The United States is the greatest country on Earth
Until you start traveling.
I grew up thinking, neigh, knowing that the United States was the greatest country on Earth. How could I not? History class taught me that we are non-stop winners; from kicking royal ass in the American Revolution right up through saving the planet from the scourge of Nazis in World War II. And even if you feel asleep in history class, you had just about any national politician––from both parties––reciting the mantra that the US is the greatest country on Earth like religious dogma.
You don’t need to think about it. It’s just in the air. The United States is the best. No nuance necessary.
The funny thing about nuance is that it finds a way to seep its way into your brain. Some shutdown in the face of nuance, erecting metaphorical prison walls with barbed wire and firing off poisonous DDT repellent at the mere idea of uncertainty.
For all the culture war talk of “colleges are poisoning your minds with liberal ideas!” I didn’t really come to nuance until I started traveling to other countries. You know, the ones that are de facto not the greatest in the world by process of elimination.
I first crossed an international border as a kid, traveling to Canadian suburbs for my older brother’s traveling baseball team. In hindsight, it didn’t feel less great than the US. It simply felt familiar, like visiting a cousin. We share similar ancestors. We’re family.
(An ironic sentiment now, I know, given the fractured state of the relationship.)
Then, in college, I traveled to Thailand and India. They felt different, certainly, but I never thought “we’re better than this.” Nuance started to enter the chat, as the kids say, as my travel only increased over the decades to come. And I’ve yet to visit someplace and leave with the certainty that the United States is better than Ireland, Oman, Costa Rica, and the list goes on.
Perhaps that’s because travel breeds uncertainty. There are countless ways to live a life. You see that when you spend time among deeply religious Muslim communities or head into a post-dinner sauna with Sámi reindeer herders. To them, the greatest country on Earth probably isn’t the United States. The best place for them is exactly where they are. It reminds me of an old Yiddish expression, “Dortn, vu mir lebn, dort iz unzer land.”
Roughly translated: There, where we live, there is our land.
That doesn’t mean the United States isn’t the greatest country on Earth for some people. The US does afford people a kind of life that’s hard to have in plenty of places around the world. Nobody does the suburban, two-car garage life quite like the US.
If you know me, you might think I’m being dismissive. I’m actually being sincere. There is a comfort to suburban life. I can admit that now that it’s rarely my reality. I enjoy dipping in during family visits. And considering the wealth of immigrants who’ve come from all over the world and opted into the lifestyle, it’s hard to deny its appeal.
But it can be difficult to live any other way in the US. If that lifestyle isn’t for you, as it wasn’t for me, it can be ostracizing and alienating––just as I’m sure a secular kid enveloped in a religious community might yearn for something else.
This is when you should realize that the idea of any country being the greatest on Earth is silly. The whole concept is nonsense because what’s “great” is highly subjective, based on the relatively recent configuration of nation states. I would never say Germany is the greatest country on Earth with a straight face, even though it’s provided me that which I felt I lacked in the US, because I’ve seen the look of pity on an American’s face when I’ve shared how small our apartment is. I like it. Some don’t. They “need their space,” as they put it whereas I see extra space as wasted money that inevitably gets filled with things and clutter I don’t actually need.
Remember, there’s a word for the greatest place in the universe. Utopia. And it doesn’t exist.
Am I wrong? Do you think there is an objectively greatest country on Earth or do you also think it’s all nonsense?
Coming soon: Two days ago, I finished fast packing the Via degli Dei from Bologna to Florence in Italy for an article with Xterra. If you want to see some snippets from the trail, you can check out my Via degli Dei highlights on my Instagram page. Now I’m relaxing in Rome with some friends, but my hope is to quickly piece together the video before heading out on my next adventure March 27th.
Next challenge: Speaking of… On March 27th, I’m heading to Nepal to run in and cover the Mustang Trail Race. I’ll be running in high altitudes through remote corners of the country, heading towards Tibet. I’ll be back April 11th.
What else?: In case you missed it, I wrote about moving to Germany for Business Insider and I spoke with Muslim athletes about how they train during Ramadan. And last but not least, my first piece with Azure Road came out on my experience with an Okinawan shaman in Yanbaru National Park last November. It’s one of my favorite pieces of writing in a long while that’s seemed to resonate with folks, so do check it out and let me know what you think.