America as a country is still in a child age, lets look at it in another 400-500 years.

" lets look at it in another 400-500 years."

I know you are talking about the US.

But it's like, I do want to know what the world (including the US) will be like in 400-500 years, and maybe things will be "better" then, maybe not, but I get that "ugh I'm not sure I want to see" feeling when I consider if I had a way to glimpse the future. (fear, I suppose)

See, I don't really 'get' this argument. How do you define age of a nation? How old say, is Italy? Do you count back to the Roman times, when essentially Romans ruled the known world from Spain to modern Germany? Do you only count the government? In which case, Italy has changed both who is in power and how much more than most countries, and is therefore far younger than the US.

What about Germany, is it as old as the Holy Roman Empire or only as old as it's own unification in 1871, or is it only as old as it's reunification at the end of the cold war? Was the DDR Germany, or was West Germany? What about all the nations that formed out of the breakup of Yugoslavia, or the USSR? How old is the Ukraine? How old is Slovakia? How about Poland? For long stretches of history Poland didn't really even exist, stuck as a kingdom under the borders of Russia. Really didn't become a nationstate until 1918, and wasn't a free nation between 1939 and 1989.

I just don't think the whole 'maturity' analogy works well with nations.

Also, I'd say you'd be really hard pressed to find a non-communist nation that went from 'born' to 'superpower' faster than the US.

American history basically reads like a cheesy Bruce Willis movie.

-We kicked the ass of the English, declaring independence in like 5 years time from rumblings to our own functional government. The royal armed forces were the best in the world at that time, and this was an accomplishment the Irish had been trying to attain for centuries by that point.

-Beat the then nigh invincible royal navy in a mostly sea war in 1812, and didn't lose government control despite Canadians burning down the White House.

-Made off like a bandit by buying land at bargain prices from Napoleon. We would later do much the same with Russia and Alaska.

-Invented a fuckload of shit.

-Pretty much led the industrial revolution along with the UK.

-Had a civil war, resolved it in only 5 years (take that Liberia, Korea, Vietnam) and came out of it with a functional democracy rather than a dictatorship (take that Russia, Spain).

-Spanned a continent to two oceans, which is really only something we share with Russia, maybe India.

-Kicked former superpower Spain's ass in a war so brief it would have made Desert Storm look drug out.

-Dominated our neighbors, made one cut itself in half for shits and giggles (Panama).

-Made ancient traditional Mongol-stomping China-raping Japan our bitch, when they resisted outside influence for centuries to that point.

-Invented flight.

-Mostly waited out pointless WWI until the end to claim a 'we helped' credit.

-WWII, kicked the crap out of Japan, who in the decades earlier had humilated Russia, dominated China, and pretty much curb-stomped the entire Pacific. Even paused a 'you're a free country now' process we were being kind enough to do with the Phillipines until after we shoved a boot up Tojo's backside.

-Helped a fuckload with Hitler, and were a major reason the English remained alive during the war. Fuck, with lend lease we even helped the 'industrial giant' Russians with trucks, armor, planes and guns. Mostly trucks though.

-Invented nuclear weaponry/power because of one well worded letter.

-Korea, kicked nork ass like it was our hobby, took the world's most populous nation and the military surplus of the Russians to fight us to a draw.

-Went from lagging badly behind in the space race to having our flag on the fucking moon.

-Didn't get blown up in the cold war.

-Dicked around with so many nations it's a wonder only Grenada, Panama and Iran got uppity. Of them, only one retained it's revolution.

-Invented the internet.

-Went from building up Iraq just to troll the Iranians to kicking Iraq's ass when they invaded a nation most of us never heard of before that day.

-Blew the shit out of Iraq again, invaded Afghanistan and controlled it a fuckload easier than the Russians tried doing two decades earlier.

-Made this song to remind you all of our awesomeness.

I still have no fucking clue who the primer minister of Canada is. I only know Merkel is the PM of Germany because I've seen her with Putin, scaring her with dogs. Truth is, I don't need to know, but everyone in the world watches American elections. That's not an ignorance/arrogance issue, it's one of necessity. Who the US President is influences some nobody in Bumfuckistan. The opposite isn't true. Hell who the governor of another state is can influence me more than who the head-of-state of most other nations is, with the exception of Putin.

America fucks some things up. I mean, locking down a city because of two Chechnyan terrorists? In Russia the police would just politely ask the rooming mobs to please deposit what's left of the corpses onto a tarp in front of the station the next morning. However, we get a lot of shit right.

Age of a nation ? Very simple - how long you can trace it's citizens family trees. There're peasants in China who pretty much could be Confucio's grandgrandgrand-children, while "american" doesn't even describe anything besides citizenship. You're not even established as a real nation yet, just a cauldron of everything that other countries reject.
Well, there're real americans in US, but you don't even invite them to Thanksgiving anymore.
Sorry, won't write same lenghty response :/

Wow that's a lot of butthurt even without the length. So I guess by your definition Australia, being full of non-aboriginal people, Isreal, founded in 1948 and full of non-native Jews, Canada, pretty much the rest of the nations in the Americas (the Mayans didn't speak Spanish or Portugese afterall), South Africa as defined border-wise by white people for white people, or even places like the Navajo Nation, since the land they live on isn't their original land, they are technically immigrants.

It's a shame you take such a dim and closeminded view of immigrants and tie nationality and lineage so tightly. I know skinheads who are more open in those definitions than you.

Still be mad though, and when Wadia rolls tanks into your pisspot corner of the globe, feel free to give the old red, white and blue a ring, because no hard feelings.

*rolls eyes* Whatever you say, though honestly it seems to be kinda touchy subject for you. Should have mentioned it, so we wouldn't have this wall of texts conversation.

Nah it's all good, as an American I adore any opportunity to belittle foreigners.

What is scary is the idea that American exceptionalism will be worshiped with a lack of understanding regarding the fact that the path to exceptionalism takes a lot of hard work, smart thinking, and sacrifice.
Also scary is the idea that America is exceptional because it has been chosen by god.

The positive side of American exceptionalism is often a progressive thing, rather than conservative. This dates back to the enlightenment ideals of our often Masonic early leaders.
People seem to think that we can turn a blind eye to attempts to correct errors within and improve upon the system, and that this concept of "exceptionalism" is going to keep us out of hot water because... of magic or something. it's a magic goddamn word

If you can't define what exactly causes that exception though, how can you 'improve upon the system'? You could very easily negate that undefined thing. I'm not trying to imply America is somehow 'blessed' by the divine, but clearly our strength either lies in the design of the system or by some quirk of character that uses that system.

"The positive side of American exceptionalism is often a progressive thing, rather than conservative. This dates back to the enlightenment ideals of our often Masonic early leaders."
What I mean is that "positive" exceptionalism is created by progressive thinking, rather than regressive thinking.

At the extreme, there are people out there who want to have the U.S.A. be a theocracy. With a king (or whatever they want to kill him) and stuff...

This nation was founded upon the principle that mankind must look after it's own. And that through continual effort and soul searching that we might continue to improve our situation, and maybe even the situation of those abroad, through example and such.
They were also aware that man is not perfect.
(even if he supposedly has personal communications between himself and a deity)
If man were inherently "good", we might as well do away with government altogether.

Progressive thinking has led to disasters as well as triumphs though, Prohibition being probably chief among them. Really I don't think there is inherently one 'right' school of thought, and for every one person who would make America a Christian Iran, there is probably one who would make it a China clone.

"Collegehumor did this as tongue-in-cheek and whatnot, but the sad part is how true it is."
What part, or concept, are you referring to?

The song, and how pretty much every line of it is true.