par for the course

I read it all the time as I am browsing blogs; it is repeated by conservative Americans time and time again; The United States of American is the greatest country on Earth.

I think, really, most of us living here in the U.S. have, at one time or another, considered ourselves lucky to have been born in a society that allows to do pretty much whatever we want, and to some extent most of us have probably even thought the slogan “Greatest country…” was fairly accurate. However, the more on what makes America great, the more I come to the conclusion that this country, with all its freedom, is only completely average.

Proof of the mediocrity of the so-called “great nation” can be found in its own Declaration of Independence, and is really what got me thinking about all of this in the first place. The declaration reads:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”

As I read that over and over again, replaying it like some sort of meditive mantra, the true meaning began to sink in. “we hold these truths to be self evident”.

When asked “why is America the greatest nation?” the first thought that comes to mind is the Bill of Rights; freedom. We in America believe that because we are free, we are better. That is that. But, by our own admission, freedom – which comes from granting rights – is a self evident truth.
That is to say, freedom is not a luxury, but rather an expected result of being born. Therefore, those nations whose citizens are most free are not doing anything special whatsoever.

You see, if there are certain “unalienable rights” and “self evident truths” then what do we have to be sp proud of? We are simply doing as is expected of us. The fact that other nations are below average certainly doesn’t assume us the position of being above average, does it?

Consider this: If you have two kids in a room. One child begins punching holes in the wall while the other child goes about his business. You would most certainly discipline the bad child, but would you praise the other child? Of course not! Not punching holes in the wall is expected, and as such is not worthy of praise.

The United States is the better of the two children; he isn’t punching holes in the wall, but that’s expected.

The point I am trying to make here, is that the United States, while it is a fine place to call home, is nothing we should be so proud of. The extreme nationalism that we see on a daily basis is so unfounded in any kind of reality, that I often wonder what else people would believe if we could simply get anchor men and women on the nightly news to read it.

It is naive to think that America is the only free country on this planet. The fact is that most advanced nations in the world, including France, England, Scotland, New Zealand, South Korea, India, and Japan to name a few, have a “bill of rights” on record that mirrors that of the one here in the United States.

Furthermore, the Intentional Declaration of Human rights has been signed and ratified by 132 nations. This declaration grants citizens of the signed nation’s rights pertaining to economic, social, cultural, civil, and political issues. What many Americans fail to understand, or even do they know about, is that after these basic rights, there are two optional protocols, neither of wihich are signed by the United States but which are signed the first by 85 nations the second by 28 nations.

Again, I am not saying the United States is an awful place to call home. But, we need to get over this idea that we are some how better or “more free” than other nations, simply because we allow people freedoms which should be granted to all people anyway.

Freedom, in my opinion, is like air. Horrible if you don’t have it, but nothing special if you do. It is a birth right. It is expected. It is not something to be proud of or something that makes us superior. It is an, as it is said, “self-evident”.

I think we should get down off our high-horse for a while and see what the view is like on an equal level.