I say: yes it is.
Why?
Because our nation is founded on the philosophical premise that the life of each individual is crucial. Individuals do not exist to serve the government (or any other institution) but rather, as Jefferson put so succinctly, “governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” in order to protect individual rights (namely, the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness).
The word inalienable is defined by Merriam-Webster as an adjective meaning “incapable of being alienated, surrendered, or transferred.” No where else on this Earth will you find a place where the whole country is founded on the principle of the individual’s intrinsic right to his or her life (no one else owns it; its yours).
The results speak for themselves: regardless of our faults, people flock to America because they know that here, any individual, regardless of background, has the opportunity to work hard and keep the fruit of their labor.
In a recent New York Times op-ed piece entitled “Who Will Tell The People” Thomas Friedman wrote:
“We are not as powerful as we used to be because over the past three decades, the Asian values of our parents’ generation — work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means — have given way to subprime values: ‘You can have the American dream — a house — with no money down and no payments for two years.’”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/opinion/04friedman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
I am an Asian-American (my parents immigrated from India) and when I first read this I felt a little puffed up by Mr. Friedman’s compliment (in The New York Times no less!).
Then I said wait a minute, if these Asian values are so great, why is most of Asia, including India, no where near as developed as the United States? Moreover, why did most of their development only start recently as ideas of capitalism, free-markets, and the rule of law gained a firmer grip?
The answer is that Mr. Friedman’s Asian values (work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means) cannot of their own accord produce a society that is productive and fruitful. You can word hard, study, save, invest, and live within your means all you want but if a dictator can, on any given day, take it all away because he feels like it then why would you?
I am not against Asian values. I think we as Americans need to study harder, save more, invest, and live within our means. That being said, I posit that any country which does not also possess American values (individual liberty, protection of private property, due process, freedom of speech, trial by jury, the right to bear arms, to name a few) to go along with the Asian ones may enjoy brief spurts of power but will never flourish in the long run.
Why? Because if a country doesn’t have American values then it doesn’t respect the fundamental right of its own citizens to their own lives and, if given a choice, people will leave and go to a place that does.
Now, America might be the best country in the world but that doesn’t mean we’re a perfect country. The Declaration of Independence forgot to mention the inalienable rights of women. Our Founding Fathers overlooked the inalienable rights of African-Americans and American Indians. Our nation continues to deal with the effects of these great sins.
Yet the fact that we are not perfect doesn’t negate the fact that we’re pretty darn good and should be thankful for it.
Yes we can and should get better, but let’s not ignore what we’ve already got either.
I’ve run into people who claim some other country is much better than America in a particular respect and literally can’t stand it when I say, unapologetically, that America is the greatest country on Earth.
I have yet to see one of these folks leave America and go to whatever country they proclaim is better.
Why is that?
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
bizarre article, you constantly argue against fact with opinion and then draw your own conclusions from your own opinion.
insanely biased, try leaving the USA in order to get a comparison.
By all means Olli please educate me as to what “facts” you believe I am arguing against.
Remember, I am not saying America is perfect and lives up to our ideals perfectly just that 1) we have those ideals grounded in law and 2) we live up to them better than anyone else I can think of.
If you have a country which you believe is better, please offer it up.
AK
PS: Dissent is very welcome on this blog (how else do you learn anything?) so don’t be shy.
[Edit made]
You need to imbibe a few less Kroniks with your coffee shop diatribe about the meaning of life, but you are dead on the money here! America is the greatest country EVER. The freedoms we have here are unmatched in any other country.
Olli – go back where you came from and leave America to the people who appreciate it.
Fact: Due process here is better than any country on Earth.
Fact: Nowhere else do you have the basic GUARANTEED rights that you have in America.
I may have the least experience living in America than anyone of you but I have a few things to say from my experience in America and India.
I am from India and a student here. I could safely say that US is the most powerful country, has the best policies on individual rights, freedom of speech, best education and whatever you mentioned in the article.
About the comment on Asian values, I would like to say that countries in Asia are politically young and hugely populated. Considering that, they are making a darn good progress. Not to mention they have a history of thousands of years which includes big mistakes that take time to rectify.
America was free about 200 years ago and they have had the time, resources and experience (from mistakes that people made all around the world) to build the system that they have now. I would say that they did not waste those resources at all.
But, I think the connotation of the article here is more anti-rest of the world than pro-American. Specially when you banish any country that doesn’t have “American” values.
