Can't-do ...

Mr. Philadelphia and Avedon have picked up on something I posted on last June, when reading one of Bob Herbert's articles:

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For a nation that can’t stop bragging about how great and powerful it is, we’ve become shockingly helpless in the face of the many challenges confronting us. Our can-do spirit was put on hold many moons ago, and here we are now unable to defeat the Taliban, or rein in the likes of BP and the biggest banks, or stop the oil gushing furiously from the bowels of earth like a warning from Hades about the hubris and ignorance that is threatening to destroy us.

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Atrios says something that hit home with me:

I've commented on this before (as with most things), but I continue to be amazed at the completely pervasive can't do spirit that seems to have gripped the country. Maybe we need to win a hockey game against the Soviets or something to bounce back.

I was in an argument on Facebook with a few people at the Major League Soccer page the other day. I made a smartass remark about the quality of the American game versus the European or South American teams. I was stating there were a few things we could do to improve the quality of the way it's played here and maybe get a little more credibility on the world stage. Basically, the response I was met with was "this is America and we do it our way so shut up" to "the rest of the world has been playing football for a century before we were so we will never be able to compete with them (on the club level)".

And the thing that struck me, maybe because I grew up at a time when we went to the Moon and believed anything was possible, was how nobody wants to do things better. Nobody wants to say "we're Americans and we can do anything we put our minds to" instead saying "we could do it better if we wanted to, we just don't want to". They'd rather the status quo than any attempt at improvement.

Now, to me, football (soccer) is an elegant game when played well. To watch people like Wayne Rooney or Lionel Messi or Ronaldinho, in his prime, and so many others is enthralling. If my only experience with soccer was the US game, I doubt I would be such a big fan. I want US soccer to be as big here (and played as well) as it is in England, France, Germany and the rest of the world. I'd like to stem the tide of the best US players running to Europe or South America to play their football. 75% (16 of 21)of the US Mens National Team plays their club football on a different continent (we send them our best, they send us their "has-beens" and "never-weres").

What is wrong with wanting the type of football here that would give our stars (and we have some great American players) pause before signing a contract with an English Premier League or Bundesliga team? What is wrong with seeing "The Beautiful Game" played by the people who invented it and attempting to emulate it? What is wrong with wanting to be the best you can be?

Seems that in America, we only talk about how good we could be (or think we are), and we're satisfied with that.