Greatest Country In The World

by MarkTwain© | Politics | 1419 Views

Video

Comments | 9

  • Submitted by tomaidh on May 12, 2017 at 8:22 am

    Good link.

    If only, IF ONLY a real American in real life said this.
    IN REAL LIFE!
    Too bad this was scripted and acted out by an actor, on a TV show called The Newsroom.
    Everything he said was the truth.

    • Submitted by Vidda on May 12, 2017 at 9:33 am

      Not quite everything

      The TV character did okay with his script, until the written script following the long moment of stunned silence, which is largely bullshit.

      If the US was the greatest country it was and is because of extreme self-centered power, wealth, pseudo-morality, and their ever-present electoral base of the lowest common denominators, and the inherent abuses that go along with them.

      And, now, for 10 minutes of “real life” unscripted honesty:
      George Carlin – “What you’d expect from an office temp with a bad attitude.”
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r-e2NDSTuE

      • Submitted by tomaidh on May 12, 2017 at 10:30 am

        Carlin

        I really miss Carlin.
        (We both went to the same [Catholic] high school at the same time, but I didn’t know him.)

      • Submitted by spinoza on May 12, 2017 at 11:36 am

        Diluted but still potent

        I’ve mentioned this before but for newer visitors to the site:

        Some of Carlin’s ashes have been scattered at Spoofed Lake,( I wrote Spofford but spell-correct changed me, a very Carlinesque phenomena)… as per his request. He went to camp as a kid there, and it kept a place in his heart. I get a smile each time I pass by just thinking about it.

        (Certainly not claiming that water has the capacity to hold memory or transmit energy)

        It’s a shame- even maybe God’s revenge/joke- that George is not around to help us.

  • Submitted by Will Stomp on May 13, 2017 at 4:01 am

    The Greatest

    Ugh. He makes me shudder.

    Why is it so cool to bash liberals? And — because “they lose?” There are much, much worse things that one can do in life than lose.

    And the “sorority girl” comment rings of misogyny to me.

    Then, after the long, dramatic pause, he says “We used to be . . .” the greatest. When was that? Before WWII when we were planning a world war with Britain and half of our industrialists were in bed with the Nazis? Or during WWII when we were fire bombing entire cities in Germany, China and Japan? Or maybe after WWII when we started overtly and covertly toppling democracies that didn’t roll over and take it in the name of corporate capitalism?

  • Submitted by spoon on May 14, 2017 at 2:32 pm

    yes, not so fast

    The United States has done a lot of things to be proud of. Although, bear in mind, most things are done by individual people. Whether we have done any better, given our natural wealth, than any other country would have done if they had as much, is unknowable. The US can be proud of a lot of things. Rising up to defeat our oppressor, the British, and establishing the most advanced democracy ever (at the time) would have to rank among one of the greatest national or societal achievements in history. Although we showed up late we nevertheless made an enormous and successful effort to defeat Nazi Germany. We were instrumental in establishing the United Nations, even if, at this point, the ruling elite would like to see it disappear. I suppose there are other notable things but I can’t think of what actually rises to the “great” category.

    On the other hand we own some of the ugliest stains in history such as slavery, native American genocide and twice dropping the atom bomb on big cities. Ironically one would think the greatest country in the world would have some humility. One would think the “greatest” country in the world wouldn’t look like it’s on the verge of collapse. And has poisoned the world to such an extent it is possible we’ll take the whole planet down with us.

    One thing Mark Twain should take out of the movie excerpt is that, no matter how much we love our land, we can never stop correcting what we do on it, no matter what it takes. We can’t wear rose colored glasses. We have to remember the great things in the past. But these remembrances also serve to magnify how far we have strayed. This is my land, this is your land.

  • Submitted by Vidda on May 15, 2017 at 9:28 am

    “Arbeit Macht Frei”

    Whatever it is that pushes America above the normal or average, it is a useless form of superiority, but an effective slogan mastered by the right. Who needs thinking or rational viewpoints?

  • Submitted by spinoza on May 15, 2017 at 10:40 am

    Big Boy Productions

    Sorkin, Stone, Spielberg, these guys are among the so called masters of reflecting our world back to us. Or at least they’ve made the big bucks and hoisted the trophies with ‘important’ polemics. I’ve always found all of them heavy handed, macho, whether in verbosity or laying on the symbolism, brutish on message, and seemingly unaware of their biases.

    Not that they don’t sound the chords that are pleasing to mass ears. Or haven’t moved the dial of consensus. Admittedly, my taste runs toward those directors who leave space for me to come to my own conclusions. The cinematic landscape used to be more idiosyncratic in the country, and like all corporate takeovers, the people are poorer as a result.

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