We had dinner and a river cruise with our dear friends Saturday night, and afterward we had the Olympics on in the background as we played cards. The medal totals graphic came on, showing the US clearly in the lead in medals, with the (can't remember) 4th or 5th place team's medal totals less than the US Gold medal totals.
Our hostess made a comment to the effect of, "At what point do other countries just look at the US and hate us because we dominate?" A natural thought - nothing basically wrong with it. Envy is part of the spectrum of human responses to being outclassed in any particular venue.
But I took the opportunity to speak of American exceptionalism, and made the point that if the rest of the world that does not excel to the greatness of the United States wishes to compete with the United States, it would emulate our spirit and culture of individual achievement, as well as our tenets of liberty and our economic model that foster the growth of resources that spur innovation in everything from equipment, to training, to bio-science, to sports medicine.
The difference between envying greatness from a lower perch and emulating greatness because it's logical was not lost on her. She's a good and smart friend. Just not particularly tuned in to conservative thinking. She's more concerned with her yard, her decorating project, her aging parents, which college her teenage son will attend, etc.
There's an awful lot of good and decent people out there who just have not been directly confronted with the next "level" of thinking about culture and politics. If a person lives their daily life without the need, desire, or opportunity to take their thinking about this stew we're in to the next level, the only way, it seems, is to identify them and educate them one person at a time.
