"American's always do the right thing, but only after exhausting all other options."
Hmmm...is there truth in there? A bit harsh? I don't know. I laughed when it was said and then I thought about all the comments I've heard about "young America" and "upstarts from that colony" and wonder if we here in this country are a bit on the stubborn-we-must-take-the-hard-road mentality. We don't seem to like accepting advice from other nations; we don't want to know about their systems of healthcare, governance, etc. Although I have it on good authority we stole the idea of road systems from the Germans and that has worked out pretty good for us. We rarely say, "Hey Taiwan, what do you do about workplace equity?" Or "Hey France, tell us about improving efficiency." Are we really that good? Or are we just really that arrogant?
OK, I've got an opinion on this... Although we are stubborn and that is what keeps driving our country I think it's because this country was started as a 'New World' and we know that the models that are out there aren't perfect even if they work. There's got to be something better so that's what we are trying to do, ignore what's already there and come up with something better.
ReplyDeleteThat leads us down some really tough roads and we make a lot of mistakes that other countries have already learned the lessons from.
Secondly I believe that we want to be the best and get the credit for it. If we model after something that's already there than we get ZERO credit... what's the fun in that?
oh, I should tack this on.. it'll bring my comments back to the original quote a bit better:
ReplyDeleteIf what we have come up with on our own isn't the right thing or right fit than we usually have the 'courage' (not really the right word here but it's what came to mind) to admit our mistake and do the right thing or the thing that is closest to the right thing.