Usually the very general question is: What do you think of the government? Especially in writing we are warned to be specific. The following seems to be one of the most general questions that can be asked: I asked google in quotes "Top down analysis of the United States." Not a single response or image returned. How would the question be approached? The government is the largest employer in the United States. Cultural populations are big. Society itself is big population wise. Social structures (economy, religion, education etc.) are big. But there is infrastructure. There is nature, weather, and geography. I grew up with encyclopedia's, and dictionaries, and libraries. Now there is information technology that is evolving, or devolving as you would have it, into artificial intelligence. But IT may have the ability to create such a hierarchical view of the country to get a 10,000 foot view of what the United States is. What would be the field headings? There should be a top and bottom. There should be things more or less important. There should be an analysis that indicates how the country fairs with regard to other countries. When I approach a subject I look for breadth, and depth by looking at etymology, history, and state (current conditions). I could ask for a top down analysis of global existence, so limiting the question to the United States tells me something. The politicians have the opportunity to give a state of the union, and state of the state, and state of the city. That's fine, but those are simple descriptions and declarations about government, and there are things - many more things more important, and more pervasive than government. So how would the question be approached, and what would be the field headings? I asked google, and it doesn't respond. The CIA factbook is a sliver of the type of response I think should be out there.
