This is a continuation of the search for the U.S. number one export.
Is there a commodity that the U.S. exports much more of than any other country?
Could our number one export be Bravado (some call it Machismo)?
We certainly like to strut around and show the world how “manly” we are. I wished it didn’t but this even seems to apply to some who used to be referred to as the “fairer sex”. Here are some examples:
- Take a look at all the celebrations around the death of Bin Laden. We can’t seem to get enough of the videos and comments of the soldiers who flew to Pakistan to “take him out”. We want to know all the details including the pictures of him after he had been shot in the head with some heavy-duty guns. Give us all theĀ gruesomeĀ details.
- We spend forty times more for our war machines than any other country on earth. We are four percent of the world’s population but spend more for our military complex than all the other countries combined! Ā Here we are supposedly in this vast financial trouble and the one thing we take off the table for any significant cuts is our so-called “defense” budget!
- Then there is our professional boxing and wrestling and similar sports. We certainly can claim the title for the most brutal ones. We seem to enjoy just watching two people beat the tar out of each other. The more blood shed the happier we are. In some ways we make the spectators in the ancient RomanĀ coliseumĀ seem like little girls. Off with their heads!!!
- The fourth and final example of our possible number one export is our violence toward each other. We are the undisputed murder capital of the world. A big part of that is probably our clinging to our personal weapons of death, that is our guns. We have more guns per person in this country than any in the world and it seems as evidenced by our murder rates we like to use them on each other.
So maybe our number one export is our bravado. Maybe that is why so many outside the U.S. think we are all just wild cowboys. They certainly seem to have a lot of things to back up that feeling.
I personally am just a James Madison type little guy so maybe the need to show the world how macho I am is just not asĀ ingrainedĀ in me as it is for so many others. I guess I am more like our Canadian neighbors to the north in that respect. The picture at the top of this post is perhaps how many of us want to be viewed by the world but it could be that this picture is more realistic of their opinions šĀ 
But what do I know….
RJ's Corner 