I find that a country could improve itself greatly if it tried to be a Mag-Lite. On the Mag-Lite commercials, the flashlights are said to be very strong, durable, and made of the same metal used on planes. As a Mag-Lite owner, I find that the commercial doesn't tell you all the things a Mag-Lite can do. You can adjust the lamp so the beam is a spot light or a flood light. The smaller flashlights also have the ability to become candles. The commercial also doesn't express exactly how strong the flashlight is. A Mag-Lite has the ability to keep away potential murderers, robbers, and rapists just by shining the light on them or hitting them with the flashlight. Other flashlights the same size, but not made of the same materials, may not be able to do this. They would generally break on impact with another person. So in this mind set, I would like to reiterate my opinion that a country should be like a Mag-Lite.

To break this theory down better, I shall talk about two other flashlights that a country might be. Also, to aid in the comparison, I shall use the US form of government to express my opinion. This is not to say that other forms of government could not also be used as an example. The bulb in the flashlight represents the president of the country. Power is given to the bulbs by the the batteries which are the individual state governments and representatives. The case of the flashlight is the strength of the people's belief in their country. The better the casing, the stronger the people's belief. As a Mag-Lite, the casing is metal, meaning that it is a very hard country to work against. If any foreign powers try to take over the country by overthrowing the government, the strength of the casing will be shown to its fullest potential. It could crush the opponent, especially if their strength is that of a cheap flashlight from K-Mart.

As long as the states provide power to the president, the bulb will always shine brightly. If the president becomes corrupt and doesn't do what the states want him or her to do, the batteries will provide too much power to the bulb and it will burst or burn out, noting that it is time for a new figurehead to be placed in the office of the president. The power of the states is not absolute nor is it unable to be corrupted. The states must have the same amount of power. If a battery has too much power, it could cause the bulb to burst or the battery to explode. If a battery starts to leak its fluid, it corrodes that battery and then proceeds to corrode all of the other batteries it comes in contact with. When that happens, all of the batteries need to be replaced, and the flashlight is cleaned from the inside, out. At that time, the Mag-Lite status of a country is revoked and it goes down the level of flashlight strengths since the people will no longer have that great of belief in their country. Once the state governments have been corrupted, they all must be cleaned out and a new government must be placed in the positions of the old ones. This may take some time, but eventually all of it will be gone and the country will be able to return to its former strength. Now that we have established what the state governments, the people and the President represents, we now come back to the idea that all countries should try to achieve Mag-Lite status.

A Mag-Lite country is very indestructible. It may go through many hard times and crises, but because the strength of the country is so great, it will survive. A country at the status of a cheap flashlight from K-Mart, will not be able to survive many crises. If a Mag-Lite country decides that it doesn't like the K-Mart country, the Mag-Lite country could win in the ensuing battle. It would not have sustained any or minimal damage while the K-Mart country would have perished. It would have been beaten so badly that the only thing that would have remained of the flashlight would be the states which would have been so badly bruised, that they would not benefit anyone. The country that they stood for is gone. The only things that the states could hope for was to be incorporated into the Mag-Lite government or allowed to coexist.

A third country exists, that I have not said anything about. That country would be the Snake Light country. It doesn't have the strength of the Mag-Lite, but it is able to do things that the K-Mart flashlight can not do. For example, if a foreign power came up against a Snake Light country, instead of being beaten away, it would rather let the foreign power into the country but while the opposing country is checking out the defending country, the defending country is slowly wrapping itself around the opposing country and cutting it off from the rest of the world and choking it away. With a great deal of watching and waiting the Snake Light country has survived an attack from a foreign country. Even a Mag-Lite country would have to listen to a Snake Light country on occasion. The Snake Light would be able to instill corruption on the states or in the president to weaken the country so that the Snake Light country could move in.

In conclusion, I would like to make sure that not everyone believes, that a Mag-Lite country is not privy to error. Sometimes, even Mag-Lites fail and you have to send it back to the company to get repaired or buy a new flashlight. When a country is thought to be as strong as it can be, the government fails and a new form of government must be found.

Secondly, Mag-Lite countries are not necessarily an aggressive country. Any government should know that trying to conquer or terrorize other countries before stabilizing their own country is a hopeless endeavor. A Mag-Lite country should only strive to increase its own strength and capabilities in all areas. If a country which tries to only achieve great military strength and no other ones, it will create a weakness in the casing of the flashlight. Also trying to achieve great technological strength without achieving economical stability will weaken the casing. In general, a Mag-Lite country should strive for greatness in all areas and allow itself to be flexible with the times. Times change, and governments should change with the times. Old forms of leadership from 1998 should not try and stick around in 2498. People, technology, moral values, and other things have changed and the government should change with them.

Finally, I am not saying that the United States has achieved Mag-Lite status. I don't think any government has achieved that status recently. In history, there were probably a few countries that have come close or even achieved Mag-Lite status. In my mind, no one will ever achieve that status today unless the leading government and all the governments beneath it stop fighting about what does and does not need to be done. As soon as a middle ground is found, then perhaps a country can attempt the Mag-Lite. However, Mag-Lite status is not a permanent state. A country can achieve this status, change over to Snake Light status, drop down to cheap K-Mart flashlight status, work its way back up to Snake Light status after working its way through Coleman flashlight status or Black & Decker, and so on. The main thing that needs to be remembered is the government can be as strong as it wants to be, but it's the people that make up the casing.