In the middle of a conversation I mentioned in passing that obviously, the USA is the greatest country in the history of the world. He thought this was extremely conceited and ignorant - that there are many per capita statistics in which the USA trails other advanced nations and that throughout history many nations committed atrocities and succumbed to their own arrogance thinking they were the greatest nation and we've progressed beyond that and BLAH BLAH BLAH... I stopped him and said, "Okay please rank the top civilizations and countries better than the United States of America. Thanks."
With the silence that ensued, you could hear a pin drop.