American Exceptionalism:You're Trying to Do Too Much
In so many things, we are no longer a world leader. What do we still have to base our exalted view of America on?
When I first heard the expression “American exceptionalism,” a few years ago, I was a little taken aback. My stepdad, Joseph Murray Page, taught at Buffalo State College for 35 years, in the Exceptional Education Department: what we would now call teaching youngsters with special needs. Mostly he taught education students how to work with kids with speech and hearing deficits, including a few with intellectual deficits as well.
To me, just the word exceptionalism still carries connotations of disadvantage of some sort. It's an annoying word by itself, such a glib, foggy euphemism that one hesitates to ask what, precisely, it means. Couldn't it also signify the quality of being above average?
Obviously yes, since when anyone speaks of American exceptionalism, they almost always mean “way above par.” Indeed, people use that phrase to mean not just “better,” but “best.” We can't just be a good or great country, we have to be the greatest. (Indeed, we need to become great again -- return to the apex of perfection, reach that height twice. Who in the world could ever beat that?) Remember Mrs. T's anti-bullying program “Be Best"? (Whatever happened with that, anyway?)
Part of this lies in consumer psychology, coming from centuries of advertising reminding every American they deserve the very best -- or should care enough to send the very best, or should want nothing but the best for their family, the cat (or dog) included. Why settle for crappy old Brand X, anyway? Don't you care? Your neighbors use the best, as does that smooth know-it-all friend of yours that you secretly hate yourself for admiring.
Of course, even Brand X is still made by an American firm, which automatically makes it loads better than anything from any other country. Right?
American exceptionalism (moving right along) is said to be based on four pillars: private property, free market capitalism, a system of common law, and a moral/ethical system framed by religious freedom. All good things -- when not manipulated on a large scale for the benefit of a few who want The Best all to themselves. And every one of those pillars has been fucked with pretty badly, starting back in the Nixon era. (Probably even earlier, as I think about it.)
But what of our standing among other nations? Shouldn't that be the real litmus test of our exceptionalism? Well … we don't stack up as well as we might wish to. According to most recent data, we're number one militarily and economically (once you've got that private property, boy, you've gotta defend it from all comers), but in education, out of 71 countries we rank 38th in math, 24th in science; in infrastructure, we're 25th, behind Oman and Barbados; health-wise, on average per person we spend $10,966 a year, more than any other nation; our standard of living is still higher than any other nation's, but for most of us it's still a desperate scramble to earn a decent living. (I'm still struggling there myself, and have for most of my life.)
Want to know another area in which the U.S. is number one? Maternal mortality. Babies born orphans, if at all. And you know perfectly well that a disproportionate number of those pregnancy deaths occur among Black, indigenous and people of color populations here.
This was a brand-new nation not really all that long ago, a wild noisy youngster, full of ideas and ideals and out to change the world: much like young individuals exposed to college in recent decades, who start to hear about the deceptions and illusions that are part of this country's slightly shaky foundations, and start asking all the right questions. Almost everybody, even without the college experience, goes through some sort of awakening to certain jarring facts about the world at some point in their lives. It can be as simple as realizing the rich will usually get whatever they want, while the poor go on getting screwed. At some time thereafter, they reach a point where they must choose how to contend with the world they now see: do they get as much as they can grab from that world, intent solely on bettering themselves and their families, or do they set themselves a task of bettering it in some way, great or small?
The country is fortunate that that split turns out more or less even, with some overlap. I'd very much like to see more of that last group, and I think (and pray) we will.
Again, America to me seems like a giant adolescent, gangly, hormonal, insecure, moody as hell about things no grownup would get so worked up about. At the same time, as a young punk the nation seems to think it has all the answers, and that it will never be injured or killed, and that all the other nations should look up to it.
The country still has some growing up to do, exactly like so many of its citizens. And it may take quite a while for us to reach true collective maturity, and start fixing our four pillars, and much else besides.
And when we do get that admittedly enormous job done, then yes, we will be an exceptional country indeed.