In my version of America, we’re the wealthiest, most advanced, most socially well knit society on the planet. America has a free market economy that works better than any other, because we have learned not to allow the Invisible Hand to snuff out our people and our spirits. Just as the Invisible Hand has largely been stayed from starving babies and chidlren in the U.S., we will also learn to keep it from enslaving people and keeping them ill-housed, ill-fed and plain old ill as adults.
In America, we value innovation, intelligence, enterprise and energy. We don’t care what kind of package those qualities come in: whether they are brown or black or white, or male or female, or young or old, or gay or straight. We want the benefit of all their abilities, and to that end we don’t create artificial barriers that make it difficult for them to bring those benefits to us. We fight racism, sexism, whatever, not just because these things are unfair or wrong, but because they impoverish us – all of us. We maximize our human capital.
To that end, we value knowledge and education. We make obtaining both as easy as humanly possible. We encourage research, we do not suppress it.
In America we believe in the value and dignity of people, and of the work they do. We believe that anybody who’s working should be able to feed, clothe and shelter themselves, and get basic health care, whether they are pushing burgers or selling real estate for a living. They guy or gal who’s washing dishes and picking cotton may not make as much money as the middle manager shuffling papers, but at times it’s hard to say whose work is more valuable to society, and it’s always clear that both deserve to make a living on their work – in my America, anyway. If either guy (or gal’s) kids get sick, they should be able to get treatment, period.
And while we believe in the value of work, we also believe in the value of recreation. We give people plenty of time for vacation and for their own use, because we believe that the person who’s stuck in a dead-end job might find a way to get out of that job, through study and/or personal effort (such as by starting a business on the side). At the very least, we know that it’s good for people to have time and interests outside work.
My America is expansionist – we think colonizing space, the moon and Mars are good things in and of themselves. We do not, of course, believe in colonizing inhabited areas.
In America, we value the environment, because we realize that we live in the environment, and that in the future, our kids will be living in it. While we generally encourage business development and innovation, we do not allow businessmen who would make themselves richer by making the environment worse for everyone else to get away with it. We consider the true cost of industry and we take it into account when we develop. We look hard for solutions that will allow for development when a proposed development threatens the environment, but if the conflict is truly a zero sum game, the developer loses. Fortunately, we are very good at finding real solutions to such conflicts – and very smart about what recognizing what is a real conflict and what is a fake one.
America is a peaceful nation. We do not invade other countries unless they pose a clear and imminent danger to us. We realize we have critical interests around the world, and we work unabashedly to protect our interests, but we consider force and violence to be tools of last resort. We use diplomacy and espionage intelligently and skillfully, and most of all, we export our culture to other countries where possible, figuring that if we really do have something to offer the people of the world, they will seize it wilingly – we won’t have to force it on them.
In the same way, we are open to the contributions of other cultures, and place no restrictions on the import of services, products and ideas so long as they’re not actively malevolent (for example, addictive drugs or human slaves) trusting to our ability to choose what’s good for us as well.
We realize that there are rulers in other countries who short-sightedly seek an advantage by not allowing their people to choose what’s best for them from world culture. We work secretly and not-so-secretly to end their reigns, often in association with other countries who share our values in this respect.
While we respect the right of other peoples and cultures to live lives in their own way, there are some things Up With Which We Will Not Put, such as wars of aggression, genocide, maiming and/or torture of prisoners and capital punishment.
By the same token we recognize the right of everyone to worship as they please, or not to worship at all, and we oppose any attempt to impose worship on any person or group by any government or corporation.
