The title of this thread references the first episode of Aaron Sorkin's newest television drama, Newsroom. In the pilot, anchorman Will McAvoy is introduced addressing a group of college students, representing the "neutral center" between the left leaning and right leaning commentators. The left and right puppets drone on the same drivel we've heard from both sides for a while with the moderator needling Will for answers and receiving only glib, intentionally vague answers until a student stands up and asks the panel to describe in "one sentence or less..." why America is the greatest country in the world.
The lefty answers diversity and opportunity and the right wing guy says freedom and freedom ("so let's keep it that way.") Will's first answer is the New York Jets. The moderator isn't satisfied and Will comes up with the Declaration of Independence, James Madison, and the Constitution. Still unsatisfied the moderator continues to needle Will, holding him to a "human moment" standard, and finally Will snaps.
Below is a truncated version of the speech directed at the owner of the original query (shortened for the purposes of this thread.)
And yousorority girlyeahjust in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there are some things you should know, and one of them is that there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world. We're seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies. None of this is the fault of a 20-year-old college student, but you, nonetheless, are without a doubt, a member of the WORST-period-GENERATION-period-EVER-period, so when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about?! Yosemite?!!!
After some very light research (seriously- I just wikipedia'd each stat, which was apparently enough for the fact checking staff at The Newsroom as well since they match up down to our defense spending statistics) I found the speech to be more than less "accurate." But that isn't what struck me as... engaging about the scene. While Will goes on into an aria hearkening to yesteryear, this first part of the speech is what struck a note with me.
My attraction to Sorkin's writing isn't the universe he creates it's the idea that human beings could ever interact with one another in such fashions. It is happening-now science fiction (I'm as in love with language as anyone I know and, with the three smartest people I've ever met, I couldn't achieve the warp speed dialogue of a standard Sorkin show.)
So, before you lampoon me as a left-Sorkin-loving-know-nothing (though all of those things could be true in some sense) let me move beyond my personal love with the universe that is presented and bring it back to the real world where we converse in less than 300 words per second.
We tout ourselves, as Americans, as top of the pile, the best of the best, and we look to our pasts to verify that notion. Our politicians espouse it, of course, because they would never be elected if they did anything else. But it's the people that I suppose concern me- we embrace this notion of our being the absolute best gift humanity has ever received short of fire and my question and reasoning for writing this thread is to ask this- why?
If you believe there's some "X-Factor" that makes the United States of America the greatest country in the world, what is it and can you justify it? Math isn't on our side but statistics only convey so much (surprise-surprise- math isn't on our side.) There are other things to consider but, in my case, after being so swayed by the writing and acting, I'm having a hard time coming up with justification for my own star-spangled patriotism.
What do you think? Is America the greatest country in the world? Was it ever? Could it be again?
The lefty answers diversity and opportunity and the right wing guy says freedom and freedom ("so let's keep it that way.") Will's first answer is the New York Jets. The moderator isn't satisfied and Will comes up with the Declaration of Independence, James Madison, and the Constitution. Still unsatisfied the moderator continues to needle Will, holding him to a "human moment" standard, and finally Will snaps.
Below is a truncated version of the speech directed at the owner of the original query (shortened for the purposes of this thread.)
And yousorority girlyeahjust in case you accidentally wander into a voting booth one day, there are some things you should know, and one of them is that there is absolutely no evidence to support the statement that we're the greatest country in the world. We're seventh in literacy, twenty-seventh in math, twenty-second in science, forty-ninth in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports. We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies. None of this is the fault of a 20-year-old college student, but you, nonetheless, are without a doubt, a member of the WORST-period-GENERATION-period-EVER-period, so when you ask what makes us the greatest country in the world, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about?! Yosemite?!!!
After some very light research (seriously- I just wikipedia'd each stat, which was apparently enough for the fact checking staff at The Newsroom as well since they match up down to our defense spending statistics) I found the speech to be more than less "accurate." But that isn't what struck me as... engaging about the scene. While Will goes on into an aria hearkening to yesteryear, this first part of the speech is what struck a note with me.
My attraction to Sorkin's writing isn't the universe he creates it's the idea that human beings could ever interact with one another in such fashions. It is happening-now science fiction (I'm as in love with language as anyone I know and, with the three smartest people I've ever met, I couldn't achieve the warp speed dialogue of a standard Sorkin show.)
So, before you lampoon me as a left-Sorkin-loving-know-nothing (though all of those things could be true in some sense) let me move beyond my personal love with the universe that is presented and bring it back to the real world where we converse in less than 300 words per second.
We tout ourselves, as Americans, as top of the pile, the best of the best, and we look to our pasts to verify that notion. Our politicians espouse it, of course, because they would never be elected if they did anything else. But it's the people that I suppose concern me- we embrace this notion of our being the absolute best gift humanity has ever received short of fire and my question and reasoning for writing this thread is to ask this- why?
If you believe there's some "X-Factor" that makes the United States of America the greatest country in the world, what is it and can you justify it? Math isn't on our side but statistics only convey so much (surprise-surprise- math isn't on our side.) There are other things to consider but, in my case, after being so swayed by the writing and acting, I'm having a hard time coming up with justification for my own star-spangled patriotism.
What do you think? Is America the greatest country in the world? Was it ever? Could it be again?
JSZ