We're like the Yahoo of countries.
Boeing still builds a ton of airplanes in America. Tesla is founded and manufactured in America. In 20 years we've created the empires of iPhone, Google and Facebook.
Wasn't CRISPR discovered in America as well?
The US is extremely great at some things and extremely terrible at others.
It's just that the people somehow manage to still fail to achieve the desired results with reasonable investment. What went wrong? I cannot say for sure.
Democracy does not mean that "you have to screw in some areas". If there is a way to do it better, just do it that way. There is no inherent limitations of democracy which make it unable to learn, right?
Or...just a reflection of bona fide disagreements? I prefer a gridlocked government to one that rams its will over the minority. That might be termed "dysfunctional" by some, but not by me. Not every value system needs the state to be efficient all the time.
Note that the California High-Speed Rail project has never been approved by more than a slim majority of Californians [1].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_High-Speed_Rail#Pub...
It's actually proof the system is working.
I am happy such mentality shows up here.
Particularly, I am deeply concerned with American educational philosophy. It seems American schools emphasize skills dealing with people more than those for understanding the non-human objects in the world.
These skills, although are always claimed to advance the greater good, they all have the central value of being personal freedom and self-realization.
The history has proven that a society that share the common goals can advance forward. While those comprised with self-proclaimed leaders never really manage to unite any large nations.
This sounds nice, but I'm having a hard time thinking of any large modern states that appear to be driven by a shared common goal.
If such states only existed in the past, then my feeling is that is a result of romanticizing the past having not lived it. Maybe in 50 years people will look back on these last two decades as a time when large parts of the western world 'came together' with the common goal of 'fighting terrorism'.