Peter's Viewpoint

What makes a country great?
What makes a nation great?
While writing a previous blog, I threw the above questions at google and found a variety of articles and forums with responses that are shocking by people from a variety of countries and what they believe is the correct answer.

The answer has many parts, so I have broken it into the most important separate areas.

Government
A great country has a government that doesn't just care about itself, but about the people too.  Instead of seeking power and money, it promotes progress, not only of the country but of the people intellectually.  It has to be strict, but fair.  It must regulate what happens and what should not be based on positive initiatives not profit.  Finally, it should promote the care for its citizens that have worked to make the country great because doing so is omni directional.

An important part of a good government is a great leader too, one that cares for his or her country but also for the future of the country.  This person should reflect wisdom, common sense, and intelligence.  Stability then becomes the maintenance of order through positive choices that help and move the country forward.

A great leader such as a president will be creative new initiatives but is also responsible to impede or block negative resolutions.

Taxation is a necessary evil.  Sorry, we all hate it, but it is needed on country scale to enable projects that affect the entire country.  Imagine a road way infrastructure being created that failed to link different areas because each area decided that it wanted the road in a different place and none of them linked to the next area.

Patriotism
People have to love their country.  If they don't, then the country looses.  If a person moves to another country only for temporary financial gain then they should think about the fact that they will be a reason for the failure of a country that gave them a chance when the country that they came from did not.
People have to listen to their government but at the same time they also have to think independently and for themselves.  This is an important factor for a country to be powerful and great.  If the people aren't willing to morally defend and fight for their country then it will be a losing battle.  On the same thought, a country should only become involved in “respectable” wars.  That is to say, wars that are based on value of a proper cause and not profit.

Patriotism can also be a very dangerous thing; it can blind citizens to the wrong-doings and faults of their country.  Love your country but try to have an unbiased point of view.

Taking a quote from the scriptures as an example, “let them who are without sin cast the first stone…” tells us to think about our own situations before criticizing another, put yourself in the same perspective to gain a clearer and better thought on the subject.

Democracy
It is becoming a fallacy everyday because politicians are deforming it into something that is written like a law.  Democracy is a feeling, an equalization that applies to all whether poor, rich, religious, non-religious, male or female, etc.  To attempt to make it into a concrete written object is destroying it because the law is a perception based on parameters of facts not feelings.

Politicians and political parties
What do politicians and sports have in common?  They both want you to belong to their team.  This helps to bottle you into a limited position forcing you to make decisions that must be based upon the beliefs of the team, that whatever ideas the team has are the best.
It is a simple way of limiting people that are indifferent or unbiased into limited choices of decision making.  At the same time it also help the teams know where they stand and who is with them and who is not.

Decision making is a continuous refinement of thought based on facts to achieve the best possible outcome for the benefit of the country.  The benefit of the country goes hand in hand with the benefit of the people.

Being a fanatic to a political party is NOT mandatory, nor is it healthy or wise.
Being a liberal or freethinker doesn’t mean that you don’t have to make a decision.

Expecting a politician to do something for you personally is corruption and an abuse of voting; eventually it leads to the downfall of nations.

The psychology of people undergoes a transformation during different times of our lives to become communists, socialists, and capitalists.  When we are young, we all want to have what everyone else wants – in essence a communistic thought.  When we begin our working period of life, we all want to earn as much money as we can – again we assume a role as a capitalist.  Then as we grow older, we want the comfort of security in our golden years whether we are rich or poor – reaching the socialist frame of thought.

Pretentious, feigned, fictitious, assumed, and professed impressions of a great country
A very narrow set of objectives and economic indicators stimulate most of the debate over stature of this topic:

• Annual growth of the gross domestic product (GDP)
• Unemployment
• Wealth
• Freedom
• Industry
• Competence of leaders
• Population size
• Competence of the people
• Military
• Quality of life
• Physical size of the country
• Climate
• Women dressed in skimpy outfits
• Cost of petrol and gas prices
• The number of fast food restaurants

The answer to this question is that currently there is not one country in the world that can be considered the greatest but by striving to correct what is wrong, I believe that we must strive to make our country better.

When I say “we” it implies everyone and “our country” connotes every country in the world.