American Exceptionalism
Today was my last day of classes for this semester. One of my professors (who is quite famous, has done TV spots, is asked to lecture at schools all over the world, is insanely smart, and not originally from America) spoke in our lecture about various things to conclude the class, including the idea of “American Exceptionalism.” (By the way, exceptionalism is a word.)
According to him, we Americans feel that we are above all/most others. America is the one best country. It has opportunities that most other countries do not have. Moreover, our policies with other countries, especially our humanitarian efforts, are related in large part to our view of American Exceptionalism. Our policies are therefore invaded by the bipartisan moral toned view derived from American Exceptionalism.
I was thinking, do I really buy that idea of “exceptionalism”? And, my answer is in two parts, internal and external. Internally, I do believe that America is exceptional, despite its (many) faults, the reality is that you can get more done here than most anywhere else.
That is the basis of the European, East Asian, etc., “brain drain.” The smart people from other countries come here to start businesses and/or implement their ideas because the economies and governments in their home countries make it exceptionally harder to do it at home. (I have studied many foreign countries and markets, so yeah, I’m sure I’m right).
Additionally, in moralistic terms, we are far ahead of many. But in realistic terms, we are far behind most–European–countries. We sacrifice many social policies for economic prosperity, and in some ways that is good, in other ways it is bad.
Externally, I do believe that many Americans see the U.S. as the #1 country. However, this is limited to those who are a) successful, or b) dream of being successful. Group a only sees and benefits from U.S. policies, and Group b is blinded by the possibility of being in Group a.
However, there is also a Group c. Those who have been hardened by life, and/or those who just don’t care either way. They don’t see the U.S. as perfect, and they know that it is not the end all and be all.
Edit: I should probably clarify that I’m in Group d. I don’t think America is a perfect country, but do I think it’s better than many others? Yes. Why, well, that’s a whole other thing. But, if you were to ask me, I would say that there is a difference between a social state, and a liberal state, and I choose a liberal state. If you don’t understand what that means, do a little research. 
Do not misunderstand me. Although I believe America is exceptional, I also accept that it is limited. The limits of a countries success is inherent in the idea of states. It is not possible for a state to further all of the interests of its people because it is a. limited by funds and b. interests clash. In order for it to do its best, it can only go as far as the clash of interest allows.
My professor also spoke about those in other countries. According to him, other countries see the Americanization of the world, but say that this is not the only phenomenon. There is also a Europeanization of the world, a Japanezation of the world, a Chinezation (that’s not the word he used, but I couldn’t spell it) etc. There is globalization, and Americanization is only a subset of it. I agree with this, although I think that–whether good or bad–the American influence is dominating a large part of the world.
The American ideal has permeated the world. We are now living in McWorld, where you can go to some obscure city in some 3rd world country and have the McNugget (although I personally no longer eat at fast food restaurants). The spread of the American influence has increased it’s soft power. There’s a rising air of U.S. beliefs in other countries, and when they look deep within them, they will see that, despite it’s faults, America offers they a glimpse at it’s own success.
So, my question goes out to both Americans and non-Americans. What do you think about American Exceptionalism? Are we all just conceited, or is it real?
15 Comments
I wrote a long answer to this question, then realized this blog doesn’t belong to me and I have no right to drone on and on.
I disagree–it seems to me to be conceited. The fact that America still seems to have all of the problems of any other country is what I’ll submit as an example of that. Though that’s very opinion-based, and I, being more of a communist than a capitalist, tend to measure through public benefits rather than corporate ones…
Well, I think it would be illegitimate to dis-credit the success of a country because it has problems.
It would be impossible for any country to exist without some problems. I’m pretty sure that even Sweden has it’s fair share of issues.
However, I think if you consider that quality of life, and the possibility of life in America, it’s quite easily shown that yes, there are multiple benefits for being here, as opposed to other countries.
Now, I don’t want to list out other countries and try to say why living there is bad because that would be both ridiculous and unnecessary. There are obviously great reasons for living in France, or Japan, or China, or India, as opposed to in the U.S.
Would I say that the U.S. is the better country? No, for many reasons including the fact that I have never been to those countries.
I’ve studied communism, and yes, there are many things that I could say about it, but that would be from the view of an American.
Moreover, I am all for social justice and social equality, and if you read any of my essays in My Thoughts you would notice that I am very critical of the capitalist system.
But, I’ll just put it bluntly, do I think that capitalism is better than communism? Yes. Why? Well, that’s a whole other thing.
(speaking as a non-american living in america)
america is the “city set on a hill”, so to say. is america superior or inferior to most other powerful countries? slightly, but not significantly. however, america is seen as revolutionary, it’s seen as the example set for the world, so there is more praise as well as critisim for america.
hi!
indeed the US is one exceptional country. and it also serves as a paradigm to other countries. they base everything from the us – from fashion to language. and you’re also correct that this exceptional country has a lot of errors.
To me the U.S. look great from afar but when I take a closer look things seem to be not as great as they make it out to be.
Sure it has many benefits over other countries but there are also many benefits from other countries over the U.S. No country is perfect, not the U.S. and not my country.
