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144 sats \ 2 replies \ @kepford 8 Apr \ on: What makes a country strong? AskSN
I'm trying to be pedantic but this is such a common confusion that I try to address it when I see it.
- Country is the land
- Nation is the people
- State is the government
Agree with @k00b education is the biggest factor outside of culture. This is why the state will never let go of schooling and want so much control over children. They need to get them early to make them good little citizens. Government schools train us how to think. Education is actual learning. Training is creating a response to certain stimuli.
Here's an example. If you are taking a gun training course you will be instructed to practice. The reason is so that when you need to respond you will not have to think. You will just act. Thinking might cost your life. If you have to think about drawing and aiming your weapon you might be dead.
But, education will teach you how to read a scenario and determine the risk in the moment. So a well rounded human should be educated with knowledge as well as trained to respond.
The government school system trains children to be compliant to authority figures. It trains you that democracy is good and everyone needs to vote. You are not invited to think critically or question the things you are told.
But you are right. It is the people. If you have a well educated and moral populace you will have a strong nation. Today in the US we have low information populace that is trained to follow influencers.
But, the bright side is that it has never been easier to educate yourself, to find answers, to read multiple views on history, and to train one's self to respond in the ways you want to respond.
I also tend to think that a solid education is the foundation of making a great people. I wonder about the interplay of education and culture, which some others have alluded to already.
What is conventionally meant by "country" may be the phantom of what we now call the once great civilizations of antiquity. I think one common element that we can point to in these civilizations is that they all had a cohesive culture. It is hard to say what could have inculcated that if it hadn't been a unified philosophical or spiritual understanding that was somehow inculcated in their systems for education.
And as much as education feeds into culture, I believe the inverse is equally true.
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