American Exceptionalism

DWill · Fri Jul 01, 2011 8:06 pm

Since we're getting close to our patriotic holiday in the U.S., I thought to ask about these words I've seemed to hear more of lately. I'm not a rah-rah type when it comes to country, but I'm not against patriotism. "American Exceptionalism" has always puzzled me, though. Does someone have anything to say in its defense? If it's true we're a good country, why not just show the world that without the self-promotion? When either a person or a nation feels the need to extol itself, that's a sure sign of insecurity. President Obama is attacked from the right for reducing the exceptionalist rhetoric (though he himself still asks God to bless America). Doesn't his shift do something for our standing in the world after eight years of 'the U.S. can do no wrong'?

Dexter · Fri Jul 01, 2011 8:21 pm

Patriot: the person who can holler the loudest without knowing what he is hollering about.
--Mark Twain

geo · Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:30 pm

"American Exceptionalism" was coined by conservatives as a sort of us-versus-them rhetorical buzz phrase that is ultimately meaningless. It suggests that conservatives (us) are for keeping America exceptional, implying, of course, that dreaded liberals (them) are for destroying America (not so exceptional). In fact, did you know that liberals hate America?

To suggest that liberals don't want our country to be exceptional is ultimately simplistic and demeaning. It does nothing to make our country exceptional. It offers no blueprint or policy for change, only rhetoric that furthers the political divide in our country.

President Camacho · Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:35 pm

It's coincidental that today while I was reading Democracy in America, Tocqueville talks about this. He says of Americans that they are patriotic and proud of their country to a fault and greedily seek others to acknowledge its magnificence. He says that even to someone who respects what America has achieved, such as Tocqueville himself, it gets wearisome. He cites several examples of instances where Americans will shift conversation in order to fish for compliments and if none are forthcoming, will provide their own.

He says it has to do with Democracy. Our general equality makes slight differences all the much more important and worth the effort to fight for. When these differences are achieved it's more obvious to someone living in such an equal environment than to someone from an Aristocratic country.

Our perceived advantages make us far superior to other countries in our own eyes.

I wish I would have brought my notebook home with me.

Today, there are more and more people willing to recognize the mistakes our country has made with regards to world affairs but it seems like our hegemony was never really in question until the establishment of the EU and the industrialization and open policy of China. Even in our own country, buying items from China or India or other places of cheap labor carries with it no stigma at all. Harley Davidson even has some of its parts made over seas.

There is a weakening of patriotism in this country and that can be expected with our ever increasing acceptance of nearly everything and anything. I'm not saying that's a good or a bad thing. We've been steadily building towards one uniform society since forever. Sooner or later, I believe, there will only be 'Earth' and countries will be more like states are in the United States.

A lot of people attribute our early success to our ever abundant resources and isolation from the rest of the world. That doesn't hurt but it can't be disputed that there were people here before Europeans landed. The Europeans that landed and created some of the first successful settlements were Puritans and about their work and business. These were frigid people that had discipline and carried with them education from the Old World.

To me the proof of our hegemony is therefore culture, resources, and luck.

If that's the case and our culture is ever changing, it's not hard to guess that if it changes or does not change in a way that's conducive to global supremacy, we will lose it.

I honestly believe that one day there will be nearly total equality. There will be differences in remuneration but they will be only as much as necessary to make men happy in their elevation of relative wealth from the rest of their fellow man - not ungodly sums as which we allow today.

President Camacho · Fri Jul 01, 2011 9:41 pm

Our goal as a country, if it's a democracy we have, should be the relative wealth of each of our citizens in relation to the rest of the world.

Robert Tulip · Sat Jul 02, 2011 1:29 am

America is exceptional. The origins of American exceptionalism are visible in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, documents that founded institutions of state that emphasize equality of opportunity, a commitment to reason, and reward for success. Few other countries had such a clean slate on which enlightened founders set a framework in which talent could achieve its potential. Rising to the challenge of defeating Hitler and Japan showed the American spirit at its peak, with the greatest generation. But America is now in decline.

George Soros, in a deeply insightful article in the New York Review of Books, comments that the American public have become unwilling to face harsh reality and positively ask to be deceived by demanding easy answers to difficult problems. The result is that the politics of manipulation is ascendant over the politics of understanding. Soros compares the propaganda tactics of the right wing to Nazi Germany. Spin has replaced substance, creating a deeply flawed public policy process that pushes honesty aside. Soros says he has come to view the USA as at risk of tyranny, because the open society of liberal democracy assumes a shared commitment to truth, but this no longer holds good.

