The Greatest

The word "great" means large. "Greatest" means "largest". In that case, "the greatest country in the world" is China? Or Russia? It certainly isn't one of the countries in North or South America as is often and mistakenly termed. What someone who purports "their" country to be deemed as "the greatest country in the world", must mean something other than size. So what does it mean? Does "greatest" mean "best"? If that's the answer, the country that is best, is likely to be the one that a person has or people have, chosen or otherwise, to live in. Some politicians who are renowned for  exaggeration, might speechify and choose to call their place of residence, "the greatest". Given that, what does the term "greatest" mean in reference to a country? Does it signify anything relative to other countries? Does it mean the greatest in economy, the greatest militarily or culturally in its determined values, or its population size and or variety? In fact, it doesn't signify anything until a specific descriptive is put in place. It might describe what one  thinks is its better attributes in whatever sphere it desires to select for that comparison. Or perhaps those who use the statement merely aver theirs to be "the greatest country" measured by their personally chosen standards, the ones they honour themselves and hold to be important. To people in the other countries listening to these designations spouted by someone foreign to them, are likely to find this kind of remark questionable, if not objectionable. What is valuable to one set of human beings may not be deemed to be so by others. Each country has a natural right to be somewhat offended by hearing another saying that theirs is the best country. Even though one expresses  love effusively for his/her own dwelling place on earth, they go too far in using expletives if their words are addressed to the world at large. I speak of those in high political or regal places. It's much more politically polite and harmonizing to be specific in  labelling one's country in such broad determinations without due consideration of the effect of the terms they use. The planet on which we live is now global in every sense. There is not a place on it, that is not thought to be less than the best, by those who breathe the same air and walk on the same earth as everyone else.  While we are inclined toward a possessive sentiment for the piece of the globe we inhabit, we are all creatures crawling on its surface completely, humanely the same, with exact needs for survival and happiness and freedom. That's what makes our planet the best "country" on earth.