All eyes on America the Great

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Alligatorob said:
Good post @Warrigal never hurts to remind us. We are not a perfect role model, but of the largest and most powerful countries probably the best. And I think slowly, and in fits and spurts getting better. Three steps forward and two back...

I believe a lot of other countries are as good or better, like Australia, just not quite as big and powerful. Its good to be friends and allies, we are better with you than not.

I listen to and opinions of folks in other countries, people like you, valuable insight I believe. Wish more Americans would...
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I don't remember who said this, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't hundreds of years ago ---

"Democracy can't guarantee the best government, but it can prevent the worst."
 
hollydolly said:
In what way do people want us to become a Mini- America?...
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hollydolly a great majority of decent Americans whose noses aren't bent out of joint don't think anything of you being considered a Mini-America. We consider the United Kingdom a stand alone NATO ally. The UK and the US has always stood together, still does and always will persevere against a great number of hostile nations seeking our collective demise.
 
FastTrax said:
hollydolly a great majority of decent Americans whose noses aren't bent out of joint don't think anything of you being considered a Mini-America. We consider the United Kingdom a stand alone NATO ally. The UK and the US has always stood together, still does and always will persevere against a great number of hostile nations seeking our collective demise.
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yep, we're definitely a stand alone country.. we don't even need Europe.. hence Brexit... :sneaky:
 
Don M. said:
In my nearly 80 years, I can't recall a time when our nation has been so divided, on So many issues.... both Socially And Politically. Unless or until our people begin to relax their hardened opinions, I see nothing but more troubles coming.
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It's not that we have a difference of opinions; it's that we have different versions of reality and different facts. Some people have verifiable facts while others just believe whatever conforms to their worldview.
 
Murrmurr said:
I don't remember who said this, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't hundreds of years ago ---

"Democracy can't guarantee the best government, but it can prevent the worst."
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There's not really much truth to it. People often vote for authoritarian candidates who then corrupt the elections and become a defacto dictator. That's what happened in Russia with Putin.

And let's not forget that Nazis were voted into power in the 1930s in Germany's parliament, which led to Hitler's appointment as chancellor. So while the people didn't directly elect Hitler, Germany's democracy was the reason for his rise to power.

For democracies to work and thrive requires an educated and informed populace. Too many people in the U.S. are misinformed. They don't believe in an objective reality and only believe what fits their worldview.
 
Lavinia said:
You haven't noticed how much of American culture is creeping into ours....language, spelling, expressions? Even the BBC is starting to use the American spelling of certain words. The fact that you may not have noticed perhaps suggests how subtly it is happening. Even British authors are starting to make the same errors in writing that Americans do, although this might be intentional in order to widen their readership.
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It has been quite obvious for some time. The American culture has been slowly but surely making it's way across to Oceania. With the world opened up by air travel it had to happen. My loyalties are with the UK. Kiwis are more 'attached' to Britain than some in govt. will acknowledge, but as Warrigal has said with China rearing it's ugly head in our part of the World, it is very reassuring to know we do have relations with the US, our PM spoke with the US President about 10 days ago. God Save the Queen, and God Bless America.
 
hollydolly said:
I have noticed the young and the less educated following the spellings of the uSA.. i believe that's because they spend so much time perusing the internet... .. absolutely haven't noticed the BBC using an American expressions..
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I still use our spellings, but I have picked up a few British expressions. "Sorted" is a good example, better for the purpose than any US word, I now use it a lot. And I sometimes use "brilliant" the way you do. For better or worse mass communication is reducing the differences in our speech and language.
Murrmurr said:
"Democracy can't guarantee the best government, but it can prevent the worst."
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That is a great quote, and very true.
Pepper said:
I think it's much worse now than I've ever seen it, and @SeniorBen gave one good example why.
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I grew up in the deep south. People, a lot maybe a majority, believed strongly in segregation and the inferiority of black people. That has really changed, maybe not completely gone but changed substantially. I can't say anything I hear today is worse than hearing my Sunday school teacher, in a mainstream Protestant church, show us the biblical justification for slavery...
 
