Slitherine

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ORIGINAL: Son_of_Montfort

Netherlandians

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ORIGINAL: Neilster

Watching the Presidential debate today I was struck by something. I'd like to ask the Americans here whether they think it's actually healthy to be constantly told "America is the greatest country in the world" by your politicians and business leaders? Also, in exactly what way is this true?

Occasionally one of our pollies tries that on about Australia. You could make a reasonable argument for it (or for a few other countries), given our legal freedoms, economy, robust financial sector, standard of living, low crime rates and weather but it's generally greeted with derisive jeers. There's a healthy distrust of that sort of hubris here. Pride cometh before the fall, and all that.

This confidence seems to be America's greatest strength but perhaps also a bit of a flaw. It generates a "can-do" attitude that has achieved wonderful things but also means that sometimes Americans don't think there is anything to learn from others. Hence the initial hideous casualties in France in WW1 when American commanders ignored the hard lessons of the French and British.

Personally, I think the United States has generally been a force for good in the world but has developed a mythology that it is all about altruism when it has often been pragmatism, a forced hand or even self-interest.

Cheers, Neilster

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ORIGINAL: Neilster

Watching the Presidential debate today I was struck by something. I'd like to ask the Americans here whether they think it's actually healthy to be constantly told "America is the greatest country in the world" by your politicians and business leaders?


Cheers, Neilster

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ORIGINAL: anarchyintheuk




Can only speak for myself but the "US is the greatest country" is pretty much just pro forma in political speech. Because it comes from a politician it means nothing to me (like 99.9% of whatever else said politician has to say). I have no idea what "the greatest country in the world" is or means. It would be interesting to find out when those references became prevalent in US politics and if it has increased or decreased.

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ORIGINAL: Marc von Martial

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ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

..... quirks like that: "Kun lakkaa satamasta, käyn hakemassa lakkaa satamasta"

Sounds like me after a crate of Vodka

Kun   lakkaa    satamasta,  käyn  hakemassa  lakkaa   satamasta
When  it stops  raining,    I'll  get        varnish  from the dock

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ORIGINAL: Treale

I would guess that every citizen would like to think that their country is the "Greatest" country in the world. There's nothing wrong about being proud of one's country, but we live in a shrinking world where we are more and more dependent on others for various things in our life.

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ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

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ORIGINAL: Treale

I would guess that every citizen would like to think that their country is the "Greatest" country in the world. There's nothing wrong about being proud of one's country, but we live in a shrinking world where we are more and more dependent on others for various things in our life.

Britain sucks

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ORIGINAL: Widell

At the risk of offending someone, alternatively hurting someone's feelings (See PS below for explanation) here are three language related links that can be of interest in this exciting debate:

http://www.engrish.com/
http://www.kli.org/ (Don't miss the "Sounds of...." section. Great stuff!)
http://www.urbandictionary.com/

PS (I'm Swedish you know. Traditionally neutral, so I have a desperate need to make sure I stay in the middle lane and take no real position on anything . We learn English well only to be able to communicate with the Danes when we go there to get insanely drunk on their, relatively cheap and, relatively, easily accessible beer. While the Danish understand Swedish reasonably well, Swedes in general are embarrassing when it comes to understanding Danish, and specially Danish numbers. This is why Swedes and Danes are good Engrish) DS

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ORIGINAL: Sarge

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ORIGINAL: Son_of_Montfort

I AM AMERICAN and a native born English-speaker, Sarge, but thanks for insulting the French in the mix (I just moved to France, not that it is any of your concern). Like they did nothing during WWI, WWII and it was all the U.S. Of your 2320 posts, I haven't seen one that wasn't antagonizing someone else. And you say that I am "at it again."
Sorry Hans, the wording above just seemed a bit offended. Remember, you can't read tone in a forum post (or more precisely, you can read any tone into a forum post). So I apologize for taking you more seriously than you meant.

What ?

