What is America Doing Right? Wrong?

[melon]

Since we're making a lot of "America" threads, I thought I'd pose a question or two.

-- What is America doing right?

-- What can America improve on?

One rule: don't mention politicians or political parties or conservative/liberal bullshit. Mention "ideas" and "ideas" only.

FYI, I don't want to steer the thread right off the bat, so I'll input what I think later on.

Melon

 

[kobayashi]

america is too...arrogant. i'll expand later. it's time to take the dog to the park.

 

[diamond]

Seriously.
With the defeat/ fall of Communism I think America is FINALLY learning how important compassion is.
We have turned into a more caring country.

Diamond

 

[FizzingWhizzbees]

Seriously.
With the defeat/ fall of Communism I think America is FINALLY learning how important compassion is.
We have turned into a more caring country.

Diamond

Out of curiosity, how do you see these as related, Diamond?

 

[z edge]

Out of curiosity, how do you see these as related, Diamond?

If i may, perhaps he meant without another rival superpower to compete in an arms race our attention has been able to steer towards helping others in need, such as the bazillion humanitarian missions we took during the 90's (right or wrong) starting with Somalia and current with aid to Africa.

I guess I should include debt relief.

 

[diamond]

If i may, perhaps he meant without another rival superpower to compete in an arms race our attention has been able to steer towards helping others in need, such as the bazillion humanitarian missions we took during the 90's (right or wrong) starting with Somalia and current with aid to Africa.

I guess I should include debt relief.

Exactly Mr Z.

DB9

 

[z edge]

america is too...arrogant. i'll expand later. it's time to take the dog to the park.

Sounds like you already hae taken the dog to the park

Seriously, there is a lot of arrogance here in America. Yet there is a lot of that everywhere to some degree.

For instance a conversation I had with Dr.Who after the whole Boston 'elevation' incident made me think. At first, I was pretty miffed about the incident at hand, then Dr.Who gave me a lesson on how the people are in Boston. And how they react to things versus how I (not being from Boston) may perceive them.

Since I have also lived in Atlanta, Louisiana, Virginia (va beach area), S. Korea and visited many other cities and countries, I began to reflect.

When interacting with the Korean people, I thought of them first as "rude" or "arrogant". After we became accustomed to one another, I began to realize that it is their nature to be very blunt and speak forthright. So if they were to look at me with a frown and say "you are very skinny, you look sick", at first I would be offended. But that was always followed up with a plate of warm food stuck in my face, and a smile.

 

[U2Bama]

I refuse to list anything that the U.S. is doing "right" for fear of being flamed, called names, and accused of -isms.

However: one thing the U.S. is doing wrong is traffic managment. It took me 90 minutes to travel 21 miles on the way home from work today. And 55 of those minutes were devoted to about 3 miles of travel.

And to think that many of you want the same government that engineered our transportation sytems to now engineer some government health care system. AHHHH, wake me up on Judgement Day.

~U2Alabama

 

[z edge]

However: one thing the U.S. is doing wrong is traffic managment. It took me 90 minutes to travel 21 miles on the way home from work today. And 55 of those minutes were devoted to about 3 miles of travel.

Perhaps you should get Koby to drive you around, then it wouldn't take near as long

And to think that many of you want the same government that engineered our transportation sytems to now engineer some government health care system. AHHHH, wake me up on Judgement Day.

~U2Alabama

Well we might just let you sleep through it

 

[Zoomerang96]

i will be more vague, as containing me to simple ideas always makes me look like an idiot. i cant stay on topic.

alright, i believe government the way it exists, is not in fact natural. someone in ottawa or washington, who go to work by making laws for me to abide by is not natural. i go to work from 9-5 to write, those people go there to dictate our lives.

that said, i dont believe in anarchy either. even if one were to erase everything that would represent the government now, i believe it would only be a matter of days before individuals would appear as leaders, and the cycle would continue...

where would that bring us? to tribal days. do we need to be policed?

think about this...

if we didnt depend on others as much as we do now, but rather took an old-fashioned method to dealing with our day-to-day dealings, i believe trouble would be minimized to a LOWEST degree possible to attain.

i mean think about it...smaller IS better. would we need to be policed? ofcourse not. why? would you hurt those that you know?

im not going into a great deal of details here, just thoughts.

and ofcourse all of what i wrote is pure idealism, idealistic ideas which i KNOW will never come to life.

 

[Ballistic Tweed]

I refuse to buy into the idea that the U.S. is arrogant.

First, let's honestly look at the fact that we have become one of the most prosperous, liberated, envied, super-powers in history. Now, the simple fact that I'm willing to point that out makes us arrogant? Should we not be proud of our accomplishments? Most countries have a very hard time trying to understand why we are so patriotic and passionate about our country. Even to the point that we are willing to give our lives for it. But how did we get here?

