"U.S. 'No. 1?' We're not even in the Top 10 anymore."

[villager]

From Michael Ventura's Letters At 3 A.M.:

No. 1?

BY MICHAEL VENTURA


No concept lies more firmly embedded in our national character than the notion that the USA is "No. 1," "the greatest." Our broadcast media are, in essence, continuous advertisements for the brand name "America Is No. 1." Any office seeker saying otherwise would be committing political suicide. In fact, anyone saying otherwise will be labeled "un-American." We're an "empire," ain't we? Sure we are. An empire without a manufacturing base. An empire that must borrow $2 billion a day from its competitors in order to function. Yet the delusion is ineradicable. We're No. 1. Well ... this is the country you really live in:

• The United States is 49th in the world in literacy (The New York Times, Dec. 12, 2004).

• The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

<snip>

• Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the Earth. Seventeen percent believe the Earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

<snip>

• The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).

<snip>

• Japan, China, Taiwan, and South Korea hold 40% of our government debt. (That's why we talk nice to them.) "By helping keep mortgage rates from rising, China has come to play an enormous and little-noticed role in sustaining the American housing boom" (NYT, Dec. 4, 2004). Read that twice. We owe our housing boom to China, because they want us to keep buying all that stuff they manufacture.

<snip>

• Forty-three percent of Americans think torture is sometimes justified, according to a PEW Poll (Associated Press, Aug. 19, 2004).

• "Nearly 900,000 children were abused or neglected in 2002, the last year for which such data are available" (USA Today, Dec. 21, 2004).

No. 1? In most important categories we're not even in the Top 10 anymore. Not even close.

The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion.

More at: http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2005-01-21/cols_ventura.html

[purduejake]

1. And we're not even the most free people, despite common belief.

[villager]

3. That's for damn sure

n/t

[EC]

2. We're also rated

12th or 13th with the WHO...don't remember which...

[drhilarius]

4. "Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the Earth."

Man. I....whooo, boy. 1 in 5.

[villager]

5. and we ask ourselves

how the Rethugs get away with all their lies?

[indepat]

16. And how much of what's badly wrong with America rests in RW lies

and their influence on shaping the direction America has taken?

[ixion]

14. yeah, that one got me, too

the mind boggles.

[MHalblaub]

33. Twentyone percent of Americans vote for guess who? -NT-

[pansypoo53219]

6. teevee

make us stoopid.

[villager]

7. if you took TV out of the equation

would everything else change? The rampant consumerism? Infantile destruction of the earth, etc.?

Dunno -- maybe it would force people to look around. Just wondering aloud...

[DieboldMustDie]

8. Far more Americans believe in creationism than in evolution.

:crazy:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/22/opinion/polls/main657083.shtml

[villager]

9. "Support for evolution is more heavily concentrated...

...among those with more education," the article notes.

I guess "Leave no child behind" actually must just refer to their plans for white, Christian kids at Rapture-time, rather than an actual plan to educate anyone...

[izzie]

10. How many think we were started 10.000 years ago?

Every one that voted for Bush. Well I know for such after this thread I am not going to get near the edge as I do not wish to fall off. Maybe it is a good thing we die off faster than people in most EU countries. Our lack of health care will save the world.

[MHalblaub]

30. I thought it was in 1776?

Lack of health care won't save the world I regret.

Most Third World states have the highest population rates.
Contraception is not used in order of lack of education.
Children are the only social security or pension available.

[izzie]

11. I lived in Alaska with lots of people from Tx. and they all think this way

In Saudi I also ran in to a lot of people from Tx. and it was the same thing. They always talked up how great every thing was so I of course knew it was all crap. Some how it rubs people the wrong way and we are sure doing it around the world.

[villager]

18. it's a desperate insistence...

else, their whole house of cards falls down...

[Hello_Kitty]

32. Umm...hello....!

We are number one in obesity, in case you've all forgotten. :eyes:

[Quakerfriend]

12. Still #1 in gas guzzling!

:spank:

[dsc]

13. Believe it or not this one is a good sign

The leading cause of death of pregnant women in this country is murder (CNN, Dec. 14, 2004).

There are relatively few ways for healthy women in their teens, twenties, and thirties to die in the US. In many countries, the leading cause of death of pregnant women is childbirth or disease. The fact it isn't those here is a good thing. I would imagine that it is murder in virtually every advanced country since the only causes left are accident or suicide. Both of those are unlikely since pregnant women tend not to commit suicide nor do things that risk accident.