Its not a reasonable question to wonder what the National languages would be spoken today across mainland Europe with out America's intervention ,especially in the context of WWII and the cold war ?

Lets be honest here, the Europe of today would look nothing like our present map.

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ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

Whilst I'm here, why r u always harping back to the WWII? Get over it m8. Been there ****ing done that. You need to drop the big chip on your shoulder m8...seriously

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ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

He's an antagonistic swine and continuously barges into conversations wherever America is mentioned to defend the great ole US of A. And, by the way, that's regardless of what context is used....he will spin it his way, as he has done here. I'm still convinced the guy works in politics....I've never seen spin like it.

The only part he doesn't get is he doesn't have to be it's protector. It does fine on it's own.

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ORIGINAL: HansBolter

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ORIGINAL: Neilster

Watching the Presidential debate today I was struck by something. I'd like to ask the Americans here whether they think it's actually healthy to be constantly told "America is the greatest country in the world" by your politicians and business leaders?


Cheers, Neilster

One could probably successfully argue the case that it is a necessary counterbalance to constanty being put down by everyone else and denounced as the Great Satans of the universe.

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ORIGINAL: Terminus

English IS easy. People who think it's hard should try learning Danish.

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ORIGINAL: yoshino

English is very very very difficult for me. I'm learning a few years to participate this forum(and other game forums),but still can't writing well.

Though,I think that Japanese language is more difficult for many westerners.

They MUST be learned about thousands of Kanji and Hinagana and Katakana... There is first of all...

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ORIGINAL: Mike Dubost

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ORIGINAL: HansBolter

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ORIGINAL: Neilster

Watching the Presidential debate today I was struck by something. I'd like to ask the Americans here whether they think it's actually healthy to be constantly told "America is the greatest country in the world" by your politicians and business leaders?


Cheers, Neilster

One could probably successfully argue the case that it is a necessary counterbalance to constanty being put down by everyone else and denounced as the Great Satans of the universe.

I think we need to be a bit careful in this discussion, so as to avoid it degenerating into politics or a personal flamewar, but let's see if we can stay civil.

The idea of the US as the greatest country in the world is nothing new. I remember some years ago, American Heritage magazine had a 19th Century cartoon of political cliches, which included "spread eagle" as one of them. The term derived from the idea of spreading the US out to include other parts of North America (since the eagle is the national symbol). For further evidence, I cite Abraham Lincoln "We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope of Mankind". It appears to be a long-standing part or the US self-image, for better or worse.

As to wether it is healthy; I don't know for sure, but I think it is OK as long as we don't suffer from the delusion that we are perfect. I happen to believe that we are the best, but as humans, even our best is imperfect. What I don't want to see is a desire to become more perfect become a desire to copy others blindly. Let us examine ideas from elsewhere, by all means, but let us test them against our current ideas.

I feel that being told we are the greatest is better than being told we are the worst (which I heard from some residents of Berkeley). According to them, the US was never good enough no matter what. If I felt that way, I would not be interested in trying to make the US better. Since I believe that it is the best, and that others look up to us, I am inspired to try to make us worthy of that high regard.

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ORIGINAL: HansBolter

Astute observation Judge!

So the poster above you Judge seems to be oblivious to the obvious differences between America and Nazi Germany.

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The simple difference is that we after we conquer a countyry militarily we don't turn the populace of that country into slave laborers. We rebuild the countries we devastate and give them back to the people who lived there in the first place.

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You might want to study your own history and come to grips with the fact that you are a soveriegn nation today because we are nothing like Nazi Germany was!!! We aren't out to create lebensraum.

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If one is so dense one can't grasp that diference then one surely can't expect one's opinion to be taken seriously.

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The simple difference is that we after we conquer a countyry militarily we don't turn the populace of that country into slave laborers. We rebuild the countries we devastate and give them back to the people who lived there in the first place.

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Personally, I think the United States has generally been a force for good in the world but has developed a mythology that it is all about altruism when it has often been pragmatism, a forced hand or even self-interest