think that an overglorification of the US flag as being the seeds for an intrusive and overreaching federal government.
If I was to make a list of the actual greatest countries on Earth, the United States wouldn't make the top 10.
Well, let's take your criteria to task: what makes Australia great? New Zealand? etc.?
Taking what you said, what exactly makes a country great? Those Western European nations you mention are tasting a nasty side of the recession and are experiencing much wider spread unrest:
This is not to say the US is 'better', but want makes them better in your eyes?
The reason I like the flag is b/c it's of the country and people (not the US government). All that stuff you said is neither here nor there, the flag was around LONG before both World Wars, the UN, etc.
Like you, I don't believe the flag should be over-glorified, but it shouldn't be trivialized either.
In my eyes the flag isn't america. We can say it represents america but it's not what we fight for everyday. I don't understand how people from any country could say, that they will fight for their flag. It's thoughts like that, that have caused many wars and battles in human history. If i were to fight for a country i will fight for it's people not for a "flag".
I appreciate our flag for the ideals it represents: freedom, liberty, democracy, equality, opportunity, independence, and a republican form of government. It is the emblem of our military that has long stood as the force of good against the forces of evil and tyranny.
For that reason, I despise those who use our flag to cloak their abuses as false patriotism. Patriotism is only as a good as the ideals it represents. Thousands committed horrible atrocities in their unwavering loyalty to Nazi Germany. Me, I'll always be patriotic to the America that I know and love, but not to the America that some people want to create. And, if that day ever comes, I'll be the first to burn that flag in the streets.
In my eyes the flag isn't america. We can say it represents america but it's not what we fight for everyday. I don't understand how people from any country could say, that they will fight for their flag. It's thoughts like that, that have caused many wars and battles in human history. If i were to fight for a country i will fight for it's people not for a "flag".
I'd be hard-pressed to find someone saying they'll fight for a flag and literally meaning they'll fight for a piece of cloth. I would think most folks mean the country (afterall, a flag w/o meaning is just a curtain)
Well, let's take your criteria to task: what makes Australia great? New Zealand? etc.?
In order to answer that question, let me lay down the basic criteria for the greatness of a country and see which countries tend to come out ahead.
1) Happiness
2) Social cohesion
3) Social equality
4) Low Governmental corruption
5) General Health
6) Charity
7) Freedom
8) Prosperity
9) Peaceful
10) Safe
11) Natural Beauty
12) Friendly people
13) Political stability
There's probably more I'll think about later, but you get the point.
I'll try to guess the relative world position of the United States in each of these things.
1) Happiness - ~20th... Most rank the United States somewhere between 16th and 25th in overall happiness.
2) Social cohesion - ~125th... There are 195 countries in the world. The United States is far less socially cohesive than all of Europe and Asia. I think we are less socially cohesive than all of Latin-America as well, minus maybe Brazil or Peru. Only Middle-Eastern and African countries are more divided than us.
3) Social equality - Somewhere between 20th and 90th... In gender equality, we are behind basically all other developed nations. And in income equality, according to the CIA, we are around 90th.
4) Low Governmental corruption - ~17th... According to this website at least. I tend to agree with its findings.
5) General Health - Somewhere between 10th and 36th.... We have a quality healthcare system, but not all people benefit from it. Moreover, we have an incredibly unhealthy population relative to other developed nations. From our high rates of obesity, to our relatively short life expectancy, things aren't great in America.
6) Charity - between 1st and ~10th... America gives more money to private charities than any other country in the world. But that is largely only the case because of our lack of government social programs. If we had more government programs, you would see a marked drop in charitable activity. The United States government gives a relatively small amount to other nations as a percentage of GDP.
7) Freedom - Near the top... The United States really isn't any more or less free than most other developed nations in terms of rights. There are other countries with looser drug and marriage laws. As well as simpler tax systems and less regulation. America has one of the lowest tax rates in the developed world, but it does have things like the TSA, the Patriot Act, and other agencies.
8) Prosperity - ~10th and falling... The United States is a fairly wealthy and prosperous nation. There are only a few nations that are doing better than the United States, but I believe that number will only grow over time. Even before the recession things weren't looking great for the future of America.
9) Peaceful - 150th... The United States is anything but peaceful. There are only a handful of countries in this world that are less peaceful than the United States.
10) Safe - 50th... The United States has some insanely high violent crime rates, our murder rate is near the highest in the world. We have more people in prison than anywhere else in the world. Our government has continued to make Americans targets through their aggressive foreign policies. While letting thousands of our servicemen die in unnecessary and illegal wars.
11) Natural Beauty - between 1st and 50th.... This country probably has more diverse natural beauty than anywhere else in the world, if you took the country as a whole. But if you took it more like a "per-capita" beauty, it scores pretty poorly. Half of this country is almost completely flat, with little natural water and almost nothing to look at. Most of the Gulf of Mexico is muddy disgusting swampland or brackish water, that extends pretty far inland. Most of our cities are pretty plain looking and uninspiring. But there is definitely a lot of beauty in this country as well.
12) Friendly people - ~10th.... Much of America is a very friendly place, but there are large swaths of this country that aren't all that friendly. I couldn't put us over places like Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and an Ireland.
13) Political stability - ~100th... Our political system is just too full of radicals from all sides. China may be communist, but they have a far more stable political system than we do. The same goes for most European countries. Even the European countries who are struggling don't have the Circus we do. Only in Africa, the middle-east, and a few other countries in various parts of the world is there more political instability than we have in America.
You should write your itemized rankings for America, then compare it to places like Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Ireland, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, etc. I would be interested in your opinion.
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