Inspired the fact that I have been living with my girlfriend and her 16 year old daughter for the last several months, I came to the realization that America is not much different then a 16 year old. Good qualities: She's extremely bright and creative She is healthy and has tons of energy. She takes care of her appearance all the time and dresses in the latest fashions. Everyone in school wants to be her friend because she is popular. She is smart and is very money motivated. Negative qualities: She is completely self absorbed and has no clue what's going on outside of her world. She thinks she knows it all and will listen to no one else. She solves problems by arguing HER point of view to the point of nausea. She is easily influenced by crowd / peer pressures. She is spoiled because she has had things "her" way for most of her life. When I thought about all of this it made me laugh and it made sense because America is still such a young country in perspective to the rest of the world. The good news is teenagers eventually grow up.
When I thought about all of this it made me laugh and it made sense because America is still such a young country in perspective to the rest of the world. If put into several perspectives, and relative to our 'neighbors and friends around the globe', that 'youthful quality' of our nation may be called into question. The phase we now find ourselves in, resembles that which occured to (Great) Britain, in the latter century (and a half), where their sphere and global reach stretched beyond their ability to support, and ultimately, in a changing environment, the very fact of their having taken on such an extensive reach detracted from their own internal standard of living. In effect, many and most of the items they once proudly and skillfully manufactured and exported, were piece by piece outsourced, distmantled, left by the wayside, or abandoned, never to return. A great chasm remained in the wake. Our nation has experienced much the same, for many of the same reasons, and similar dynamics, which include, the desire of truly youthful nations to participate in the wealth of the world, and apply themselves diligently to the vast opportunities of supplying the goods sought out by 'wealthier' nations. In the same manner that a young America supplanted Britain in manufacturing and agriculture in the 1800's and beyond, we are now being supplanted. In short, we are no longer a youthful nation, in any respect, we have in fact far past the youthful point, and have expended much of our energies and resources, and have less to show for our efforts than we may have, under better 'management'. We are now faced with competing with our neighbors, from a disadvantaged position...we are debtors to the very youthful nations, (and otherwise) we must compete with, at a time when our very infrastructure is hobbling our efforts to 'make ground' on our debts. The bright side of the equation, which resides squarely in your reference to our youthfulness, is the questions of whether or not we will at this moment in history resolve ourselves as a nation, to 'wright our ship', and reinvent, and reinvigorate our nation. I believe therein is the way to re-energize, and elicit the youthfulness that resides within...a re-manifestation of our once-proud state, all pulling in the traces as one, instead of going every which direction, and pulling ourselves apart. We have the option, and we have the opportunity. The rest is up to us. here is an example of the power of a youthful nation, proud, fit, and lean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JdQlaQpOuU&feature=related
So which is it? Mind of her own or follows the crowd? The thread title made me think this was going to be about some new kind of "reality" show coming up in the fall, instead its just a Canadian bitching about the US again.
I don't think it has anything to do with being a young country. America is just clearly on the downturn until something significant is changed. Take the most classic of all examples, 18th century Europe. In the later half of the 18th century, the kings actually tried to institute reforms because they saw things were very bad. However the institutionalized factions of the time prevented any real reforms because the status quo served them. Just yesterday I read a bit about chinese history. The Qing dynasty lasted for centuries but was isolationist. Their system, although initially successful, eventually became obsolete. So it setup a series of reforms starting in 1870 because they realized how far behind they were western powers. The reforms failed, in part because of the extreme conservative society. Things got so bad that the dynasty ended in 1912, and then you had a bunch of local warlords each fighting for territory. Japan also seized the opportunity and started invading China in the 1930s. Finally only Mao could reunite the country in 1949. The country was finally on the upswing again and the rest is history. The history of the roman empire is much the same. The roman empire didn't fall in one day, it took centuries, and many reforms were tried. Some of the emperors were even black, or barbarians. They even split the empire in 2. The empire morphed significantly but ultimately it failed. The history if fallen empire is the history of failed reforms. The more you look into each case the more you realize that reforms were tried, and failed, and the previous order fell. Now the american constitution is OLD. It's 242 years old. I don't know how that compares to other countries but it's one of the oldest constitutions in the world. Most people would think it's crazy to change the constitution, but the constitutions of many rich countries today were changed less than 100 years ago. So in history this resistance will only be seen as "conservatism".
You forgot one part of the analogy. The 16-year old has a gold fish in a tank on her dresser. The gold fish in the tank is CANADA. The gold fish cannot live unless the girl feeds the fish, and changes the water in the tank. Eventually the goldfish dies and is flushed down the toilet. Joob, you may want to better utilize the limited time you have left, before you are flushed down the toilet of life on more productive activities, instead of starting moronic threads.