Is America Great? Other Countries Bury Their Mistakes—America Puts Theirs on Netflix

I’m not here to defend America. This is a country with one of the most violent histories and some of the highest levels of child poverty in the developed world. The list of flaws is long.

And yet, despite all of that, America remains the envy of much of the world—at least for now. One of the biggest reasons? Even when we make spectacularly bad decisions, we can talk about them. And when we collectively screw up in an almost unanimous fashion, we eventually come back, reflect, and admit just how stupid it was.

That ability—to confront our own failures, argue about them openly, and (sometimes) course-correct—is one of the most underrated aspects of what makes America great.

We don’t just admit our mistakes—we analyze them, debate them, and turn them into documentaries, books, and even blockbuster films. From Ken Burns’ Vietnam War to The Fog of War, we dissect our failures with brutal honesty. Hollywood churns out movies like Platoon and JFK, forcing us to confront uncomfortable truths. Our bookstores are filled with bestsellers that criticize everything from the Iraq War to the financial crisis. Find me another country that openly talks about its darkest moments like this. Where’s Russia’s big-budget film about the Holodomor? Where’s China’s best-selling book on Tiananmen Square? Most nations bury their skeletons. America puts them on Netflix.

That’s all I have to say. America is far from perfect—sometimes, it’s downright reckless. But the ability to reflect, argue, and eventually admit when we’ve screwed up? That’s rare. That’s powerful. And for now, that’s one of the things that still makes America great.