An open letter to certain parties...

[conuly]

"Greatest country in the world" is a meaningless statement until and unless you give some sort of metric. In what way is this the "greatest" country? What, exactly, are you measuring here? That's not sarcasm - or, at least, it doesn't have to be. Just give me something to work with here!

(I've tried actually asking people individually, but I've never gotten anything constructive out of them. I think they don't know what they mean either.)

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

We're definitely the greatest country geographically. We've got the entire temperate zone of a major continent "from sea to shining sea" - very few other nations in history could claim that. Genghis Khan's empire and the Soviet Union were bigger, but neither of them lasted long; Australia is one nation, but most of it is barely habitable. With climate change, it's likely Canada will become the greatest country (in that sense) within a century, if civilization lasts that long.

We may still be the greatest country in terms of unspoiled natural resources and number of species, though the spoiling and extinction have proceeded at a terrifying rate for the past two centuries. Europe and Asia were relentlessly warred-over by mounted armies for millennia; whole regions were deforested for the building of navies; hoi polloi could barely scratch themselves a living. Not that the First Nations didn't war on each other, but it wasn't the same sort of warfare. So the USA began as the richest nation, and systematically conquered all the other nations on this continent, taking their resources. Russia is doing the same thing to Siberia, so it's hard to say which of us is greater now, by that standard of greatness.

We may be the greatest country for genetic diversity, since for the past few centuries people from all over the world have been coming here and swapping genes around the pool fairly freely. Genetic diversity has an extremely high survival value; the more options a species has, the more it can adapt to change. By the same token, we may also be the greatest country for cultural diversity, which fosters creativity and innovation.

We arguably have the best system of government, despite the shameful way it's currently being misused. Our Founders had a unique opportunity to start fresh, to design a system from the ground up, rather than fighting to modify an existing one into accordance with the principles of the Enlightenment. They designed it very well indeed, and even built into it safeguards against the kind of bullshit Trump and the GOP are trying to pull. Obviously, no system can stand forever against determined efforts to destroy it from within, but ours has stood so far, and if it falls, it'll be a great loss to the world.

So, there ya go; something to work with. The USA has the greatest location, and 'location is everything'. The USA has (or had) the greatest natural resources, which must be scrupulously protected, especially our clean water. The USA has the greatest genetic and cultural diversity, which is a huge advantage, so the bigots and xenophobes need to STFU. The USA has the greatest system of government, carefully designed to ensure "government of, by and for the people", and We the People need to fight like hell to protect it from hostile takeover by the corporate robber barons.

[conuly]

It's true, we are certainly the largest nation in the world that isn't mostly frozen tundra, and having access to two different oceans is nothing to sneeze at. And we do have a lot of diversity, though I'm not sure we have more than Canada.