Rob McKenzie
Rounding Some Corners

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All great in one way

Who is the greatest member of your family?

What a silly question.

As if there is one family member who is totally better than everyone else.

Amazingly, this is how some Americans describe the United States of America: as the "greatest country in the world."

Politicians like to talk this way about the USA.

They do it out of an immense feeling of pride for what our young nation has achieved with its prosperity, technology and ethnic diversity. And they do it to appeal to voters.

But using the "greatest country" terminology is a pretty juvenile approach to talking about the world, really, because every country has greatness.

Often this immature approach is taken by people who haven't traveled to and immersed themselves in other countries, doing the things that locals do — as opposed to hopping off a cruise ship for a couple of hours to visit some tourist zones.

So when people say the USA is the greatest country in the world, they're sometimes also saying they have little basis of comparison to the other 200 countries that are out there.

In other words, since the rest of the world is a big question mark, they need to feel secure about the country they live in by calling it the greatest.

In contrast, experienced travelers have a more mature approach toward their home country.

This approach still invokes the word "greatest" to describe a particular dimension of a country, while leaving it open that others may legitimately disagree.

What country has the greatest record of environmentalism? That country might be Sweden.

What country has the greatest spirit out of the countries that have been conquered? That country might be Mexico.

What country has the greatest health care system? That country might be France (the World Health Organization says so).

What country has the greatest opportunities for incubating small businesses? Now that country might be the USA.

Refusing to call the USA the greatest country in the world is not being treasonous.

It is exercising an informed ability to maintain a balanced perspective when describing this gigantic and multifaceted world specifically by talking about individual countries.

You can still have pride in your country without being immature about it.

And you can still ask yourself: What is the best possible accolade to bestow on your country? That's a great question.

But it's not the greatest question, because there isn't one.


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