What makes a Country Great?
- Sy Borg
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
Generally speak, individuals can be great but groups of people tend to operate on a more primitive, self-interested basis. So shareholders of oil companies will never demand action to provide cleaner energy unless deemed ultimately profitable or action will prevent a company incurring serious penalties.
- Pattern-chaser
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
Really? When, and in what way?Tegularius wrote: ↑June 29th, 2022, 6:29 pm ...but look at the U.S., still considered great and once indubitably so...
I ask out of interest. [I have been unable to think of a single example of a great country, now, or in the past.]
"Who cares, wins"
- Pattern-chaser
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
... to steal their oil interests. [Or are you referring to Afghanistan? 🫢]Sy Borg wrote: ↑June 29th, 2022, 8:54 pm If, after the 11 September attack, the US government bled Al Qaeda of funds by focusing hard on creating renewable technologies to replace oil instead of wasting money on war, the US would have been great, and generally perceived to be. Instead they went to war to protect their oil interests and later invaded a sovereign country...
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- Sy Borg
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
Both. The US could have been great but they scorned the opportunity through short-sighted thinking.Pattern-chaser wrote: ↑June 30th, 2022, 8:10 am... to steal their oil interests. [Or are you referring to Afghanistan? 🫢]Sy Borg wrote: ↑June 29th, 2022, 8:54 pm If, after the 11 September attack, the US government bled Al Qaeda of funds by focusing hard on creating renewable technologies to replace oil instead of wasting money on war, the US would have been great, and generally perceived to be. Instead they went to war to protect their oil interests and later invaded a sovereign country...
- Luzephyr
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
- Chris_winW
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
But that is just my opinion
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
What makes a country great is in its keeping in harmony with the world community. By this standard, America is the opposite of great, and is indeed a blight upon the earth.Sushan wrote: ↑June 3rd, 2022, 7:13 am America Great by Bob Dowell[/url][/i]
This author has tried to show what has made, and currently making America great. Despite America's greatness (or not) is a separate topic to discuss, this book gives rise to a much bigger question.
How can we say a country is great? What is greatness actually with regard to a country? Is it its history, current status, GDP, people, economy, politics, or something else? Or is this merely a word used to discriminate countries and their people? Or is greatness merely an illusion?
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
1) a synonym for large
So a country can be great in terms of being geographically large, or having lots of military might, or of making a large impact on world history
2) a term of approval
So a country can be great if it conforms with one's own tastes, or is particularly moral.
So the US is great in sense 1.
It's great if you like it there in sense 2a.
The interesting one is sense 2b. Is it a more than averagely moral country ?
To the extent that it has ideals that transcend self-interest, seeks to be a beacon of hope for the world, then yes. To the extent that it bullies other countries, and uses lip service to ideals to mask it's own self-interested meddling, then no.
The founding fathers had ideals...
- Sy Borg
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
Russia wanted to be great again, as in the Soviet Union.
China wanted to be great again after "the century of humiliation".
If England wanted to be great again, they would hark back to the British Empire.
Hitler wanted Germany to be great again, as in before WWI, but screwed up to a gargantuan extent.
Most countries have stories of their glory days, and every now and then a politician will tap into national nostalgia and make grand claims. Then follows more of the same.
Realistically, most countries are great in a sense - grand tracts of the Earth, full of wonders and bounty. Desert lands like Greenland, Mongolia or Libya would seem far from great - but most nations have amazing resources and character.
Many nations have rich human histories, leading back for thousands of years. Some have fallen, some have risen. Consider Tunisia's place in the world. Carthage was one of the great ancient cities. Now it's a suburb of a nation falling under a corrupt dictator, with power blackouts and water shortages and struggles with food and housing.
Not everyone can become great again. Some have their time in the sun and gradually fade away.
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
Yes, this is true that scientific research clearly show morality as the main element that affects a nation's image in the eyes of the world, and I contribute to my nation's morality my individual very high religious morality: viewtopic.php?f=37&t=17171&p=452364#p452364rahulverma wrote: ↑December 29th, 2023, 7:04 am Unless people are residents of the nation, people judge countries on five factors: morality, aesthetics, relevance, sophistication, and strength. Research shows morality as the main element that affects a nation's image in the eyes of the world.
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
Obviously. The mismanagement of resources makes a country/land poorer.
What is a great person? There is an obvious difference between people and land. Decent people do decent things. Can we conceptualize an opinion of a great person? How about knowledge, decency, fairness, and sobriety.
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
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Re: What makes a Country Great?
2024 Philosophy Books of the Month
2023 Philosophy Books of the Month
Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
February 2023
Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023