For the first several decades of my life, every politician would regularly remind the public that “America is the greatest country in the world.” Just try living somewhere else! Love it or leave it. Make sure your flag is waving high on Memorial Day and Fourth of July. Be grateful that America is always there to help.
Friends and family members would stress this to me personally, whenever I’d complain. Which was often- even then, I complained a lot. While almost none of them had ever lived in any other country, either, that didn’t stop them from insisting that we were better than all the rest. We’re number one! Like the public figures, they stressed all the opportunities that were out there for everyone. Even though most of them didn’t seem to have been given much of an opportunity. But most of all, what made America the best was its freedom. Its incomparable freedom. No despots, no secret police, no infringements on civil liberties would be tolerated here.