The Greatest Country That Never Was

My entire life I’ve been bombarded by the sentiment that America is the greatest country in the world. This belief is absolutely everywhere; in fact I’m sure many of you reading this in America suffer from this collective hallucination. This idea of American exceptionalism has completely permeated every facet of our culture. Our musicians make countless songs praising America’s sheer awesomeness, our movies nearly always paint us as the “good guys”, even our media (that can’t agree on anything else) perpetuate this delusion in nearly every broadcast, and our system of education wholesale drives this false idea into the minds of our youth. To be a big name in American politics now you have to be star spangled stupid because in many parts of the country even hinting at the idea that America is in some way not the best is enough to get you voted out in your next primary or general election. There are plenty of reasons to be proud of America and to be an American, but we have passed the point of reasonable pride and entered an era of self-destructive delusion. We are to the point now where our collective belief in America’s greatness is directly undermining the facets of our culture that made us proud in the first place. The truth of the matter is that America has far less to be proud about than it does to be ashamed of.

Now if you’re the kind of person who thinks America can do no wrong strap in, this is going to be a rocky ride. But don’t fear, there is light at the end of the tunnel.

America has at the same time the highest rate of obesity in the entire world and the largest incidence of hunger in the industrialized world, a dichotomy that can in no way be justified or defended. Our health costs are exponentially higher than the rest of the industrial world driving millions into debt and bankruptcy due to a system in which corporate greed is not only allowed but promoted and people are dying because they can’t afford the treatment necessary to survive. Our defense budget is exponentially larger than that of any other nation. In regards to education we are being crushed in every major category by many countries around the world. In the past 30 years, starting with Reagan’s policy of deregulation, the gap between the rich and poor has exploded while the middle class has shrunk and continues to shrink. This country that was built on the backs of immigrants, populated by immigrants, and made a super power by immigrants has been injected with a reprehensible level of anti immigrant sentiment that cannot be put into words. We idolize ignorance and stupidity in our pop culture while at the same time marginalizing intelligence. Our economic and tax policies allow corporations to outsource jobs while at the same time paying little to NO taxes at all. We have by far the highest number of incarcerated citizens per capita than anywhere in the world, a disproportionate number of which are non whites, and oh yea we run a for profit system of prisons in this country so people are making millions of dollars a year by taking the freedom of others (that’s slavery people, pure and simple). Our nations infrastructure is literally crumbling around us; bridges are collapsing, watermains are bursting, oil pipelines leaking, roads are crumbling, and the problems are only getting more numerous and worse. We are denying climate change and our role in it even as the incidence of natural disasters and their severity increase yearly so that a few rich people can continue to get richer off of our addiction to oil despite already having the technology to move off of fossil fuels. Higher education is becoming impossible for many, myself included, because unless you're born well off you are being priced out by the ridiculous price of tuition and the crushing rates for student loans. We send thousands of our bravest men and women off to fight in wars and when they return battered, beaten, and in far too many cases broken we abandon them (The people of this country constantly act like we care for the well being of our warriors but the truth is we refuse to get off our asses and do anything for them. The department of veteran's affairs is a god damn joke and every last one of us should be ashamed of how we treat our warriors. The pervasive hypocrisy in our society in regards to our attitudes towards our soldiers is absolutely fucking disgusting). And there are countless more examples of truly deplorable behaviors in America that I’m not going to go into right now because to be perfectly candid the sheer number of things I’ve been able to put I this list in just 10 minutes is making me very, very angry.

               Up until now this has been an America bashing piece and there is a very good reason for that: We as a country need to admit that we have many problems, a great deal of which are systemic. We’ve held the cover over our eyes for far too long while our many problems have gotten exponentially worse. America was truly great once, truly great. We sent men to the moon, we invested in technologies that have built the world we live in today, we’ve cured and eradicated diseases, we’ve even put a computer in everyone’s pocket. You see the reason I’m writing this is because I know that America can be truly great again. We have all of the raw materials. The only thing we’re missing is the societal will to be the best, to be our best. This country has proven time and again that when we come together with a single goal in mind we can do anything, limited only by the laws of physics and our own imaginations. I believe America can be great again and more than anything I want America to attain that greatness because all I feel now is shame in my country. Older generations look back on their lives and they feel pride in what their country has done. My generation looks back and we see a war in which there was no glory, no victory, only pain and wasted lives. We look back and we see how we’ve allowed corporations to do whatever they want while normal people have been given the heel. We see a people becoming further and further divided and it’s only getting worse. We look back and we feel lost because the America we were promised as children no longer exists, it was taken from us by the greed of our parents. I want to look back on my country with pride when I'm older. I want to be able to say my generation had a hand in curing the ills of this world and not that we were their greatest contributor. I want to be able to say we put human footprints on mars. This country is capable of so much; we have the potential to be a beacon that will guide the human race into an era of peace and prosperity the likes of which is yet unknown to our species. And the best part is that how we get there couldn't be any simpler....... we just have to decide to do it.