Sunday, September 2, 2012

Creativity and Innovation As a Sense of Nationalism

There seems to be an attempt in the United States and other first world nations to create a resurgence of innovation and creativity. This is interesting because for so long we had worked on standardization in our education system, getting everyone on the same page, and marching in step. Now we see we are being beaten in the global marketplace, and we realize our greatest strength was our entrepreneurs, creativity, and innovation. Since we all agree on that, we are looking for more of it now.

Today, creativity and innovation has been rebranded almost as a sense of nationalism in the United States. We also see something similar had happened in Canada as they worked very hard to create a knowledge worker society, get everyone educated, and lead the world in scientific discovery. Much of Europe also attempted the same. As the Olympic Games of 2012 show a sense of pride and nationalism for sports, agility, and athletic ability we see how this can be such a strong bond.

When we compete as Americans for creativity and innovation in the marketplace of ideas, we see we have a stellar advantage due to our free-market system. You see, the free-market and capitalism rewards people with great ideas, who can solve problems and innovate, and sell their inventions and methods in our economy. All we have to do we show them the way, and let them compete in that same marketplace of ideas. That makes sense right?

It's almost as if creativity and innovation is an extra lever to reignite a sense of nationalism and pride. The United States has always been on the leading-edge of invention, problem solving, and having a can-do attitude. It is practically the spirit of America, and it still shines. Some might say that too much nationalistic pride is not a good thing, but maybe it is when it comes to an underlining theme of problem solving, innovating, and creating new products and services. Not to mention the fact that it will provide more jobs as well, something that our economy needs right now.

Education is also a nice arena to uplift a nation for nationalistic pride, and it doesn't hurt anyone else to compete for the most educated society. Luckily, America is quite good at all of these things, despite the detractors who might say that our society isn't as educated is theirs, the reality is; "sure it is, look everywhere, America is winning."

Promoting creativity and innovation as a sense of nationalism I believe is a smart play for a great team - Team USA. It doesn't hurt anyone else anywhere else in the world for us to do that. In fact, it might help them by setting the bar very high, and challenging them to do the same.

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