On edit: It actually depends on what the murder rate actually is. My point is that it could be very low and still be the leading cause. And that is what I assume the case to be.

[DavidDvorkin]

17. Is it murder in other advanced countries, too?

If not, then there are other factors involved than better medical care for pregnant women and during childbirth.

You seem to be making the common American mistake of comparing the US to the Third World, not to other First World countries.

(What ever happened to the Second World? Does it still exist?)

[tom_paine]

19. That may have been true once, but not now

The Old USA was a First World Advanced Nation.

Imperial Amerika is the Richest Third World Nation on Earth.

Never has it been more appropriate to compare the Amerikan Empire to the Third World.

After all, our media, adherence to the Rule of law, our position on Torture and soon to be our Judiciary (which, in spite of more than a few notorious happenstances, seems to have been the most resilient part of the Old American Republic to Imperial Pressure) has much more inc ommon now with say Ferdinand Marcos' Phillipines than the Old Republic we were all born into.

[villager]

20. yes, we have seen the banana republic...

...and it is us!

[Niccolo_Macchiavelli]

21. 2nd world is communism

would be cuba.. last out post of sorta-communism

[dsc]

25. I said that I thought it probably was

though admittedly I don't know. Since the other options are accident and suicide only accident would actually be better.

[yardwork]

38. I don't think it's all that low. We have a domestic violence epidemic

in the U.S. We like to point at other countries for being "uncivilized and violent" but we've got plenty of violent people right here.

[neweurope]

40. You overlooked something:

• Women are 70% more likely to die in childbirth in America than in Europe (NYT, Jan. 12, 2005).

PLUS they get murdered much more often.

-----------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Jim__]

15. Absolutely amazing - n/t

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

22. Damn!!!!!

That's really depressing. Too bad I stopped drinking! :) Seriously though, this is the kind of thing that the 'average' American knows nothing about. And that is truly depressing.......

[txaslftist]

23. Are you saying the sun doesn't circle the Earth?

Why does it rise and set, then?

Rationalist idiot!

[villager]

24. are they getting the kindling ready

under the stakes they're setting out?

[WI Independent]

26. Aren't we #1 in prisoners per capita? n/t

[villager]

27. that's right!

Go team!

[MHalblaub]

31. and #1 in death penalty in the group of democratic states

Sorry, China(2468) is #1 at all followed by Iran(139) and Saudi Arabia(79).

Values in brackets according to 2001.

But the US(66) defeated:
Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Burundi, Dominican Republic, Eritrea, Gabon, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Iran, Jamaica, Japan, Yemen, Jordan, Cameron, Kazakhstan, Kata, Kirghistan, Comoran, Democratic Republic of Kongo, North Korea, South Korea, Cuba, Kuwait, Laos, Lesotho, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Malaysia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Autonomic Territories, Philippines, Rwanda, Zambia, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Somalia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Tadzhikstan, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad and Tobago, Chad, Uganda, Uzbekistan, United Arabic Emirates, Vietnam, Belarus.

Well done!

[villager]

36. such a proud record....

n/t

[Karenina]

28. No. 1, indeed...

Hey kids, forget the Konkurrenz Scheiße. I am existentially EXASPERATED at the failure of so many to see the brick wall Frank Zappa warned of. Or the MIC Ike warned of. Or the danggers of corporate control about which clear-sighted Americans have written for FUCKING CENTURIES..
:argh: :argh: :argh:

"The USA is "No. 1" in nothing but weaponry, consumer spending, debt, and delusion."
And a HARD RAIN is gonna fall...

[villager]

29. I think I feel raindrops...

...already...

[Oversea Visitor]

34. Sorry

You still No 1 bully in the world.

[Karenina]

35. And who will blame the victim

DELIGHTED to see her/his ABUSER receive KARMA KICKBACK, commupence or a DAY IN COURT? Not I.

[Dark]

37. Wow. Just, wow.

[Boomer]

39. This blew me away

I considered myself to be pretty current on American politics, but the litany of facts in this article caught me by surprise. I had not realized just how low we've sunk in the world, how much ground we've lost in all the indicators of a first-world industrialized nation.

We really are barbarians in comparison with Europe and other areas of the world.