Matthew McConaughey delivers winding, pro-America message on July 4: 'We're basically going through puberty'

Actor Matthew McConaughey delivered a headline-making speech on Sunday to commemorate Independence Day and America herself.

What are the details?

McConaughey on Sunday afternoon shared a widely viewed video in which he said that America — still a very young nation — is "basically going through puberty."

“Happy Birthday, America," he began the video. "Yes, indeed. 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."

He continued, pointing out that when compared to other countries across the globe, America is still very early in its development.

“But let's also remember that we're babies as a country," McConaughey explained. “We're basically going through puberty in comparison to other countries' timeline, and we're going to go through growing pains. We are going through growing pains. This is not an excuse, this is just the reality, and this is good, because we got to keep learning, we got to keep maturing, we gotta keep striving, we gotta keep climbing, we gotta keep building. And we gotta make sure we maintain hope along the way, as we continue to evolve."

McConaughey added, "Why? Because it's who we are. Why? Because the alternative sucks."

He went on to laud Americans and their daily lives, making the country greater and greater as days go by.

“We're constantly in motion, we're on the way, trying to get wiser, trying to get braver, trying to dream more, trying to do more, trying to be more fair, take the right kind of responsibilities, to gain the right kind of freedoms, and we gotta keep realizing that we're a place where our individual pursuits and desires need to be appreciative and supportive of our collective responsibilities as Americans," the Oscar-winning actor continued. “Hence, the United States of America. Sure, we're each unique. We're each independent. We each have innate abilities that others don't have, as people and as states. But at the same time, we are all in this together, and if you don't purchase that, move on. Go somewhere else."

He concluded, "So, as we celebrate the red, white and blue this weekend, let's be sure and just reflect just a minute, take a little bit of inventory on where we've come from, where we are and how and where we want to go from here on the way to being the best we can be. Now what if that was a song, and each of us just said, 'I can't not sing that song?' I want to be a little bit better, you want to be a little bit better. Let's be on the way to being the best we can be. Let's make that a song we can't not sing. Why? Because it's who we are. It's who we gotta be, and again, the alternative sucks. Let's rock, America. Happy Birthday, just keep livin'. I'll see you there."