America is really good with with technolgy, which is why I am sitting in a lighted room with a TV typing this up. The way I see it for people think only a few people have real money in the US is that I live in a MIDDLE CLASS family in the US, like most people. I live in a 2 story house and have 13 TVs, and no, I am not a electrician. To make money here you must have 2 things: a college education and knowledge of the stock market. Also, military wise, the US does not have a large manned army since we have a volunteer army system. We do have a very advanced unmanned army that includes robots, automatic gun turrets, and stealth bombers. What ks also neat about the US is that we have many different climates ranging from Alaska to Hawaii. Another thing is that we do not have much crime. I know that this is weird considering that the US has the highest crime rate, but I live in suburbia where there is no crime. I drive down to Chicago a lot and for all the times I was there I have never heard a gunshot.
“Fact: Due process here is better than any country on Earth.
Fact: Nowhere else do you have the basic GUARANTEED rights that you have in America.”
England, Canada, Australia, Sweden…..
Need I go on?
Um, Bigpoppa, you should really check your facts before you start yelling “fact!”
In Canada we have the same basic rights guaranteed to us in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms that you have in the US Constitution (minus the gun thing, but personally that is one I can live without). Our due process is also equal to yours.
And what I am saying actually *is* fact. I practiced criminal law here for years, as well as being politically active and having politically active clients, so I have seen all of this in action. I also have known many lawyers from the US and have helped host and given an address at a meeting of the American Bar Association that was held in Toronto, so I have lots of US information to compare to.
Bottom line: as great as the US may be, you don’t know what you’re talking about.
nas ,
I am an American citizen, while you are a Canadian “serf”. In American, “the right to bear arms shall not be infringed”. In Canada, you are at the whim of whomever controls the police agency. Without the basic right to defend yourself and your family, with a gun if necessary, you are merely a subject, hotshot lawyer or not. The “Facts” are that the United States of America has a better system the ANY country on earth. Deal with it. Don’t let your candian inferiority complex blled over into your recognition of “fact”.
Danny,
Try to buy a handgun in England!Or a shotgun, hunting rifle, reloading equipment, etc. Or Australia, where they have CONFISCATED all the weapons. Not much insurrection from the subjects if they are unarmed. Much easier to control them that way.
Like Hitler, Mussolini, Mao…
Need I go on?
Get YOUR facts straight. America Baby!!!! Love it or Leave it!!!
Bigpoppa.
“I am an American citizen, while you are a Canadian “serf”. In American, “the right to bear arms shall not be infringed”. In Canada, you are at the whim of whomever controls the police agency. Without the basic right to defend yourself and your family, with a gun if necessary, you are merely a subject, hotshot lawyer or not. The “Facts” are that the United States of America has a better system the ANY country on earth. Deal with it. Don’t let your candian inferiority complex blled over into your recognition of “fact”.”
Setting aside the whole ’serf’ comment which displays frightening throwback connotations to the attitude of some British leaders who used to rule your country, why do you feel the need to hold a gun to back yourself up? Gandhi managed to bring down UK rule in India and did so without a Desert Eagle. Freedom of speech allows you to make your opinions heard, without the need to stick a gun in someones face to make your point heard.
“Try to buy a handgun in England!Or a shotgun, hunting rifle, reloading equipment, etc. Or Australia, where they have CONFISCATED all the weapons. Not much insurrection from the subjects if they are unarmed. Much easier to control them that way”
Personally, I like the knowledge that the average person I meet on the street in Britain doesn’t have a handgun stashed in their slacks. And the fact I don’t hold a gun does not make it suddenly easier for my government to control me. That’s just crazy talk.
kmac
“Personally, I like the knowledge that the average person I meet on the street in Britain doesn’t have a handgun stashed in their slacks. And the fact I don’t hold a gun does not make it suddenly easier for my government to control me. That’s just crazy talk.”
It’s people like you that Dictators and Fascist leaders LOVE! Easily controlled, because when push comes to shove and the “government” shows up at your door with an AK-47, what can you do but go along? No guns, right? Wake up little lamb, and get off the politically correct bandwagon. America was liberated from England with GUNS – not some simpering discourses over freedom of speech. Without the means to defend your rights, and I mean all out defense, you don’t really have any rights.
BigPoppa
Point 1-
“It’s people like you that Dictators and Fascist leaders LOVE! Easily controlled, because when push comes to shove and the “government” shows up at your door with an AK-47, what can you do but go along?”
Well, it’s nice to know someone loves me. Anyway, let’s face it, your argument for having guns to protect yourself from the government is daft in a couple of ways. First, do you think if the goverment and its multi-billion dollar/pound budget came to your house with “fuck-you-up” weaponry to “control” you, your handgun is going to stop them? No, of course not. If you fired a shot at this insidious government army you’re so frightened of, you’d be dead very quickly, I’m sure. Secondly, since I assume that your government is not knocking on your door every other day to shaft your arse, that can only mean there are lots and lots of paranoid, government hating civilians carrying guns with no bogeyman to shoot at, only each other. What is your policy on gun posession actually protecting you from? Certainly not your government, who do precisely whatever they damn well please without your say so, and yet gun related deaths among civilians on your shores outstrips that found in almost every other country. It’s not your government I’d be afraid of, it’s that clone of you, carrying a weapon and twitching at shadows.
