I recently had a drunk Swedish dude rant to me about America after I told him I was from The States. I recall him comparing America to a cancer upon the world. I explained to him that not all of America was as retarded as we are portrayed on TV and that he would find a lot of parts of the country (especially Los Angeles) very progressive.
Let's face it, America is an easy target for criticism. I am as guilty as anyone as I will demonstrate now - our politicians, our lack of universal healthcare, our foreign policy, our crazy religious folks, our increasingly expensive higher education, our corporate greed/consumerism etc. So basically, there is a lot we can improve upon.
But with all that being said, I believe that America maintaining its role as the world's primary superpower is a far better alternative than to have the next biggest and ascendant power (i.e. China) replace us. By all accounts, their TV shows suck.
Good 2/3 first part, i would not quite agree on the -far better- ... I'm not saying that Chinese will control the world better, but lets face it, the actual geopolitical situation isn't quite pretty.
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ReplyDeleteYou have to remember that China is still a very repressive and totalitarian country but without our military might... yet, (although they are increasing their defense spending dramatically). I think their assertiveness will change as soon as they are able to project their influence as much as the U.S. can - it is only natural that they further their own interests as we have ours. But luckily, for the Western world, our interests have for the most part been aligned.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, the geopolitical situation is horrible right now but not counting what the Bush years left us, historically, it has been tolerable.
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