Uptosnuff said:
Hmmmm, this thread isn't supposed to be political or America bashing, but there is an obvious pattern. . . . . . . . . . .
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I'm watching, when I am not asleep. Different time zone.

So far I think the discussion has been civil and healthy in that people are expressing their thoughts and opinion without blaming others. Let's try to keep it that way.
 
With all this extreme heat, the last few days, I've been staying in the house, and wearing out the computer and TV. I've been watching the TV news channels quite a bit, and am amazed at the bias and outright "misinformation" that they are spouting. Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and NewsMax, all seem to be going to the extreme to "influence" their viewers. About the Only thing they seem to be able to report on without some "agenda" is the weather. Anyone who is trusting these venues for accurate information is kidding themselves. In this era of "bias" it is increasingly difficult to find out the real truth, but if we don't keep trying, the disparities will only continue to increase.
 
Murrmurr said:
@Warrigal - I think one of the reasons so many eyes around the globe are on America is because more and more countries are becoming more and more democratic. People of older nations also find it fascinating that America developed so quickly, and that all phases of its development surpassed countries/societies that have been around for millenniums.
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In 1985 (?) Hubby and I took a round the world trip lasting 5 months (Australia has something called long service leave, brilliant idea) and we spent our time mostly in US, Canada and UK. Each country had its differences and its similarities to Australia. Having grown up believing that I was part of the glorious British Empire I was particularly interested in Britain. I was amazed that so much of the past has been so faithfully preserved and looked after. I saw John Dalton's models of atoms and molecules ( the actual models he used to explain his theory) in the British Museum and the many historic bridges dotted around the country from a pre-Roman clapper bridge to the very first bridge constructed from iron.

In Australia, the youngest of the countries in the Anglosphere (with the possible exception of NZ) such historical treasures are few and far between. Our riches tend to be of the natural kind. I became aware of the enterprise and ingenuity of the British people and understood how it came to pass that the British Empire was so vast that the Sun was always shining on some part of it.

However, it seemed to me that the British, having seen the break up of the empire, had become too focussed on past glories and had ceased to look forward to new possibilities. I remarked that I understood why they had explored the globe and founded a great empire but I also understood why they had not landed a man on the Moon. It took the younger, more enterprising American spirit to do that. In the 20th century, after two world wars, the baton of enterprise was passed to the Americans and they left every other country trailing in their wake.

Nothing lasts forever. Hitler believed that the Third Reich would last for 1000 years, but it collapsed because in reality it was rotten to the very centre. The Roman empire lasted much longer but eventually it crumbled and there was not just one cause, but many. Corruption was just one, over reach was another and historians have dealt with all of that.

While US has not established a structural empire, she has become the West's most powerful and influential nation in terms of might, economics and innovation. Since the end of the Cold War US has been mostly unrivalled but there are places where competitors are muscling up for a contest.

We've seen the power of China growing from a country with terrible poverty held back by a feudal system to a modern economy ruled by a system that controls the people ruthlessly when it senses internal threat. We are watching Russia flex her muscles as Putin seeks to restore it's old soviet era power and to extend it to new lands such as the Pacific and Africa. It is not paranoid to conclude that the western alliances are under pressure, if not yet in clear and present danger.

Disunity is death, so the old saying goes. In my childhood I was introduced to the maxim "United we stand, divided we fall". This maxim applies to our alliances but it also warns of the peril of internal division. I'm not talking about people having different opinions. That is healthy and so is expressing them. What is not healthy is to become so intent on winning every argument and every election to the point of referring to fellow countrymen as enemies that we stop noticing the real enemy waiting for us to become so distracted or so weak that they become emboldened to launch their attacks.