Point 2-
“America was liberated from England with GUNS – not some simpering discourses over freedom of speech.”
Okay, fine. But wait! That was a war wasn’t it? (Between Britain, not England, and the soon-to-be USA) And one fought on your shores. Are you, personally I mean, involved in a war right now? And I do not mean the war on terror; you have a standing army for that. Why would you need to be involved?
The bottom line is, I respect people’s right to do whatever they please, provided they do not threaten or harm me or my family in any way. You may be a very responsible gun owner. Can you say the same for everyone who holds a gun in your country? I think there is far more inherent risk in a lot of untrained people carrying around things that kill each other than everyone being unarmed, in comparative peace and safety, with the only worry being that George W Bush is going to throw a grenade into your bed while you sleep.
Point 3-
I also notice you did not mention my example on Gandhi. Hoping we’d forget that did you? Yes, the American War of Independance was resolved with guns (and French involvement), most wars are (apart from the French thing). How come a pacifist demonstration worked then? Numbers, that’s how. The sheer weight of popular opinion did for India what a lot of bloodshed did for America back then. What do you know? No guns! How do you explain that?
Don’t you see? Or understand? The very fact you can carry guns makes your life more dangerous. People carry guns to protect themselves from other people (not the government, if you’re being honest), the police carry guns to protect themselves from people who have guns….and so on and so on and so on. It’s comparable to the USA and USSR racing to get more and bigger weapons to protect themselves from each other – and just as fucking stupid.
You have some good points kmac. But I’d rather be safe than sorry. With the knowledge that everyone was disarmed (and by everyone I mean the criminals as well) I would probably be more willing to discuss disarming everyone. The reality is that is not going to happen. I work in a high crime area and carry a weapon to repel opportunistic criminals and their monkeyshines. I want to see you pull a Ghandi type deal on someone with a knife intent on releasing your inards and relieving you of your wallet, or your wife’s virtue, or your child’s life. While you would very likely have an interesting and lively funeral and wake in that situation, I would probably get a civilian medal of some sort for having stopped a crime and taken a criminal off the street by busting a cap in the attacker’s ass. You can be a victim all you want. I would rather see everyone armed and trained with their weapons than easy targets for street thugs to take advantage of.
As far as the government coming to take your weapons, how many do you think I could get before they got me? 1 or 2? I personally think that would be a low number due to the firepower and training I possess, but I digress. If everyone that was having the gov. come to their house to relieve them of their weapons shot just one each, how long until they really lose interest in coming to get your guns? I bet it wouldn’t take long before they ran out of volunteers to try getting the guns either from fear of being shot or attrition.
“I work in a high crime area and carry a weapon to repel opportunistic criminals and their monkeyshines.”
That makes the carrying a gun argument a little different – more sense than saying you carry to ward off the government. I very much understand that it would be a fruitless and possibly fatal error to disarm yourself when there are a lot of armed people who may try to mug you. I can’t identify with your situation since I live in the northern region of Scotland – not an area well known for its high crime rate. However, I have lived in some of the dodgier parts of Glasgow, and whilst still nowhere near as dangerous as areas you may be familiar with, I can’t help feeling that may be due to the chronic unavailability of projectile weapons – your average low level crim here has to make do with knives. There are guns, yes, but you need to know some very shady people and have a lot of spare cash.
Right or wrong, free or not, the right to bear arms surely has made it easier for a criminal who would usually only carry a knife to get a gun. Unfortunately, now that they have, people like yourselves don’t have any choice but to protect yourselfs with the came thing. It’s a pity, but I think the time when it would have been possible to make gun availability difficult for everyone, including criminals, has long gone.
kmac,
That was a decent post. Seeing that you are from Scotland changes my views on your opinions. People are used to a comfort level that they have been born into or brought up around. I am from the southern United States and was raised around guns and rifle and taught gun safety before I could ride a bike. It(gun ownership and marksmanship) has always been just a part of my reality. No big deal…until you talk about removing them. Then like most southerners I tend to get highly defensive over taking away something I have always had or been able to do. If I had grown up with you in Scotland, I may very well view things a little differently than I currently do. As I am unfamiliar with the history of gun laws in your area, I can’t really comment on how and when you lost the rights of gun ownership (leagally I mean), only that it is far easier to repel a knife attack with a pistol or shotgun than your bare hands.Good luck in your endeavors!