To make your country great, the first thing you need to do is understand what a country is. This is because a country is a living being and, like all living beings, it can be conceived, grow, diminish, and die.
The second thing you need to do, to make your country great, is understand what greatness is. This is because to be great isn’t the same as being big or strong. Instead, greatness requires excellence.
Since countries are living beings, for your country to be great means that your country excels at living, by being healthy and thriving.
So, what does it take for your country to be healthy and thriving?
Well, it turns out that what your country needs in order to be healthy and thriving is similar to what you need in order to be healthy and thriving. This is because you are a multicellular organism, meaning that you are a living being composed of many carbon-based cells.
In order for you to be healthy and thriving, your cells also need to be healthy and thriving. This means that your cells need to be freely able to serve their functions as part of your body while cooperating to ensure that your body is also freely able to serve its functions.
Since you are like a cell in the body of your country, for your country to be great — you need to be freely able to serve your functions in life while cooperating to ensure that your country is also freely able to serve its functions in the world.
So, what gets in the way of your country being great?
Well, to make a long story short, it really boils down to any combination of three things: corruption, conflict, and insufficient resources.
Having insufficient resources in your country has similarly problematic outcomes to you having insufficient resources in your body, such as when you lack sufficient oxygen, water, or food.
Common causes of insufficient resources in countries include droughts, floods, fires, storms, earthquakes, and other disasters. When your country’s resources are insufficient to meet the needs of your country’s residents, it prevents your country from being great by preventing residents from being able to fully and freely serve their functions as part of your country.
For your country, experiencing conflict both internally and externally has similarly problematic outcomes to your body experiencing conflict both internally and externally.
Common causes of conflict in and between both people and countries include oppression, suppression, intimidation, arrogance, ignorance, and other sources of inequality. When your country is in conflict, it directly prevents your country’s greatness by damaging its ability to cooperate, whether internally or externally.
This is because the word “corruption” comes from the Latin “corruptus”, meaning “altogether broken”. When people behave in ways that break the ability of their country to freely function, they’re engaging in corruption. This is why corruption often leads to conflict, which often leads to insufficient resources, which often leads to more corruption, perpetuating a cycle of illness and dysfunction in place of excelling at life by being healthy and thriving.
The problematic outcomes of corruption in your country are similar to the problematic outcomes of corruption in your body, such as difficulty in moving, breathing, thinking, resting, digesting, excreting, and more. So, what causes corruption? Greed.
By asserting superiority in place of cooperation while resulting in insufficient resources for some so as to have excess resources for others, greed begins the cycle of illness and dysfunction. This is why greed is considered a sin or moral failure by every religion and culture that has lasted more than a century.
It’s not true that having more than you need is somehow more important than ensuring that sufficient resources are given to those having less than they need. As residents of our countries, we are all inherently equal and all have our roles to play in the thriving of our countries.
So, to make your country great, start by ending greed, first within yourself and then by lovingly objecting to it in others. End corruption, conflict, and any lack of sufficient resources, first for anyone in your country — and then for anyone in any country.
Though your country is a living being, it isn’t the only living being. Humanity is also a living being, made up of many countries. Our planet is also a living being, made up of many species.