This Is An Interesting Question

[Minimalist]

A nation, to be great, need not be a leading world economy.

That's not remotely what the WLB means by Make America Great Again.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Yeah, we're having issues with the definition of "great" again ... which is precisely Rushdie's point.

[Fireball]

Yeah, we're having issues with the definition of "great" again ... which is precisely Rushdie's point.

"god" is "great".

[vorlon13]

Baneemy is great too.

[Amarok]

Other than that, practically the entire modern industrial and electronic world that we live in was created by America.

Ummm.  Canada Invented 

Walkie Talkie 
Super Conductors 
Amplitude Modulation
Atomic Clock 
IMax
Standard Time 
Electric Street Cars 
Electric Wheelchairs 
Compound Steam engines 
The First Mass Produced Gas Mask 
Sonar 
The Robertsons screw 
G Suits 
The Pacemaker 
Java Programming Language 
Insulin 
Radio Voice Transmission 
Electron Microscope 
Telephone (Bell claimed the telephone was invented in Canada but made in the United States of America.)

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You don't have be a super power to be great .

[bennyboy]

I didn't say America was the only country to do important things. I said that it's very hard to argue against America being a great country.

[bennyboy]

Yeah, we're having issues with the definition of "great" again ... which is precisely Rushdie's point.

I think the problem is trying to conflate a bunch of definitions into one super-evaluation.  In order to be called great, any of the metrics we've talked about would suffice.  Strongest super-power ever?  That is a great country, pretty much by definition.  Huge innovator, changing the face of the world with internet, home computers, and the very site we are currently enjoying?  Great.  One of the first countries to rebel against European imperial powers?  Great

Great, great great.

Even slavery was a sign of greatness.  One culture was so far advanced in technology that it was essentially able to rape all the others, world wide, at will.  Great.

Just. . . maybe not good in some very important ways.

[Thumpalumpacus]

Even slavery was a sign of greatness.  One culture was so far advanced in technology that it was essentially able to rape all the others, world wide, at will.  Great.

lol, you really like hiking in minefields, don't you, Benny?

Slavery is endemic in human history, and not always practiced by powerful societies. Indeed, it is very often internal to a society, so that it is not an expression of one society's strength relative to another, which is how I read what you're saying.

[GUBU]

I don't think Ireland or Portugal were leading world economies at the time.  Although both were generally smart enough to avoid getting involved in the war.

Of course we were. We just let ye think ye owned everything.

Do you know why there's an Irish pub in every city in the world? It's to keep the rest of ye down, that's why.

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I don't think Ireland or Portugal were leading world economies at the time.  Although both were generally smart enough to avoid getting involved in the war.

Of course we were. We just let ye think ye owned everything.

Do you know why there's an Irish pub in every city in the world? It's to keep the rest of ye down, that's why.

[pocaracas]

Even slavery was a sign of greatness.  One culture was so far advanced in technology that it was essentially able to rape all the others, world wide, at will.  Great.

lol, you really like hiking in minefields, don't you, Benny?

Slavery is endemic in human history, and not always practiced by powerful societies. Indeed, it is very often internal to a society, so that it is not an expression of one society's strength relative to another, which is how I read what you're saying.

Oh yeah.... Portugal gets credit for that slavery business in the US... we kinda took those guys from Africa and sold them to you... or some middle-man...

And then we saw how wrong it was and were the first country in Europe to officially abolish slavery.... just because we had no slavery in Portugal, it doesn't mean that the slave trade had to stop!
See? Great!!

We also have one of the greatest ever aqueducts. Great!
A Portuguese dude invented the lobotomy and got a Nobel prize for it! Great!
While you 'murricans were fighting in Vietnam, just sending cannon fodder over, we were fighting in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. 3 to 1! HA!

One can make up any metric for greatness... and a few of those lead to a Portugal that is greater than the US.

Which goes to show that the word is meaningless... but the common folk run with it! and vote and pay and that's what counts.