I’m usually not particularly impressed with columns and
posts and treatises and pretentiously idiotic monologues on half-baked pay-TV series that detail exactly why the Unites States sucks. I’m not a
full-on, balls-to-the-wall nationalistic patriot: I’m proud of the country I
live in, but part of that pride is because I know that we live with huge
problems. I’m under no illusions that America is perfect, and anyone who says
so is kind of a moron.
That said, I’ve always believed that the quite specific form
of government we have is the best at distilling these problems, so even if
we're not perfect we have mechanisms to fix them that other national identities
don't. Sure, it’s clunky and messy and frustrating, but it’s important to
remember that this is how it was designed. We don’t want an efficient government. We want consensus joined with a
baseline level of liberty. Any time you think to yourself that the two-party
system is hyperpartisan, just remember that the alternative is that one party
always gets what they want.
Anyway, so when I came across this screed by Mark Manson about “Ten ThingsAmericans Don’t Know About America,” I was initially ready to write it off as
yet another down-with-America post. Yet when I read it, I realized that while I
don’t agree with his overall conclusion, his specific assertions are actually
not far off.
Go ahead and read the link above, and I’ll give my thoughts
on each of his ten points:
1.
Few People
are Impressed By Us: Sounds fairly accurate. I think it’s a little unfair,
though: we only hear about the people that care about us, so obviously our bias
is going to think that’s the case across the world population. There’s no
headline in our papers stating “Majority of residents in Latvia don’t give a
shit about you.” Still, the point is valid and makes sense.
2.
Few People
Hate Us: Pretty much the same as above; we only hear the bad stuff.
3.
We Know
Nothing About The Rest Of The World: Guilty as charged. However, I’ll offer
a defense: For other nations, they really only need to know about three or four
nations besides their own (The US, China, a major European nation or two, and
their neighbors). America has to keep tabs on almost 200 different nations in
order to not be accused of global ignorance. If we only have, say, ten in-depth
news articles to read in a week, we’re never going to make it down the list to
Zambia or Belarus. That’s one of the many drawbacks of being on top.
4.
We Are
Poor At Expressing Gratitude and Affection: I agree. I just chalk this up
to cultural differences, though, so I have no real problem with it.
5.
The
Quality of Life For The Average American Is Not That Great: This is one point I don’t agree with. His point is that
only those of great intellect or talent rise to the top, while everyone else is
crowded in the slums. Despite the current class-war rhetoric, this isn’t even
close to being right; except for the most extreme poor, everyone is living much
higher than the worldwide level of standard comfort. Plus, America is a
historically competitive nation, and I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing;
it's part of what made us a legitimate superpower.
6.
The Rest
Of The World is Not A Slum-Ridden Shithole Compared To Us: While I agree up
to a point, there’s also a lot of extreme poverty in the world that even the
poorest on our nation aren’t at. The writer holds up examples such as Norway
and Singapore, but those really aren’t the problem areas we’re thinking about.
I don’t think there are a whole lot of people claiming that Europe or even Asia
is some weakened kobold scraping by (although you may want to skip any articles
about Greece or Spain if you’re trying to prove this)—in fact, it was only two
decades ago we were worried about Japan “catching up,” and now it’s China, and
three or four decades ago even South America was on the economic watch list. So
I think that Americans only think parts
of the world are slum-ridden shitholes, and the parts we’re thinking about
otherwise are fairly accurate.
7.
We’re
Paranoid: I generally agree. I think
that security theater needs to be reduced, and a lot of our angst is generated
from our lawsuit-driven legal system. As far as being paranoid about tourism,
the writer is probably right, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to feel like
you’re a target when you’re an American abroad.
8.
We’re
Status-Obsessed and Seek Attention: Very true, although I think it’s more
to do with the medium now than any drastic increase in narcissism. We have the
ability to instantly tell everyone exactly how we feel via social media, and
there’s hundreds of television stations instead of just four or five. And for
the first time pretty much anyone can make music or film something and instantly
be available for the entire world to see, so the capability to put ourselves
out there has dramatically changed in less than a decade. We’ve always been
this way, it’s just easier to do it now. Still, I think there’s just as much
status-seeking in plenty of cultures in the world; it’s just American culture
is remarkably global.
9.
We Are
Very Unhealthy: Also true. However, his assertions about the reasons our
health care and prescriptions are so expensive are off a little. (For example:
health care isn’t “cheaper” if you’re paying higher taxes that pay for it.) I
won’t go into it much right now simply because it’s outside of the scope of
this analysis. There are plenty of reasons outside of simply eating poorly (for
example, we spend a lot—I mean a lot—of
money in the last years of our lives, while the culture of most other nations
treat this stage of life quite differently.) But it’s certainly a problem.
1 We Mistake
Comfort For Happiness: I don’t
necessarily disagree with this point, but I also don’t think it’s a huge
issue—different people are happy about different things. I guess my thought on
this one is “so what?”
While I agree with nearly all of these points (albeit
perhaps not as strongly), I think the overall conclusion is wrong. America has
undoubtedly been the most successful nation in nearly all metrics for about
three or four decades after World War II, and for three or four decades after
that still the overall winner if not first place in all relevant categories.
And I think we were successful largely because
of these differences listed above, not despite them. Being status-obsessed
and comfortable (#8 and #10) also made us competitive. Our perception of how
others view us (#1, #2) and how we view them (#3, #6, #7) are a by-product of
our success, not a cause for our downfall; by being the best, our perception is
skewed. And the drawbacks we have (#4, #5, #9) are, relatively speaking, not
that bad. The problem with comparing nations is that each nation has a
trade-off that doesn’t show up on the balance sheet.
Americans could improve on nearly all of these points. My
own list of grievances would be much more geared towards our expectations of
society to the individual (and thus much more boring). Still, it may be a touch
of jingoism in my blood to think that someone who claims that the average Joe
in, say, Columbia has it just as good as an America is flat-out wrong.
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