I might have some sympathy for our ER doctor's complaint if we weren't trapped in the healthcare system we're trapped in -- but I remember that my fiancee had a knee injury for which physical therapy would have sped her recovery and our insurance company disagreed and so they denied her a necessary service. They never examined her, never offered an alternative, just said no.

And we all know that ER doctors and doctors in general decide what to do using protocols designed in tandem with... the insurance companies. So I dare say that a patient's opinion about what tests, drugs or treatments they want could be very important and that our ER doctor should either advocate for a fairer system with more patient rights or kindly shut up.

Awesome blog, Des. We do seem to have an opinion of ourselves that isn't supported by our history of performance.

That's not to say we are completely undistinguished as a nation, but we are hardly the Roman Redux many would like to believe. Gore Vidal said on Bill Maher's show that never even got close to Rome's influence and power, though we flirted with the idea. I think that is exactly right. It saddened me to see him so wizened. The man really is a modern day Thomas Paine as far as I am concerned.

America is the country that didn't get its ass kicked enough growing up. A bloody nose and black eye tends to make a person watch their mouth. We may have lost a few battles over the years but never in a way that made us question our basic societal assumptions and identity. We have not been dominated by outside forces since the country's founding, so instead allowed ourselves to be manipulated and dominated from within. Mostly due to the underlying psychological issues this blog addresses, but there are structural deficiencies that have never been updated for a modern America.

Thomas Jefferson admonished us to rewrite the Constitution once in a generation or risk falling into ruin and irrelevance. He meant a page one rewrite, not tinkering around the edges with more amendments. The fact that we have left our system of government and governance essentially unchanged generation after generation seems to me another indication of a chest-thumping pride that declares nothing we do could possibly need to be rethought.

Modified? OK. Tweaked? Sure. But completely redesigned from the ground up? Why would we do that? We are the best! America is narcissistic, petulant and seemingly terrified of sustained self reflection. The kind of self reflection that involves bad poetry and bottles of wine and long tearful calls to people we've wronged at distant times in our past.

We avoid that sort of thing like the plague in this country. We are lucky if we go back to a previous administration for lessons learned. I wonder what everyone is so afraid of learning about this country that keeps us trapped in this habitrail?

I normally don't agree with you on much, but I do on this. I think decades of wealth and military power have not made Americans better people. We could do whatever we want, and got used to double standards. Some might see a bright spot in the current economic collapse: Perhaps people will be a little less greedy, and a little more compassionate?

Not to turn this into another anti-Bush screed, but the man's lack of experience outside this country was really a serious failing.

My experiences abroad have taught me that we are the greatest people on earth....at being Americans. Sometimes that is a good thing, but often not.

The Right is horrified at any hint of "socialism". Having lived for a bit in Austria, and spent some time in Sweden, I can assure you that thier flavors of socialism give the citizens more freedom than most Americans enjoy. Americans are free to pay through thier noses to line the pocket of whichever insurance company thier employer chooses for them. Austrians are free to go about thier lives without worrying over how they will pay for medical care, dental care, and eyeglasses.

Im going to defend Americans(see Iraqis are not all savages). I tend think in a global way. I think generally all people are the same, and if the rest of the world's population has had the advantages of having lived in the only superpower in the world, it would also give them a sense of entitlement. Moral of the story, a little humility is healthy but its difficult to be humble in a setting where the media and politicians propagandize the "US #1" culture.

Sometimes the American sense of entitlement is just staggering. We save the life of one American captain, yet there are 18 more ships being held, 300 captives from other countries that are less than important. We support the International Criminal Court going after al-Bashir in Sudan, but how do we have the moral authority to push for that when we are not a party to that court ourselves? A very me-centric view of the world.

I don't know how we would feel entitled or superior in the world after eight years of BushCo. Those who are still followers should feel total shame, but they don't even have enough sense to do that. Instead, they're still going around being the usual Ugly Americans, pumping their chests, pretending that our sick brand of capitalism makes us the greatest country on earth.

Our social policies would be laughable if we weren't so hopeless at taking care of our own. We're not just pathetic, we're pathological when it comes to lining the pockets of Pharma,the insurance companies and any associated private business having to do with health.

Those poor "socialist" countries whose citizens pay taxes for universal health care. Don't they know that healthy, happy people are the bane of profiteers?

The greatest? Maybe someday. Again. . .

Desi, great post. I'm sure everyone will see something here that resonates with them and it may be different things for different people.

Here's my 2 cents:

1. If any other country in the world had a larger economy than the US, would they be any different? In other words - are we "entitled" because we can get away with it or because we really believe we're exceptional?

2. Entitlement permeates the American psyche. Does that mean that Justice Thomas is right when we talks about rights vs responsibilities? If you replace "rights" with "entitlement" in his NY Times sidebar, it would read very close to what you're talking about.

3. Why does entitlement exist? Is it because of our conception of the country("we the people") or is it the product of competition within a two-party system? My experience in Europe was that German entitlement is not that different from American - it's more civilized and understated, but Germans take their fair share of things for granted too.

Thanks!

Quite a hubbub over a simple matter!

Geography.

I've traveled overseas several times, so I have seen a bit of what it's like outside this crazy flaming bus called America. It also once gave me a very good look at 'Americans' from the outside, and I found myself embarrassed.

I wish I remembered more of the specifics of this encounter. I was sitting in an airport in Chiang Mai, Thailand, waiting to return home after a two week stay. When I visit there, I stay with the family of a friend, so I experience life as a local. I guess that's why this episode struck me how it did.

Anyway, sitting across from me were two middle-aged couples from Texas. They too were returning home, and they were having a conversation about bits of their vacation. I had never felt embarrassed to be an American before, but as I listened to them expressing their opinions of various aspects of their trip I became more and more incredulous. The disdain with which they regarded some of the Thai people they met during their trip coupled with the total lack of respect for the culture was staggering. There was definitely a bit of the entitlement disease that you speak of in this post as well. I was actually offended by their behavior, and that's a pretty neat trick, as I'm definitely not easily offended.

The event really opened my eyes. 'Do I sound like that?' I asked myself. 'Do people see in me what I just saw in these Texans?'

It showed me that while an 'American' can be humble, respectful, kind and considerate, 'Americans' are rude, boastful, self-important assholes. Yes, that's how some (and possibly many) people outside America see us. The world tolerates us because we have the biggest guns and sometimes we use them to help beat up their noisy neighbors. They tolerate us because we buy their stuff, and help the poor and downtrodden when doing so aligns with our own self-interest.

I don't know if we were ever really a 'force for good' in the world or if it was all just propaganda, but I feel that now more than ever we've lost our way - both at home and abroad. I was hopeful that this current economic crisis would serve as a wakeup call, but I'm afraid it's going to fade away without us learning any real lessons.

Well, except for how to piss all over meaningful, profoundly important historical events by holding modern-day analogues where clueless middle-class Americans protest in favor of the very people that are stealing their lifestyle.