Credit: Unsplash

The actor mused on America’s birthday over the weekend.

This past Sunday was the Fourth of July, which I’m sure the near-constant sound of fireworks in the evening tipped you off to. Independence Day commemorates the United States’ independence from Great Britain all those years ago; 245 years as of Sunday, to be precise. America has come a long way since then, improving in many ways and… struggling, let’s say, in numerous others. At the very least, the current iteration of America is much more self-aware and self-critical, not unlike a newly minted teenager according to actor Matthew McConaughey.

McConaughey, star of Dazed and Confused and The Dallas Buyers Club, posted a brief video on his Twitter on Sunday discussing America’s current stage in its overall development.

“As we celebrate our independence today, as we celebrate our birth as a nation, the day that kick-started a revolution to gain our sovereignty, let’s admit that this last year, this trip around the sun, was also another head-scratcher,” McConaughey said.

“But let’s also remember that we’re babies as a country,” he added. “We’re basically going through puberty in comparison to other countries’ time line, and we’re going to go through growing pains.”

“This is not an excuse, this is just the reality, and this is good, because we gotta keep learning, we gotta keep maturing, we gotta keep striving, we gotta keep climbing, we gotta keep building,” McConaughey continued. “And we gotta make sure we maintain hope along the way, as we continue to evolve. Because the alternative sucks.”

happy 245th birthday America – lets rock pic.twitter.com/MiLKZ0HN8y

— Matthew McConaughey (@McConaughey) July 4, 2021

McConaughey is allegedly considering stepping into the realm of politics in the near future, with his first goal being a stint as governor of Texas. I would think one lesson we’d long since learned already is “don’t hire actors to be politicians,” but hey, all teenagers have weird phases.