Conner Coutts
Bengal Submission
What if I told you that it is bad to be exceptional? Of course, it’s not bad to be good at something, but to be exceptional brings an additional price.
Miriam Webster defines exceptional in two ways. First as Forming an exception, because it is rare, and second, being better than average, or superior. The second definition is the good version of exceptional, while the first one is the one I want to focus on.
Duke University recently published a study in “Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin” that analyzed humility and ego in relation to how proud we are of our achievements. The resulting conclusion highlighted the importance of hypo-egoic non-entitlement, which is a fancy way of saying ‘being proud of the things we have done, but not expecting special treatment because of our achievements. They found that this trait, was the defining factor in humility and the avoidance of ego-based failure.
As Americans, we have a lot to be proud of, especially from previous generations. Winning world wars, reconstructing Europe, the formation of NATO, Space travel, technology, and our revolutionary beginnings. Now, in a test of our ego, do these things entitle America to special treatment? No.
The term American Exceptionalism is used to explain that America is the best for one of two reasons. The first being that America has been divinely chosen to lead the world and the second being that America’s unique culture and community creates better results than other nations.
Maybe these beliefs are based in America’s inherently rampant love for nostalgia, exemplified by the slogan “Make America Great Again”, and the remembrance of Reagan’s City On a Hill speech. Currently, we see American hegemony on the decline and the global power structures shifting. If we as Americans decide to ignore reason in favor of blind nostalgia, we will be left behind while still believing we are in first place.
First things first, let’s start this with something that may not be as obvious as it should be. America is not the best country in the world to undertake any task, and the ignorance of that fact has led to a lot of problems in our history.
But, why do we believe this? Many would point to divine ordination, saying that America was chosen by God to lead the world. Regardless of your religious beliefs, it is easy to see that this is a weak excuse that was used for centuries, long before the United States, by corrupt kings to subjugate peasants. Also, this belief undermines the separation of church and state, because if we fully believe that our actions are dictated by God then there is no reason to separate it from government.
Aside from the incorrect assumption guiding these principles, this Idea that America is uniquely virtuous and has a capacity for action that no other country has leads us to justify the actions of America’s perceived interests.
The invasion of Iraq is a great example, because by merely saying that they had WMDs and America had to be the good guys on the ground, Bush jr. validated a costly and largely unsuccessful war.
Also, in the UN, the United States has a rampant history of being exempt from and not ratifying international agreements. These include the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Rome statute that established the International Criminal Court, and the Paris Agreement.
These are large international cooperative efforts towards a better world, but because they may possibly infringe on our interests we choose to be the one the laws don’t apply to. In essence, we expect other nations to agree to these things, but we do not hold ourselves to the same standard.
Realizing this would have a twofold effect. First, we wouldn’t be wasting our resources on things we should not be doing. Second, we as Americans would have a better ability to be proud of what we have done, because we wouldn’t be committing to action in places we do not belong.
Eduardo Porter from the New York Times said it best, “The United States is one of the richest, most technologically advanced nations in the history of humanity. And yet it accepts — proudly defends, even — a degree of social dysfunction that would be intolerable in any other rich society.” Why do we continue upon this path where we ignore policy options to increase education, feed the poor, and guarantee health care?
While there is no good answer, my guess is that it relates to American exceptionalism and the idea that we are exempt from the laws of history. Nations that ignore their citizen’s health and financial needs are often weak, and only continue to get weaker. Our infant mortality rate is the fourth largest in the OECD, behind only Turkey, Chile, and Mexico. We also live in more poverty than our international peers, with over 17% of our population being impoverished by international standards. This also leads to disadvantaged children having less opportunities for a quality education, and an impoverished child almost never catches up to their affluent peers.
But how can this be true? Isn’t America the nation where all you need is hard work to be successful? Ok Boomer. Our notions of manifest destiny and exceptionalism contribute to this ideology, even when it is proven untrue.
My generation will be the first in American history to be worse off than their parents, and our economic mobility is comparable if not lower than our international peers. All the while, Americans on average take less vacation time, work more hours, and have more stress-related illnesses than our Japanese and European peers. This has real impacts on the citizenry of our nation.
Marianna Virtanen of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health found that overworking ourselves like this plays a large role in America’s growing rates of depression, addiction, and heart disease. So not only are we literally killing ourselves by working this hard, but we are making ourselves feel worthless.
How much different are Americans from the rest of the world? Not as much as you would believe. Pseudoscience once made everyone believe that races who weren’t white had less brain capacity, which we now know is false. At our cores, a human born in America is no different than a human born in another country.
However, the narrative that Americans are so much different than other citizens of the globe has fermented into American exceptionalism that fosters racial and ethnic hatred. Agreeing with this assumption validates Xenophobia, and is the reason for a lot of struggles in the U.S.
For example, if being American means that you are white, then inherently you believe that non-whites are not American. This was the attitude up to, and even after the passage of the civil rights movement.
In June of this year at a campaign rally, Trump targeted four members of Congress, all of them women of color. He enticed the crowd to shout “send her back”, despite only one of them being born outside of the US. This is a harrowing example of a long-held American belief that anyone with non-white skin, is an immigrant and that the U.S. would be better off if we sent them back to their home countries. In reality, these “home countries” would be New York, Michigan, and Ohio.
But, why does this perception exist? David Flash of University of Texas at Austin believes that past wars and territorial expansion have a role to play. Since national identities are often formed in times of crisis, war has had a large impact on our racial perceptions.
American conflict against the Spanish, Cubans and Japanese (Just to name a few) was always presented to the public as white Americans against a funny looking foreign enemy. If you need proof, just go look at some propaganda posters from those time periods and you can see how our national identity was formed in this way.
Those who would disagree with me would most likely say that America evaded the violence, fascism, and class warfare that engulfed most of Europe and the world. Proponents of this ideology are historical revisionists who like to boost the American ego. They often forget about the Jim Crowe era, wars against Native Americans, the civil war, and many other large issues.
Aside from the historical inaccuracy, this idea’s persistence has led to what I would call a blindfold of ignorant bliss. Many people thought that our democratic system was so great and so unique that it would filter out possible fascists and leaders looking to abuse the system.
In reality, we are facing a time of unprecedented threats to our democracy. The increases of political tribalism, nationalist movements, science denial, and far-right groups are case in point that America is not an exception to the rules of global politics, nor to global trends.
This year’s “Freedom in the World” report by Freedom House found that most countries, including America, are facing a decline in the quality of democracy. America plays by the same rules and in the same arena as other countries, so thinking that we are governed by a different set of rules for superficial or ignorant reasons only stands to harm us.
For so long, Americans have expected to be treated with exception because of our achievements, showing our lack of humility. We have also propagated myths about hard work, race, social spending, and democracy in an attempt to validate American exceptionalism. These myths stand to destroy ours, or any other country who believes these things.
Avoiding exceptionalism of any kind whether it be dependent on race, religion, country or origin, or any other variable needs to be a priority of the next decade. We should be proud of our country, and I’m not telling anyone that shouldn’t be.
However, once any group of people decides that they are allowed exemptions from rules and norms because of their achievements, it should be a red flag to the international community.
America is a highly developed nation, and as a result, many people look up to or at America for not only guidance but for finding solutions by observation.
Even though I have chosen to focus on American exceptionalism, this can happen to anyone anywhere, and an exceptionalist country is a threat to the entire global community. So, next time you want to tell someone that they are better than most at something, try not to use the world ‘exceptional’, because they might invade the middle east under false pretenses of Weapons of Mass destruction.
