Exceptionalism

Each time I hear the word exceptionalism uttered, I flinch. When I hear the word coupled with American ...as in American exceptionalism, I cringe.

Americans have every right to be a proud people. From the discovery of the continent (by Europeans) in 1492, the community beachheads established in 1607 at Jamestown and 1620 at the landing of the Mayflower (shown in this painting by William Halsall [1882]) on Plymouth Rock, our ancestors crafted and we of more contemporary times have continued to build a marvelous country. Of course, we acted more under the laws of nature than the laws of civilization, for when we arrived, a native people already populated the continent that was to become America.

In forming the new nation of people with origins in Europe, we followed the law of nature, claimed the land from the native peoples and made it our own.

America was conceived in the early 1600's. From that beginning, two small colonies, one in what is now Massachusetts, one in what is now Virginia, America was born, exceptional for the day and time, probably, but American exceptionalism would take a couple of centuries, well into the twentieth century before the term was first uttered.

A new ideology was born in those early settlements. An

American ideology, based on liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, populism and laissez-faire (the statement is generally attributed to de Tocqueville)

attitude and view of life that would evolve into what many now see as exceptionalism.

It may have been de Tocqueville who defined the term, but it was, of all people, the American Communist Party who, in the 1920s, coined the phrase American exceptionalism.

So there we have it, our pedigree has some questionable origins, some trying, sometimes less than civil beginnings.

First, we distinguished ourselves by conquering (or maybe just occupying) a territory that previously was owned but sparsely populated by a native people, the Algonquian and other tribes; secondly, we suffered the travails brought about by the dislocation from the relatively civil society of Europe to the wilderness of the new continent; thirdly, during the early years of the new world, we were dubbed exceptional by one of the world's foremost scholars of the time; and, subsequently, as a people, we were labeled and dubiously flattered by the term American exceptionalism by the American Communist Party.

We built a nation, the envy of much of the world. We must guard our borders because the people of the world want to come in and enjoy the freedom, the opportunities that we Americans take for granted. In the eyes of a vast majority of the world, our country, our people truly are exceptional. What history, what contemporary times that we are fortunate to live in.

But has American Exceptionalism morphed into a euphemism for global military power?

Unquestionably, the world needs an effective mechanism to provide governments and the governed to fully and freely participate in the fruits of our planet. To move the communities away from the laws of nature and fit the multifaceted interests of different countries into the world community, a policing and legal infrastructure must be available to allow for the resolution of differences and enforcement of agreed-to actions. Whether the United Nations or another participatory body, a means must be available to allow for resolution of differences. In place of a UN, that is too unwieldy to act, the United States has stepped to the fore and confronted many of the world's injustices. Unfortunately, many in our country construe our world policing role in recent years as a demonstration of American exceptionalism. In fact, as has been demonstrated lately, our interference in the affairs of others is more defined as American arrogance ...far from the original concept of exceptionalism.

We are at somewhat of a crossroads in America. On the one hand, we can pull back to our borders and allow the countries and peoples of the world to fend for themselves; or, we can lead the nations of the world in making the United Nations or a follow-on to the UN become the keeper and administrator of the world's welfare. We must step back from unilateralism.

We shouldn't become isolationists, but America must step back from dominating the forces of good in the world and let some of the other wealthy countries participate in leading and funding the struggle for world peace and world prosperity.