Taking Exception to American Exceptionalism

American Exceptionlism says simply that America, in terms of its organization, its Constitution, its recognition of human rights, and its opposition to tyranny, etc, make it an exception to the rule of tyranny, injustice and general inhumanity that has plagued all the other civilizations the globe has ever known. There is something troubling to me about the term “exceptionalism,” well, actually, to what the term has become. It smacks of Me-First-ism. It reminds of all the mistakes we have made in recent decades because of the blindness we have towards history and geography, geopolitics, religion, and related issues.

My guess is that this concept at one time implied a certain kind of isolationism that went along with it. We were an exceptional nation, we attracted people from all over the world because we were free from the ethnic, political, and religious strife, and we didn’t meddle in other people’s affairs. How far that bird has flown from its nest!