DWill · Sat Jul 02, 2011 8:47 am

Just as the astute Comacho said, Tocqueville recognized Americans' habit of celebrating their superiority. The exact phrase itself first came into use in the 1920s by the American Communist Party (how very, very ironic). This is per Wikipedia:
"American exceptionalism refers to the theory that the United States is qualitatively different from other nations. In this view, America's exceptionalism stems from its emergence from a revolution, becoming "the first new nation",[1] and developing a uniquely American ideology, based on liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism and laissez-faire. This observation can be traced to Alexis de Tocqueville, the first writer to describe the United States as "exceptional".[2] The term "American exceptionalism" itself was first used by members of the American Communist Party in the 1920s, in reference to their belief that "thanks to its natural resources, industrial capacity, and absence of rigid class distinctions, America might for a long while avoid the crisis that must eventually befall every capitalist society".[3]

I continue to feel that it's never appropriate to crow about our uniqueness, goodness, or other perceived qualities. Doing that can simply blind us to to the true nature of what we might be coming to be. We ask for an immunity based just on the belief that we're the U.S. and we're by definition the best. Despite strong opinion to the contrary, I think we lost some of our claim to exceptionalism when we employed torture after 9/11.

President Camacho · Sat Jul 02, 2011 10:29 am

Crowing is better than silent, haughty pride in my opinion. The former is a challenge and a question of truth as much as a statement. The latter offers no such challenge and is more of an indisputable belief that is beyond question.

Is it important for a country to have pride? I think so. Pride sets standards and goals beyond which we'd otherwise set for ourselves. They can be a great motivating factor to sacrifice for the greater good. A good example of this is the battle of thermopylae. Depending on how you look at it, they were successful. No one questioned a Spartan's bravery until they surrendered to the Athenians near Pylos. This degradation of national pride affected the country's reputation as much as thermopylae enriched it.

Im ar work and typing on my phone. Ill type more later. What do you guys think of national pride?

Tocqueville wrote that he wished he could trade several of his country's virtues for national pride.

Interbane · Sat Jul 02, 2011 12:23 pm

National pride is good because it can catalyze more altruism from the prideful. But it can polarize people into a bigot quite easily. We are great and mexico sucks so we should kill any Mexicans that come to America. It's a seed for exclusionary beliefs. Altruistic in house, but even more arrogant and disrespectful to foreigners. I see it all the time.

President Camacho · Sat Jul 02, 2011 12:42 pm

I don't think I have a problem with someone illegally crossing our boarders with clear intent to try and bypass our laws being shot at. Mexico shoots Guatemalans all the time for crossing into their country illegally. You know they do that, right? And then protest about our lack of compassion to their economic plight? I'm not saying we should do it because they do - I'm just saying that I would vote that it be allowed. Economic conditions are not so bad in Mexico. Let those who wish to work stay in their own country and better it or else come to ours through due process.

Our attitude towards sports is a good way to see why things like arrogance to foreigners occur, in my opinion. If there are two equally matched teams, they're both likely to have some respect for one another. When it's a team that is far superior to their rival, you'll see disrespect in the form of arrogance and show boating.

Winning IS fun!!! Being better than someone else is one reward for your effort. To ask someone to strive to be number one and at the same time share their accomplishment and recognition with all the other teams is ridiculous and flies in the face of capitalism.

Mexicans, blacks, aborigines, ...etc. look physically dissimilar to white Europeans. This carries its own special problems because they no longer are a member of a country but get pegged into races. They're sometimes not acknowledged as products of a specific country's culture but of a particular race. This is a whole other issue in respect to patriotism but I wanted to bring it up because it's important.

President Camacho · Sat Jul 02, 2011 6:02 pm

I should have presented these arguments differently but hopefully they won't be misinterpreted. I am trying to explore patriotism. I'm not attempting to single out attributes or deficiencies with regards to 'race' or a specific culture as being the 'best'.

