Can someone explain it to this Canadian?
At this point, I don't understand American patriotism. You guys are the most powerful country in the world ,that uses it mostly to fund wars for profit, refuse to provide your citizens with health care and well funded education, imprison your population for profit, and elected an administration that claims climate change is a lie.
America is by far, BY FAR, the biggest threat to the survival of the species as has ever been formed on the planet. Now Trump wants to have NFL players fired for not bending a knee.
A very basic & simplistic attempt to answer the question briefly, but nevertheless fairly accurate reason IMHO is that in knowing nations are run by individuals, we can extrapolate from our personal behaviours.
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/002945.html
" PHILADELPHIA, PA--Financially richer people tend to be happier than poorer people, according to sociological researcher Glenn Firebaugh, Pennsylvania State University, and graduate student Laura Tach, Harvard University. Their research is focused on whether the income effect on happiness results largely from the things money can buy (absolute income effect) or from comparing one's income to the income of others (relative income effect). They present their research in a session paper, titled "Relative Income and Happiness: Are Americans on a Hedonic Treadmill?," at the American Sociological Association Centennial Annual Meeting on August 14.
Firebaugh argues that, in evaluating their own incomes, individuals compare themselves to their peers of the same age. Therefore a person's reported level of happiness depends on how his or her income compares to others in the same age group. Using comparison groups on the basis of age, the researchers find evidence of both relative and absolute effects, but relative income is more important than absolute income in determining the happiness of individuals in the United States. This may result in a self-indulgent treadmill, because incomes in the United States rise over most of the adult lifespan.
"If income effects are entirely relative, then continued income growth in rich countries today is irrelevant to how happy people are on the whole," says Firebaugh. "Rather than promoting overall happiness, continued income growth could promote an ongoing consumption race where individuals consume more and more just to maintain a constant level of happiness."
Firebaugh tested what he refers to as the hedonic treadmill hypothesis, which uses a comparison of age-based cohorts. The hedonic treadmill requires a specific type of relative income effect--one where "keeping up with the Joneses" means continually increasing one's own income, because we can be sure that the Joneses are increasing theirs."
Fear of being overtaken or in becoming average drives the desire to continue dominating using all means. The individual in a modern society has an external enforcer [police forces] to maintain rules of conduct. What do nation states have? They act at will, unless forced or enticed by other states to change their behaviours. The USA seems to only believe in the stick and have forgotten the carrot.
The incredible irony is that the USA is made up of immigrants who often have have fantastic success stories, yet the peoples these immigrants come from are seen as inferior. You're only a great person when you become an American. Talk about cognitive dissonance at work.
This applies to all parties, both left & right, with a minority of exceptions as in all scenarios. The biggest fools say it's either Obama or Trump and if only my side was there, it would be better.
In closing, this World situation will play out to it's own end & we should all hope that not too many die in the process.
I'll add that any country in the dominant position as the USA at present would most likely behave the same due to the nature of humans.