So this one time...

There was this older, white man who came in to Blockbuster and was upset that we were checked out of Battlestar Galactica Season 2 because his daughter wanted to watch it and I told him about the lady who had come the night before and rented 2 of each disc (a six disc season), one for her and her friend...
Him: That's nuts
Me: That's devotion
Him: No, that's just nuts
Me: We'll isn't being devoted just being nuts?
Him: Do you think being devoted to your country is nuts?
Me: Yeah. Our country is just an abstract idea. To devote yourself to something so intangible is nuts.
Him: Abstract, maybe. But America is great.
Me: America is not great...
[Pause]
[He looked really surprised That I would say something like that and I had like 5 people's attention now.
I started wondering if I should go un-American, and blast him about the prejudice societal structure, or filp it and go patriotic, and since he looked like I would easily offend him, I decided to go uber patriotic.]
Me: What is great isn't the country as a whole, but its constituents. The people are great, not America.
Him: So you think America isn't great. The fact that it gives us freedom doesn't make you think its great?
Me: Nope. Like I said it's Americans that are great. The country doesn't give us freedom, it's a birth right. The fact that we acknowledge each others freedom, that's what makes Americans great. Not some abstract idea like a country.
[So now he and everybody else looks impressed, except for one dude who looked unhappy that it was taking so long. But when he came up, I found out he was deaf. I made sure his movies had English subtitles.]
Him: Are you a philosophy or political science major?
Me: Nope. Biomedical Engineering.
Him: Is that so?
[ Then he left kinda confused]

What I learned is that no one expects a Blockbuster employee to say something intellegent, and after looking at some of my coworkers, I can see why.