And I hate to be the one to point us to the truths, lest someone accuse me of being a curmudgeon. But most of the presumed evidence for the greatness of the United States is simply wrong, based on long lifetimes of drilled-in patriotism and the wishful thinking of knee-jerk chauvinists and wartime jingoists.
We might as well start with “freedom.” We are the freest nation on earth, the line goes, blessed with the greatest system for creating and maintaining liberty. (Even the fact that our Liberty Bell is cracked seems not to daunt us.)
Well, believe it or not, there are people who actually try to measure this, and by most of their reckonings, we are not.