LanDroid · Sat Jul 02, 2011 7:01 pm


	Quote: Mr. Tulip said America is exceptional. The origins of American exceptionalism are visible in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, documents that founded institutions of state that emphasize equality of opportunity, a commitment to reason, and reward for success. Few other countries had such a clean slate on which enlightened founders set a framework in which talent could achieve its potential. Rising to the challenge of defeating Hitler and Japan showed the American spirit at its peak, with the greatest generation.

I think most can agree with those basics even while we understand this glosses over gigungatudinal (Tm) issues like slavery, the genocide of Native Americans*, etc.

However, the term American Exceptionalism is now used as a weapon to attack any hint of a question regarding U.S. military dominance.


	Quote: I think it’s fair to ask, you know, what is it that explains the absence of any discernable foreign policy from the president of the United States? And I believe that it flows from his fundamental disbelief in American exceptionalism. In the President’s world, all nations have common interests, the lines between good an evil are blurred, America’s history merits apology. Mitt Romney 3/21/11 http://www.hughhewitt.com/transcripts.a ... 73a9a9d74d


	Quote: The truth is this: by his actions we see a president who seems to be much more comfortable with an American military that isn’t quite so dominant and who feels the need to apologize for America when he travels overseas. Could it be a lack of faith in American exceptionalism? Sarah Palin 4/16/10 http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=380458453434

This misuse of the term is very disturbing....

* During this Holiday, Americans should consider 3 damaging words in the Declaration of Independence and relate them to American Exceptionalism:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alison-ow ... 88897.html

Robert Tulip · Sat Jul 02, 2011 9:22 pm

To tell the truth, I had never gotten much past 'pursuit of happiness', so it is good to read the full text of the USA Declaration of Independence. Interesting to see that 'merciless Indian savages' made it through the censorship of Congress, while Jefferson's condemnation of slavery did not. Thems was racist days.

The context of the 'savages' line is the suggestion that Britain wanted to ally with Indian tribes to foment war against the thirteen colonies. What was really 'merciless' was the unrelenting theft of native american land and the genocide of their cultures. This is rightly a source of grief and regret. We have a similar debate in Australia about the British invasion and its destruction of Aboriginal culture. I am an admirer of indigenous cultures. However, they had lived in isolation from the growth of civilization with its rapid evolution of technology for war and economic production. If the British had not led the destruction of indigenous cultures, some one else would have. Australia would have been colonized by Japan or China (not to mention France or Germany) if the British had been squeamish about taking it. The conquest of Australia is not even recognized as a war because the contest was so unequal. Without paper or metal or institutions bigger than the tribe, the only thing protecting indigenous cultures during colonial times was the chance that they lived in a place where malaria kept invaders away. Oh, and the tut-tutting of mad king George.

If I may continue with a line from philosophy, GWF Hegel said the historical evolution of culture occurs by what he called a dialectic process in which a thesis generates its antithesis, and the conflict in turn generates an integrating synthesis. In the USA, the thesis of exceptionalism generated the antithesis of guilt. It remains to be seen how a synthesis may be possible, recognizing the good things from America's exceptional leadership while also seeing the damage caused by blind arrogance and what America can learn from those it has cast aside.

DWill · Sun Jul 03, 2011 5:53 am


	LanDroid wrote: * During this Holiday, Americans should consider 3 damaging words in the Declaration of Independence and relate them to American Exceptionalism: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alison-ow ... 88897.html

Can't help thinking: wouldn't it be great if we could make a claim for American Exceptionalism based on our not having largely destroyed the indigenous culture and killed most of the population? That is to completely alter the course of history, though, and perhaps would also mean that "America" would not really exist today.

Note: Landroid's 3 words from Jefferson are "merciless Indian savages"--a clear example of history being written by the victors.

Robert Tulip · Sun Jul 03, 2011 7:37 am

Here is Columbia, school book and telegraph wire in hand, from Manifest Destiny. Note the fleeing animals and redskins. How very ironic, Thomas Paine, the atheist who did not believe the Bible was literal history, was a main founder of the exceptionalist doctrine of the magnificent potential of the American Revolution. Paine invokes Noah, despite not believing in him: "We have it in our power to begin the world over again. A situation, similar to the present, hath not happened since the days of Noah until now. The birthday of a new world is at hand." Ideas like providence, progress and destiny are found in abundance in the exceptionalist literature of the nineteenth century. The sense of inevitability of European conquest was grounded in economic reality, but as the proverb has it, pride comes before a fall.

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