I guess we should all just be happy we were born in a country (or live in a country after moving) that offers us opportunities; for many the opportunity to get an education or have food on the table on a daily basis isn’t there.
I’m mexican, so i can’t give my entire opinion about that, but i do think that for all things, including countries, have good and bad things..
From an outsider point of view, I have to say that there is a growing belief that Americans are just conceited. I don’t know though, you definitely have a powerful and prosperous country there, but you do have a lot to be proud of.
I think that the biggest thing these days (internationally and locally) is that pride can be interpretted as arrogance, and aid can be seen as intimidation and invasion.
I would have to say that is is quite conceited. The belief that you are superior than others is always going to be conceited whether it is based upon truth or not. Yes, America is a good, strong, powerful, democratic country. Those are all good things. However, it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have it’s own problems – I’ve been studying the Vietnam war so my opinion is very against America at the moment even though that is in the past.
Every country is more superior in some areas than others, they all have their own benefits.
In fact, I hate the ideology that seems to come across from America that they are “better than others”. Not just America is a culprit for this; everybody does it at some point and it annoys me no end. It just seems that everyone points the figure at America for it.
Sorry for rambling..
Well, in response to the Vietnam war, yes, that was a completely different time, in an age when many in the government did not understand the concept of soft power. It was also an age when interventionism was key to stopping the spread of communism.
The Soviet influence was pervasive, if only because they feared losing it. But, I won’t discuss that now because I’m studying.
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I do agree with you but there has been many times when Vietnam has been compared to Iraq. I think it has many similarities even if Vietnam was on a much, much, larger scale.
Basically, I’d say that the whole concept of thinking country A is better than B is conceited regardless of who says it – it’s probably not even meant that way in all cases, but it does come off as arrogant (and I, as a European, will say this whether it’s America or France or Iceland that is supposedly the best).
Personally, I wouldn’t like to live in America, but that’s me. I know many do want to, and that’s fine. I personally think America lacks in many ways, probably mostly because I haven’t (and don’t want to) live in the American system – I’m used to the Scandinavian one, and don’t feel like changing, basically. Which I don’t doubt is how most Americans feel re America, so that’s pretty much a non-issue
One thing I know some (not all) people here (Finland) are annoyed with when it comes to America is how the US tends to “take on” things nobody asked it to; or at least it comes off like that; like arrogance. The “stopping of communism” as an example – I’m firmly right-wing personally so I definitely think the world would’ve been a better place without communism, but I don’t like when anyone takes it upon themselves to “help the world from X”, you know? I feel like everyone should get to make their own decisions, even if I may think the decision is bad. I know someone will say “but X is harmful, it needs to be removed” – and yeah, it can come to that, but… still, should be an own choice, not any other country’s. This is probably the laissez-faire ideas in me speaking, but.
(I just taught a high school class about the Cold War, so I’m somewhat anti-superpowers and their ambitions for the world right now… the USSR was obviously no better, but it fell and stopped intervening on the same scale, so now I can only be bugged by the US, I guess.)
Well, the US does have the best TV-shows, at any rate!
(And has done much good in world politics too – the Marshall plan comes to mind, even if it was intervening in a sense; but there was a choice whether to take the money or not, which I like – basically, don’t think I just like to rant endlessly! Heh.)
Gah, sorry this got so long!
Well how did the Sovs fall? Without the US influence, I promise you that the time of the Cold would be much worse.
The Soviet Union was expansionist. There has been many pieces of evidence released from the Kremlin that layout the plans of the times. They show that the Sovs were the ones who actually started the Korean War, and who influenced the start of the Vietnam war.
Other countries in Europe were not equipped to balance the Soviet power because after WWWII, they were basically all deeply destructed. Millions upon millions died in Europe(greater than 20 million in the Soviet Union) and there was a great fear that WWIII may begin. There is also evidence that countries like Britain, France, Italy wanted the U.S. to do more against the Soviet Union, and believed that they were not doing enough to battle the Sovs.
It’s fine to criticize, but there are always more things to the story.
Oh, of course the USSR was expansionist – I live in an affected country, so I know – just didn’t make that clear, I guess.
Good if there is clear evidence; I’m just mentioning what it seems like from my horizon, which is probably more of a subjective view than anything. Again, I do know that a lot of the intervening the US has done has been good, but I still don’t like the theory of it (and I don’t/didn’t like it with the USSR or anyone else either, now or during the Cold War – the US just gets most of the heat now, from me anyway, since it’s the only superpower left, and I wrote the above about things I don’t love with the US specifically – would’ve been the same about Russia. Actually, it’d been worse, but!) This may be a useless opinion seeing that it’s largely theoretical, but.
I’m currently taking a course on how different countries view the end of WWII btw, it’s very interesting! (I’m at uni in Helsinki, history major). I’m really looking forward to different archives opening and such, they’ve been doing it a bit over here lately. The thing with this period, and lots of the Cold War, seems to be that almost everyone has their own view on who did what and why – again with the sides of the stories, I guess (big debate going on in Finland and Sweden over certain parts of the war, currently).
I completely agree, the course that I am taking actually discuss most of the different views, using different paradigms and perspectives.
This is why I call myself a realist because I believe in the realist paradigm.