The Greatest Country?

I started watching The Newsroom on HBO when it premiered because it had the promise of being more than a drama or sitcom. It has not let me down. The character Will McAvoy has the fervor that marks the success of many of our real broadcast journalists. This rant at the beginning of the season sets the stage for the type of newsroom the characters struggle to build. The answers to the hard questions journalists have to ask (and are asked) are usually not pretty and sometimes get in the way of the goals of others. It is easy to pick a side and learn the tines of the fork best used to poke holes in your opponent's argument. It is easy to err on the side of patriotism and sponsor the consumerism that sponsors you. But this is not what a real journalist does.

In response to the question, “What makes this country the greatest in the world?” the answers “diversity, opportunity, and freedom” are obvious answers that are not specific to any one country and must be constantly defended in court, Congress, and the press. The acknowledgment that our country is no longer the greatest in the world indicates that our Constitution and strives for democracy have done a lot for the global effort to shift power into the hands of the people, fore today there are many democracies. There was a time when our values were a beacon for what new democracies ought to try to accomplish.

Something has changed since that time. Was it hubris or ignorance or greed that knocked us off the top? Is it possible to get back to that point? Is there even any room in an intellectual debate to argue who is the greatest or most evil? Words like evil and great are so very subjective. Perhaps there are great men and women striving to create great countries all over the world. If we make some changes we can get back on track to be included in the list of the greats of the 21^st century, rather than be written off after the 20^th.

But before that can happen we need reforms. We need updates to our Constitution, there are new rights and responsibilities that deserve the ultimate protection it can offer. We need a more effective legislative branch; I don't think anyone believes Congress is capable of guiding us to greatness. It is getting harder and harder to find regular citizens who can identify with either party. There are more and more laws being written every day to restrict freedoms. Somehow freedom today means something different depending on what party one belongs to. This kind of “good versus evil” thinking prevents the broader debate from transcending to the real issue, how do we make good better?