Unlike most of the middle-east, amongst others, the U.S. is probably the MOST self critical countries in the world. Yes, I agree to the fact that we have many shortcomings and have made many mistakes in our past, but did/or do we blame anyone else for those problems? No, we don't! The U.S. ALWAYS looks internally to solve these issues and find ways to improve our laws, actions and accountability. Even with the "War on Terrorism", if you turn on the news and listen to politicians and the citizens, you will find that most of the blame and problem-solving is directed at ourselves!

Furthermore, the U.S. has tried and done more to improve conditions around the world than the UN could ever dream of accomplishing. Why is it always our responsibility to police the world? It's always up to the U.S. to resolve all the trouble makers around the globe. Then, when we make a mistake, the entire world (who just sits back and watches us FIX the world's problems) points the finger at us and judges us. These countries that haven't lifted a finger or even sacrificed their own soldiers and human-aid workers for anyone on God's green Earth
want judge us?

Where is the UN with the middle-east conflist? Where is the UN with regards to rebuilding Russia's infrastructure? Who is the single nation responsible for the collapse of communism?

When it comes down to it, I think that the only countries that can legitimately critisize us would be Canada, the UK, Israel, and anyone else who has sacrificed their own blood for the sake of the U.S. The funny thing is, is the fact that France has been ridiculously critical of the U.S. lately. Maybe they should look around at all the bloodstains left behind by U.S. soldiers that sacrificed their lives to liberate them from the Germans.

I really think that the world needs to take a long, hard look at the light of hope and security that the U.S. brings to the planet. Not only by it's might and power, but because of the sacrifices it's made in the past. What would this world be like without the U.S. and it's proud citizens willing to give their lives for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 

[kobayashi]

Where is the UN with the middle-east conflist? Where is the UN with regards to rebuilding Russia's infrastructure? Who is the single nation responsible for the collapse of communism?

keep in mind that the US was instrumental in creating the UN. thus it is essential in it's continuing operation. as the US becomes more and more withdrawn from the UN, the UN is going to naturally falter. in the end, the level of success of the UN is largely determined by the americans and we all know where GW stands on that. the fact that the US is presently choosing to police the world on its own is not so much a burden as you make it out to be. there is a fully facilable collaborative outlet available to them.

there were a lot of global market economic forces that aided in the collapse of communism. thus, no 'single nation' is responsible for communisms collapse.

 

[whiteflag]

In my nations defense I have two things to say,

First ask yourself this question. If it was someone else that was the sole big dog what would this world look like? And lets exclude the most obnoxious canidates like Iran or something.

We already have the answers from the current behavior of nations. We have the ones that would refuse the job wanting to stay completely out of it like they do now. Then there are the ones who would meddle even more if they only had the money and the power. Then you have the ones that are so busy being on everyones good side, like Europe for instance, that they sucumb to a sort of moral paralysis, only able to bluster while managing to be largely passive, reactive and ineffective.

Then of course we have the ones who have already been world powers and did more harm than good, ruthlessly ruling the world they controlled from an imperial center.

Of course there are those that say that America is the modern day equivalent of these empires in disguise, but its a damn poor equivalent. After taking control of our current territory, the US showed only listless interest in empire building. We have never possessed at any point in our history any more than a handful of colonies nor have we shown much interest in occupying other nations or fighting our weaker neighbors. When asked to leave we generally do. For instance, we handed the Phillipines back to Filipinos without their having to kick us out. Not to mention refusing to claim Japan as a war conquest. On other fronts, our record shows that we would rather have friends than vassals and that the US has always supported things like the UN which has done more to foster the sovereign rights of all nations than any other body in history.

Which leads me to the second thing. A long time ago, I read somewhere that there is a saying in Germany that goes a little something like this.

"If you must go to war, go to war with the Americans. If you win, then you will be victorious over all and if you lose, then they will forgive you"

Sure our country is far, far from perfect. But as far as I'm concerned all our critics couldn't do a better job if they tried because being a critic is taking the easy way out. We are a country of action.

 

[whiteflag]

One more thing.

We have true friends in this world (though they are necessarily few) because of how we have treated them and at least one, Great Britain, would go down to hell with us if we really needed them to.

Name another country who can say they have a friend like that. Name another country that is best friends with another country, let alone being best friends with a former enemy!


PS of course this says just as much about GB as it does about us.

btw I'll just stay out of what we can do to improve because I've already said enough as usual! *looks forward to just reading from here on in*

 

[adamswildhoney]

I think that "America" is finally realising whats really is going on in the rest of the world. We all kind of knew but didnt want to pay any attention to it. I also think that its coming to the reality that we are hated by countries because of the way that are country is and that does matter and we also are not as safe as we thought we were.