E P I S O D I Q U E

America? Home of the brave and the free? Or just as totalitarian as current day Russia?

To me America has always been the lighthouse of the free and the brave, no longer… The light bulb broke and America seems incapable of fixing it, the worst part is… it is creating a short out worsening the situation.

America still claims to be the nation of the free and the brave, however when you look at the facts and ignore your patriotic feelings (which I am aware is something that is hard to do for even liberal Americans), the USA has less liberties then even ex-communist eastern European nations. Also in my opinion the USA has become something that is not much different from the ultra-conservative Iran but then based on the principals of Christianity instead of the Islam. In this essay I will bring to you my reasons for saying: “Europe, just drop the USA, it’s done for.”

In America these days the news is totally off, on one side the people from FOX news make it look as if anything left from the republican party directly is no better then communists. They even manage to twist things so much that they make a democratic speech about how good the democratic party is sound like a testimony that the Democratic party is no more then bullcrap. This is no different when it comes to the liberal news stations in the country. This means that if you were to get an accurate picture of the news you would have to tune into foreign news agencies. Of course they spin and twist as well but compared to even the most factual news station in the USA, they’re HIGHLY accurate.

Now lets turn to the American gun nuts, now I understand it’s a laugh to shoot your gun, I quite enjoy shooting of a few rounds myself, however I am strongly against private owned so I don’t have any of my own. So now you’ve got my understanding… What in gods name do you need military grade rifles, machine guns, cannons even rocket launchers for (Texas)? I don’t expect people to carry around a .50 cal machine gun for when they get robbed. Then Americans claim it’s for national defence… seriously… if anything defeats the American army in the USA itself (outside is possible but inside NO) then no rednecks are going to have the firepower to even dent that force.

To continue on the areas of rights and the bible etc. Most Americans are Christian, the lovely thing about that is that those Christians are also mostly conservative Christians but also interpret the bible selectively. I always love it when the Yanks go out on the street when a brain-dead person gets put off of life support screaming don’t play god. Now here comes the great part that those people are so dumb that they cant even understand that keeping them on life-support is playing god in the first place, letting nature take its course is NOT playing god. To continue, thou shall not kill. *Giggle*, the most Christian nation on earth is the one with the death penalty, need I go on? Gay rights also something very nice, it is up to god to decide who is right or wrong and not us Humans, and if god had hated gays then why does he allow it? If he truly is “god” then he can stop gayness too or is he just as selective about his powers as Christians are about how they interpret the bible? Christians then say that god punishes the gay rights activists. The Funny part is, that the nation that was the first to recognise things like gay marriage hasn’t seen natural disasters in over half a century + ditto for nations that followed suit and gave gays equal rights as well. Also the most humorous thing, the party that claims to be closest to the bible (the republicans) is actually the furthest away, the party that the republicans claim to be secular atheist extremists (Democrats) are actually closer to the bible. Why? Equal Education for all is prescribed by the bible this also goes for healthcare and poverty (you shall share with those that are worse off then you), on top of this I put things like the death penalty. To put a stress on all this, the USA currently has the worst educational system of the western world AND most of Eastern Europe, to detail this the vast majority of Americans get worse education the western world and all of eastern Europe, a small percentage (5%-10%) gets education that is on par with the West European AVAREGE. This figure has been stagnating and the quality of education is expected to fall with a few percent every single year until it is stopped. This does not mean the American education system is falling, it means it is not improving to modern standards while the rest of the world IS thus creating a bigger and bigger gap which will be more and more expensive to bridge when someone finally decides to do so, which is a must due to the fact that the US economy FLOATS on it’s innovation. Without a smart population, the US economy is expected to be on a 2nd world level within 1 generation (when the well educated are dead or on pensions and no longer contributing to the American economy and thus killing it). The American healthcare system is also in a terrible state, the American healthcare is better then ANYWHERE in the world, but only for LESS then 5% of its population, 67% of the Americans live above eastern European levels but bellow western European levels, the rest lives under the Eastern European levels. This is mainly due to the fact that Americans can no longer afford healthcare, in the USA a few hundred thousand die a year of diseases that can EASILY be treated EVEN in the 3rd world. Poverty is also a great problem, the USA’s poverty line is also twice as low as that of Europe, meaning that in the USA you are still considered middle class when you are considered poor in western Europe. The amount of help you get from the government in Europe is also substantially higher, in a nation that CLAIMS to be the richest of them all… this is a very sad fact. Now back to religion, I will go back to gay rights, euthanasia etc. the USA has a constitution written with liberties in mind, is it not amusing that a nation that prides itself for religious tolerance is also the nation that forces Christian beliefs and laws upon non-Christians? Why should I as a non Christian have to abide to YOUR!!! beliefs about gays, and euthanasia etc? By doing so, America is doing what Iran is doing: Enforcing Muslim laws on non Muslims.

On the international policy, the USA has been pushing away its allies, America is left with no strong allies, America only has traditional allies left who are only such because of the word traditional. In 2001, President George W. Bush threatened to invade an EU nation (the Netherlands) if it ever put an American in front of a court for war crimes, this statement has infuriated many European nations and was the starting point of Anti-American sentiments across the western world. After this the Iraq war came and many of the American allies refused to participate in this war, this lead to America saying things like: France and Germany are our enemies. Increasing the Anti-American sentiment, with American torture scandals popping up something dramatic has happened: In the EU only 64%!! are anti-American in a sence of dropping out of NATO etc. The EU has also set up a new defence force for EU members and EU candidates only that supersedes NATO. In South Korea the Majority of the South Koreans are anti-American and want the American armed forces to leave the country, this majority remained a majority even after the nuclear bomb of North Korea detonated. Yes even after. The sentiment is also rising in Japan however is not yet at Majority level, but close. Nations like Australia, just like the EU, have a majority anti-American sentiment and there is even talk about a breaking of ANZUS ties.

To add to all of this, possibly the worst part, it seems to be possible to buy your way into office. In America, there are huge sums of money going into presidential election campaigns, this in essence can get you most of you votes and also means that the president is not in the first place elected on his policy’s but that such a thing is only secondary to the amount of money they have to make their policy’s heard. This also means that the chance that you will miss out on the most brilliant politician ever is unheard of, due to the fact that you need the money to get your word across. There could be another JFK out there but will never see office because of his lack of class. It sort of reminds me of the middle ages of Europe.

Also the only things that still make Americans proud are actually gone, few have realised it yet but the USA has been economically surpassed by the EU. Even when ignoring that, the Economic situation in the EU has always been much brighter then in the USA, that is… for the last decade or 2. In the EU prices are much lower, so is the inflation so that gap will also widen even further. Something that you pay 1 international $ for in the EU will cost you 1,96 international $’s in the USA. The exact same product and shipping costs ignored. This also puts the USA’s military supremacy at risk. Due to the fact that the Europeans will have to pay less for the same high grade equipment. Sure the USA is still stronger, but the difference of 600 billion int. dollars (USA defence budget) vs 300 billion int. dollars (EU defence budget) is not 2 vs 1 but more 4 vs 3. Again 300 billion int. dollars defence budget for the EU is a lot more then 300 billion int. dollars defence budget for the USA. (this paragraph was all a side not on the bigger issue)

The question that now remains is, looking at this… Hasn’t the USA changed? While the USA was trying to figure out what to do it was surpassed by its allies on the field of education, healthcare, poverty and economy. At the same time the gap between the USA and its allies has never been so great and one should wonder if Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada and others will ever come to the USA’s rescue if it would ever need it. America dug a deep hole for itself, how will it get out?