I recently watched a documentary where some American basketball players were invited to visit North Korea. The officials took them to spots you don’t normally take tourists, because they were putting on a show to say “Look, we’re actually much better than your American propaganda.” For example, they took them to a grocery store that looked like an Apple Store, but they couldn’t purchase anything and no citizens were there — it was all for show.
The most creepy part for me is when they took them to a computer lab to show how educated their people are and that they do have access to the internet. But something was off: No one was doing anything. No typing, no mouse moving, nothing. One guy was on the Google search home page, but he literally wasn’t doing anything on it (pictures in the screenshot). It dawned on the crew that they were put there for show and would be killed if they broke the illusion.
No one reading this will ever be put in such a situation, because the majority of my friends live in the United States of America, a country founded on principles that had never been tried before. It is the greatest experiment for individual freedom, and its founding led to prosperity and progress at rates never seen before. Virtually every developed nation copied, in one way or another, the principles this country was founded on.
Watching this documentary made me realize just how grateful I am to live in the USA. The things that so many people are able to do are the products of the freedoms they enjoy, not for show. I’m excited to celebrate this 4th of July, because celebrating the founding of a country based on individual natural rights that shaped the entire world for the better is always a worthwhile cause.