The frist step to a debate such as this, is to explicitly define what it is you're debating. Meaning, how do you define what the greatest nation in the world is? If you're talking military power, I'm fairly confident that the US is the greatest of all time. Similarly if you're talking economic superiority/wealth, again I'm fairly confident that the US is the greatest in history. Defining the greatest nation by those two criteria seems fairly narrow-minded and shallow, however.
One argument espoused primarily by Fox News and other self-proclaimed patriots is that America is the freest nation of all. Well (although i have no source data for this), I'm confident that the US has the most written law governing many different aspects of our lives then any nation in history, and law is one of the largest and fastest growing profession . Many would argue that this is for the good of all within the confines of the society. Maybe that's true. However I question how truly free an American is with so much written law guiding our actions.
The main reason why America appears to be the freest is that there are limits to the powers of the powerful. The common man is empowered to speak out against corruption within the elite without fear of retribution. If this is to be the definition of what is the greatest, then perhaps America is the greatest. Again i would say that this is a very narrow definition. I should also note that although this concept was an American innovation, it has since been copied by many nations throughout the world and can no longer be used to set America apart from any other contenders.
I'd also note that in terms of societal health, I'd think that America ranks fairly poorly. Deep interpersonal social ties are very rare in America relative to other societies. The average American moves residence about 11 times in their life. In other societies, people live and die with the neighbors they've known all their life. Lack of social ties leads to depression, isolation, anxiety, stress, and loneliness among other things.
On the other hand, America does provide extraordinary wealth, opportunities, and health for it's constituents. The poor in America would still be rich relative to other countries. We have a very high average life span. And theoretically it is possible for a low class kid to make it big into the upper echelons of society. Realistically though, America does have serious social stratification that is very difficult to break through.
This post was attempting to objectively evaluate American society relative to others. The main target was those whom claim that America is the freest and greatest society that "god ever gave to man". These sentiments are rife with perhaps undeserved nationalism. All of us are indoctrinated in our mandatory elementary schooling with the alleged history of our nation. Sometime we are told outright lies, like about Betsy Ross sowing the American flag or George Washington cutting down a cherry tree, and other times history is bent to present our nation in a better light. A good number of things are skated over. Like McArthur sparing the Japanese Emperor (despite his war crimes), like sparing Japanese and Nazi scientists in exchange for their data (despite their war crimes). There are others, but I haven't got them off the top of my head. Wiki Unit 731 and Unethical Human Experimentation in the United States, and read "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James Loewen.
Defining "the greatest nation" is completely relative, based on one's definition of the greatest. In my opinion America is pretty good, but there's substantial room for improvement. I don't know what the greatest is, I just think that people should think before giving an opinion.
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