Notes

No, this is not a list of 10 reasons why the United States of America is the greatest
country in the world. If I were to actually write that, I may be hard-pressed to actually
find and support 10 legitimate reasons. I may even resort to downright lies. Maybe we were
actually the best country in the world a couple of years ago. However, as we are exposed to
more information, we come to realize that we have lived in a sort of lie pertaining to the
greatness of our country.

This is because we have this false sense of what is the truth in our country. If you are from
the United States, or at least have been here for a while, you probably thought of about 1 or
2 reasons just after reading the title. After years of being here, media has spoon-fed us
millions of bits of data that have some connection to patriotism, freedom, independence, or
any other pillar of America. We often see this in commercials trying to appeal to our pathos,
presidents who want to support their country, and family members who take pride after the many
July 4ths in their lives. It's easy to dilute the truth about the other parts of the world when
you have so much information about your own country flooding your brain every single day.
Consider North Korea and its stern censorship policy[1]. The North Koreans have little to no
idea what the outside world is like and have lived a life secluded from what we see to be the
truth. But does that mean they ever question that their perception is false? I would think no.
If you never know anything other than what you experience, then you have nothing to even make
you question the little things in life. If you grow up in a family that always eats soup with
forks and never see anyone use a spoon, then of course you would believe that everyone else
also eats soup with forks. When you are completely surrounded by one thing, that becomes your
reality.

Of course, the opposite is also true. Now that we have mass television, mass media, and
particularly the internet, we can get all kinds of information that isn't limited by the
government or proximity (most of the time, at least). We can learn almost anything about the
world we live in, and that gives us the opportunity to form new opinions other than "MY
COUNTRY IS THE GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!" We can see statistics and realize that the
United States isn't number one; we can hear about the experiences of other people in other
countries and compare that to our own; we can even share our own experiences with just about
anyone. The youth of today is adapting to utilize this technology, so they are the first to
start changing their beliefs on patriotism. Those from older generations have lived in this
patriotic bubble for so long that they subconsciously don't want to leave; they want to stay
in what is familiar to them. And we can see that change. According to the Pew Research Center,
young people are progressively becoming less staunchly patriotic while the older generations
remain patriotic.


Even just this post demonstrates these points. If you only saw the title and saw 1,000 other
posts like it, then you would probably think that the United States really IS the best country.
These people have a lot of reasons, so it must be true, right? Well, no. You can't prove that
a black swan doesn't exist just because you've only ever seen white swans. Once you actually
read this blog, you come to realize that the title was not entirely true (or in this case,
astonishingly unrelated to the topic). This is like how communication technology gives you new
information. You get new insights, so you form new opinions. Without that new information,
however, all you get is a first impression, and you have to make an assumption about the whole
truth from just a snippet of it, from just the tip of the iceberg.

There isn't really a concrete good or bad to this, though. Sure, it's good to be able to
control what we consume instead of big companies and the government choosing what we see, but
that also causes a sort of disunity between people. More opinions means more disagreement.
Ignorance is bliss in this case. It's hard to decide whether new advances in technology are for
better of for worse, but there is nothing we can do to stop it now. People will embrace it no
matter what, and we can rely on that. For me personally, the good seems really good, but the
bad does not seem that bad. It's great to be able to form our own opinions and be our own
person without a government telling you what to think. Of course the disagreement and the
resulting fighting can be a problem, but that's entirely just the way people react to other
people having different opinions; in my point of view, a violent reaction to that is an
immature one, and probably one that's impermanent. Over the last few centuries, more and more
people are tolerant to other religions, which is basically just an opinion you have about the
world. It's not impossible to extend that tolerance to everyone and everything, but it will
definitely take a while. In the meantime, stay informed. Form your own opinions. Be involved.
Make the change in the world that you want to see; if it's good, then people will support you.
If it's bad or malicious, then good luck. You're going to have a tough time in this world.



Citations:
Jerreat, Jessica. “North Korean Censorship.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 25
Apr. 2017, www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/north-korean-censorship_us_
58fe78afe4b086ce58981445.