I really never asked my parents why they thought that the USA is great. My Dad spent his entire career helping the USA and that was certainly the attitude I heard at home.
First of course was his volunteering for the USAF, and then later inventing the Infra Red telescope, then laser beam communication between satellites. And of course the camera for the U-2.
But an actual discussion about the greatness and importance of the USA never came up to my recollection. I guess it was just simply clear that the USA provided the best hope to have a just and decent society with a balance between freedom and responsibility.
Nowadays clearly they would be appalled, but what would they say? I am not sure since they were not talkers, but doers. Beyond the basics--be a mensch [decent human being] and be self reliant, it is hard to know.
I myself was not able to come to any insight about this until I read Daniel Defoe's pamphlets from the 1700's. I realized at that point the the USA was really a continuation of England and the Magna Carta. Still is it just the political system that makes a nation great? I would say with Hobhouse that what measures a nation's greatness is the ability of the families to sit around the fireplace and talk with each other.
[Any place that was once an English Colony now has success and prosperity. USA, Israel, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, Normandy, India. Extend that to places that were administered by the USA after WWII--Japan and Germany. Compared to places that were never subjected to English rule you generally find ruin and misery, South America, Africa, etc. But take away the institutions of the English as in Hong Kong and you get problems. So what is so special about the English? I have no idea. It is almost as if there is a permanent curse on anyone that was never subjected to English rule. No matter how hard they try, they just can not make it.]
First of course was his volunteering for the USAF, and then later inventing the Infra Red telescope, then laser beam communication between satellites. And of course the camera for the U-2.
But an actual discussion about the greatness and importance of the USA never came up to my recollection. I guess it was just simply clear that the USA provided the best hope to have a just and decent society with a balance between freedom and responsibility.
Nowadays clearly they would be appalled, but what would they say? I am not sure since they were not talkers, but doers. Beyond the basics--be a mensch [decent human being] and be self reliant, it is hard to know.
I myself was not able to come to any insight about this until I read Daniel Defoe's pamphlets from the 1700's. I realized at that point the the USA was really a continuation of England and the Magna Carta. Still is it just the political system that makes a nation great? I would say with Hobhouse that what measures a nation's greatness is the ability of the families to sit around the fireplace and talk with each other.
[Any place that was once an English Colony now has success and prosperity. USA, Israel, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia, Normandy, India. Extend that to places that were administered by the USA after WWII--Japan and Germany. Compared to places that were never subjected to English rule you generally find ruin and misery, South America, Africa, etc. But take away the institutions of the English as in Hong Kong and you get problems. So what is so special about the English? I have no idea. It is almost as if there is a permanent curse on anyone that was never subjected to English rule. No matter how hard they try, they just can not make it.]
