A New Nation Begins "A City on a Hill" Lipset Starting things off, Lipset seems to be a very articulate man. His views on this beautiful country are exactly down to earth. Lipset began talking about how this country is the best in some areas but how we lack our supremacy in other areas. For instance I will express crime rate and military power. In Lipset's passage he stated that the crime rate in the United States is well above all other nations, but the American military is the strongest in the world. That is not a contradiction but only a mere example. Now with being the strongest military power in the world many smaller and third world countries tend to look up to us. That statement is easily represented by the fact that we are a "city on a hill." This nation might be on top is some aspects of the game but there is a few things that weigh us down. We won both world wars, set peace in the Middle East, and maintained our economic prowess. But are our greatest years starting to fall behind us? According to Lipset we are starting to distrust our leaders and have slim confidence in our institutions. That does not mean that everything is going south but what it really means is that we need to get in gear and do something about these situations. Not only are the Americans aware of this but so are other nations in the world. Japan knows our educational average is below standard. Germany knows that our some of our citizens hate our democracy. So once again the eyes of many are upon this huge city on top of a steep hill. Lipset then proceeded to talk about how a lot of our fine nation's essays were written under the direction of "foreign pens." The only way that is possible is by comparing a culture that one is well established with to a culture that he is not that aware of. Most foreign travelers wrote about how exceptional this place is. Lipset's words say; "exceptional is not that great." He defines exceptional as different and extraordinary.