The privilege of greatness

I've been reading some of David Sedaris' short stories recently, and came across this quote from his book Me Talk Pretty One Day: "Every day we're told that we live in the greatest country on earth. And it's always stated as an undeniable fact: Leos were born between July 23 and August 22, fitted queen-size sheets measure sixty by eighty inches, and America is the greatest country on earth."

This observation struck a chord with me, because I think it's fairly accurate: the U.S.' superpower status makes it easy for us to believe we've got it made. Our national rhetoric is filled with ideas like freedom, manifest destiny, equal opportunity for all, and sixteen varieties of peanut butter on one supermarket shelf - what more could a citizen want? Singing the praises of one's homeland is not a concept unique to America - just like every other country, we've got our patriotic songs, salutes to the flag, and national holidays to celebrate important historical events. But the key difference is that our place of importance on the world stage endows our "greatest country" claims with a tint of legitimate plausibility, which, in my opinion, can sometimes go to our heads.

My friend Lindsay's town helped her celebrate 4th of July with a castillo (firework tower) of cross-country friendship

Being born a U.S. citizen automatically gives an individual certain advantages on a global scale: we grow up as native speakers of English, the language of the world economy; we can travel to (almost) any other country we choose by paying the occasional visa fee; our country has a strong voice in all the major bodies of international governance. Imagine life from a Peruvian perspective: speaking fluent Spanish but struggling to learn English from untrained teachers in order to work for any large or international company; waiting months or years for a tourist visa to the States that requires application interviews and proof of things like economic viability; knowing that their country is on the "developing" rather than the "developed" end of the international power spectrum. It's a totally different perspective, but the difference is often only noticed by those on the short end of the stick; as Americans we never have to face life on the other side, so the majority of us live in ignorance of the true extent of our privilege. While we should of course appreciate these advantages, we should more importantly recognize that we have no more intrinsic right to them than do citizens of any other country. By luck of the draw, we were born in a powerful country and others were not, but we are all human beings.

I think the claim that America (or any other nation for that matter) is the greatest country on earth is absurd. It's a pretty awesome place, no doubt about it, but so many people-places-customs-histories-foods-politics-environments-laws-cultures-languages-borders go into making a single country that it'd be a tricky business to somehow rank them. "Greatest" also implies something that others should emulate, and I don't think anyone wants to see a worldwide that's all one country - where would we travel then?