It is clear to anyone with any insight that US is internally torn, but not broken. I am confident that the strength and spirit of enterprise is still there. "E pluribus unum" is a good motto to follow.

Why did I write this? It is because I have had a conversation with a very dispirited member of this forum and having started this thread, I feel somewhat responsible for his mood. We do live in challenging times but there is always hope.
 
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Warrigal said:
In 1985 (?) Hubby and I took a round the world trip lasting 5 months (Australia has something called long service leave, brilliant idea) and we spent our time mostly in US, Canada and UK. Each country had its differences and its similarities to Australia. Having grown up believing that I was part of the glorious British Empire I was particularly interested in Britain. I was amazed that so much of the past has been so faithfully preserved and looked after. I saw John Dalton's models of atoms and molecules ( the actual models he used to explain his theory) in the British Museum and the many historic bridges dotted around the country from a pre-Roman clapper bridge to the very first bridge constructed from iron.

In Australia, the youngest of the countries in the Anglosphere (with the possible exception of NZ) such historical treasures are few and far between. Our riches tend to be of the natural kind. I became aware of the enterprise and ingenuity of the British people and understood how it came to pass that the British Empire was so vast that the Sun was always shining on some part of it.

However, it seemed to me that the British, having seen the break up of the empire, had become too focussed on past glories and had ceased to look forward to new possibilities. I remarked that I understood why they had explored the globe and founded a great empire but I also understood why they had not landed a man on the Moon. It took the younger, more enterprising American spirit to do that. In the 20th century, after two world wars, the baton of enterprise was passed to the Americans and they left every other country trailing in their wake.

Nothing lasts forever. Hitler believed that the Third Reich would last for 1000 years, but it collapsed because in reality it was rotten to the very centre. The Roman empire lasted much longer but eventually it crumbled and there was not just one cause, but many. Corruption was just one, over reach was another and historians have dealt with all of that.

While US has not established a structural empire, she has become the West's most powerful and influential nation in terms of might, economics and innovation. Since the end of the Cold War US has been mostly unrivalled but there are places where competitors are muscling up for a contest.

We've seen the power of China growing from a country with terrible poverty held back by a feudal system to a modern economy ruled by a system that controls the people ruthlessly when it senses internal threat. We are watching Russia flex her muscles as Putin seeks to restore it's old soviet era power and to extend it to new lands such as the Pacific and Africa. It is not paranoid to conclude that the western alliances are under pressure, if not yet in clear and present danger.

Disunity is death, so the old saying goes. In my childhood I was introduced to the maxim "United we stand, divided we fall". This maxim applies to our alliances but it also warns of the peril of internal division. I'm not talking about people having different opinions. That is healthy and so is expressing them. What is not healthy is to become so intent on winning every argument and every election to the point of referring to fellow countrymen as enemies that we stop noticing the real enemy waiting for us to become so distracted or so weak that they become emboldened to launch their attacks.

It is clear to anyone with any insight that US is internally torn, but not broken. I am confident that the strength and spirit of enterprise is still there. "E pluribus unum" is a good motto to follow.

Why did I write this? It is because I have had a conversation with a very dispirited member of this forum and having started this thread, I feel somewhat responsible for his mood. We do live in challenging times but there is always hope.
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Well said! (y)
 
Don M. said:
With all this extreme heat, the last few days, I've been staying in the house, and wearing out the computer and TV. I've been watching the TV news channels quite a bit, and am amazed at the bias and outright "misinformation" that they are spouting. Fox, CNN, MSNBC, and NewsMax, all seem to be going to the extreme to "influence" their viewers. About the Only thing they seem to be able to report on without some "agenda" is the weather. Anyone who is trusting these venues for accurate information is kidding themselves. In this era of "bias" it is increasingly difficult to find out the real truth, but if we don't keep trying, the disparities will only continue to increase.
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Can you provide some examples of CNN's bias? I'm not saying they're not biased, since I don't watch them, but I'd like to see some evidence.
 
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