If only…

It is an article of faith for our national self-image that the United States is the best country in the world. Would that it were only true.

The facts are:

We are not the smartest country. (We rank 6th in education level and 23rd in IQ.)

We are not the healthiest country. (We rank 46th in life expectancy.)

We are not the happiest country. (We rank 14th in quality of life.)

We are nor the safest country. (We rank 32nd, in part because we rank first by a large margin in mass shootings.)

We are not the most respected. (We rank 7th.)

Yet, the article of faith that we are the best country is uncontested by the vast majority of us. So when, as now, some of us get frustrated with the status quo and demand changes, those demands are diluted, distorted or dismissed by “but we are already the best country in the world”.

I wonder. If we just accepted how far we actually are from being the best, would we try harder to get better? Would our pride of country become a catalyst for improvement rather than a rationalization for inaction.