Was America Great?

Why no, of course not.  What a silly notion.

Americans were great…lots and lots of them, for a very long time.

What would it even mean, for a country to be great?  When pushed, most will say, “Well, obviously that means that the people who lived there were successful, however that’s measured.”

And when you use any sensible measures, the people who lived in America were more successful than any humans at any time.  So doesn’t this mean that America was a great country?

Maybe it would, if that were really what you’re saying.  But it’s not.  You’re saying as the words literally read—that America, as an existent called a country, was itself great.  That’s wrong, and that’s why you’re so afraid of losing it.  You think it was the country that made the people great, when of course it was the other way around.  The good news is that it was never there in the first place.  Only people were there, and you get to be one of those.

Countries can’t be great.  They can be borders, they can be institutions, they can be dictates, laws, decrees, treaties, constitutions, agreements, all these things and more…but they can’t be great.  Sorry, but that’s a simple fact.  You can tell me what you meant to mean–that it’s the people who live there that are great–but it’s not what you mean.

On top of about 20 billion other actions that you’ll take–and words you’ll use, and arguments you’ll offer–to prove what you really mean, you’ll go so far as to pretend how good it is when a 20-year-old loses his life to make the country that much better.  This tells me, in no uncertain terms, that you find something “great” about the country.

Here’s some good news…the country isn’t bad either.  Nor are any other countries, or states or localities or school boards or commissions or anything else that is an object other than a single human individual.  Good, great, bad and rotten all describe a single sort of existent, and the super-neat thing is that the existent itself gets to control whether it’s good or bad.  Had we designed this all ourselves, we couldn’t have made it any easier than that.

Sorry I can’t make it sound grander, but it really is that simple.  You want America back?  Then do what Americans did.  Americans worked, and Americans worked in one single pursuit…that’s why they were great.

We hold what truths to be self-evident?

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