News is that Oklahoma, in a supposed
rebuff to the Common Core curriculum, is proposing making it illegal
for state high schools to offer Advanced Placement courses. The
thinking here is that the federal government is too involved in
deciding what should be considered for such courses and that means
that the federal government is meddling too much in what should be
state and local issues. In addition, the complaint is that Advanced
Placement courses don't place enough emphasis on “American
Exceptionalism.” For those unfamiliar with the term American
Exceptionalism is a theory that the United States occupies a space
that is different and superior to other nations. The term has been
used by conservative writers and policy makers to lend credence to
American intervention in global disputes. No one disputes the right
of the United States to intervene in issues that affect its national
interests but to even imply that we have some inherent right to do so
because of some superior endowment is just plain hubris.
When I was a kid (and that was a bit
longer ago than I like to admit) my Dad taught me that there was no
one else any better than me. At the same time he taught that I
should not act as though I was any better than anyone else either. I
would bet good money that well over 90% of you were taught the same
lessons. My teachers (my Mother included) were people that had
endured The Great Depression and World War II. Life lessons had
taught them quite a lot about living in a society that had seen
desperate times from allowing the elite of society to grow into an
entitled class. World War II taught them that it could all disappear
and that any one of them could be required to sacrifice for the well
being of the whole. Lessons that we seem to have forgotten. We have
once again allowed a privileged class to rise to great positions of
power. Levels that exceed even those of that long ago Gilded Age.
Now we can go to war without requiring sacrifice from the public,
indeed, without even paying for it. Just put it on the credit card.
There will be no suffering required. Now, just how exceptional is
that? It is pretty exceptional but not in a good way.
The idea of using American
Exceptionalism to justify foreign adventures reminds me of nothing so
much as Manifest Destiny. You may recall that doctrine from high
school American History as being the doctrine that allowed us to
drive across the continent in a wave that took land from the native
Americans. It held that if it were not manifest that God wanted this
we would not be able to do it. The depredations and misdeeds done in
the name of Manifest Destiny have come more to light since my high
school days and one must acknowledge that great harm was done. Shall
we ever be able to rectify those misdeeds? Not likely but at least
the new doctrine of American Exceptionalism will allow those we
conquered to live in an exceptional nation.
Personally, I think we do live in an
exceptional country. In the 240 years since our independence we have
done many worthwhile things along with some not so worthwhile. What
is exceptional about our country are the ideals upon which it was
founded and that bear so much tending in order to sustain. We have
not always been faithful. But to assert that we have some right to
press our culture and belief on some other country is being untrue to
that heritage. Truthfully, a nation cannot be exceptional unless its
people are exceptional.
While it is possible for us to live in
an exceptional country it does not necessarily follow that we are
exceptional and others are not. Great empires have risen to be
exceptional but have fallen when that sense of exceptionalism gave
way to a sense of privilege and the benefits that arose from that
status were not shared with the multitudes. It is a given that
people with great privilege will attempt to keep that status
proprietary and not share it and that is not exceptional.
To assert that such a thing as American
Exceptionalism would give the United States the right to go about
attempting to dictate a way of life to others and to bend the world
to our whim is hubris befitting the gods and that hubris is what
always brought them to their downfall. If we continue to assert
American Exceptionalism it will one day be our downfall also. If we
look about the world over the past fifty years there is no shortage
of adventures in which we attempted to mold countries and people to
fit our perceptions and values but when we do that we automatically
devalue what they hold dear about their own countries and ways of
life.
But a doctrine of “American
Exceptionalism” carries with it a connotation of some divine right
having been bestowed upon us just as we once asserted of “Manifest
Destiny.” It is dangerous to allow ourselves to become what we
believe to be heirs of some divine or inevitable gift because then
what we do in the name of that gift we must also attribute that
worthiness. Do we dare assert that? Is there an empire that has
ever risen that did not assert that?
My Take is that exceptionalism is as
exceptionalism does (to paraphrase a great philosopher). If we are
to be remembered by history as being and exceptional nation then we
must attempt to provide an environment in which the values that we
treasure can come to fruition. We must allow that not all peoples
follow the waves of history on the same timetable but perhaps by our
example we can be the exceptional nation that is admired globally and
that others may wish to emulate. To do so we will have to tame our
own appetites and be more willing to engage with reason and patience.
We will never achieve that American Exceptionalism by dint of power
and force but only by being able to carry our core values that assert
the power of the people through the ages.
