I am not sure TV makes a nation great. I am quite happy not having had one in nearly a decade. I know the automatic answer is the USA for many people, but with more people in prison than any other country (both in absolute and per capita terms), the US has too many social problems to rank #1 in my mind.
Total Prisoners: (1-USA) 2,019,234 (2-China) 1,549,000 (despite China having 3 times the population)
Prisoners per capita (per 100,000): (1-USA) 715 (2-Russia) 584
Actually, I was saying that Bhutan’s late arrival to mass media was a blessing and one of the reasons for it’s greatness. I don’t have cable and won’t until they offer tivo and and al a carte channel cherry-picking. I get my news from Jon Stewart on the internet and, of course, the Dope.
Yes, we were once the greatest nation on Earth. As the OP says, we gave the world so much and then sat back while the world overtook us.
Whether we considered our job done, I don’t know. All I do know is that we became complacent.
We figured that as we’d set about putting things in order, so to speak, then we could sit idly by while Britain reaped the rewards for all her efforts.
Sadly this was not to be and our great country gradually slipped down the pecking list until we no longer held sway over roughly one third of the globe.
FWIW and in my opinion,my country is still the finest on Gods earth, we may not have the clout we once had but by all that’s holy we sure still have the guts.
I misunderstood… sorry. In Nevada I asked the cable company if I could get BBC World and Al Jazeera. They had never heard of either of them (OMG!).
In Prague there aren’t enough English channels to matter and in Dubai, well, I guess after not having it for so long, it just makes no difference to me now.
I always liked Sweden and Denmark for their high standard of living and liberal politics. Everything I’ve heard/read indicates their people are educated, happy, living a long time, and free.
If someone put a gun to my head right now and forced me to chose anywhere outside the U.S. I’d pick one of those two.
This does not mean I don’t love my country. Obviously I love it, or I wouldn’t be living here in relative prosperity hoping to god I can help make it better.
Gotta go with the UK for all the reasons in the OP, plus the fact that it’s in the EU and its citizens enjoy the benefits of that organization. Might have gone with one of the Scandinavian countries, except that a) the UK has a better climate, b) speaking English natively is a huge advantage.
Seriously though, USA is the greatest in terms of opportunity. Lots of immigrants come here and create a life for themselves that is much better that it was in their former country. Even though xenophobia does exist in some parts of our country, on the whole the US is probably the best country to go to if you’re a poor foreigner.
Would that someday somebody will find the giant handle attached to Pittsburgh and flush it.
That’s all well and good, but we’re living in the now. Britain’s last great contributions to modern life were Dolly the sheep (not exactly a big part of my day) and radar.
Whenever I see statements worded like this, I wonder whether the person who wrote it is aware that this happens in pretty much every other developed country too.
If the question is directed at me, then yes I would.
I don’t care what the rest of the world think of the British but I think we, as a nation, have collectively more sense and tolerance than any other country.
We’ve learnt from our mistakes and given a second bite of the cherry it is my considered opinion that should Brittania ever rule the waves (and land) again those mistakes would never be repeated.
And a small thing called the “computer” ;): not only developed the theoretical underpinnings (with Turing), but the first to build a Turing complete, stored program electronic computer (Manchester Baby and/or EDSAC), and the first to commercialize the computer (Ferranti Mk. 1). That makes three revolutions: agricultural, industrial and information. Rule Britannia
Yes, yes, yes, but what have you done for me lately?
Tim Berners-Lee may have been the brains behind it, but he was working at CERN in Switzerland. If you’re going to credit Britain with the World Wide Web I think you have to credit the Germans with the atomic bomb.
ETA: Don’t get me wrong - I love Britain, and I spent nearly half my life there (the first half). I just don’t think there’s anything particularly great about it anymore. It doesn’t really lead the world in anything other than preserving its old buildings (and in some respects it isn’t even very good at that).
Is it the most important country in the history of the world? Yes, quite probably. But that’s not the same thing.
Obviously there’s an ambiguity to this thread. What do we mean by greatest?
The implication of the OP is that that title should go to the nation that provided the greatest scientific and technological advances.
Even as a man of science, I dispute that that alone is what makes a country great.
And there’s a reason why britain made most of the early scientific advances – we were a superpower at just the right time. Similarly, when we stood against the Nazis we were one of the few european nations that could do that and have it mean something (I mean, nations such as Poland resisted, but they couldn’t do much to stop the initial invasion).
If there’s an enduring legacy, it’s that our tertiary education is pretty good too, second only to America’s. It’s why we can still churn out Hawkings and Dawkins despite a scientifically-illiterate populace.
Apart from all the inventions, of which there are many, there is also The English Language.
Used in aviation,shipping, business and heaven knows what else as the Lingua Franca.
A bastard language admittedly, we British don’t just “borrow” words from other languages, we quite simply steal them and incorporate them into the English language
As RNATB says, Rule Brittania with the addition of Land of Hope and Glory
