American exceptionalism(en.wikipedia.org)
en.wikipedia.org
American exceptionalism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism
7 comments
What are the awesome things for the rich?
Well not caring about prices for one. I don't look at price tags for every day things, I just buy them. Healthcare is much easier as you get more access and can just pay for better doctors. For example, my psychiatrist is 700/hr compared to a shitty insurance accepting psych. Mental health on insurance in general is terrible.
Just in general, life is easy when you have money. Its not the case in other countries because they are more equal, so in that respect America is exceptional. Really sucks for everyone else though
Just in general, life is easy when you have money. Its not the case in other countries because they are more equal, so in that respect America is exceptional. Really sucks for everyone else though
$700/hour for a psychiatrist? That is shockingly high, is it not?
> The actual phrase "American exceptionalism" was originally coined by the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in 1929 as a critique of a revisionist faction of American communists that argued that the American political climate was unique and made it an "exception" to certain elements of Marxist theory.
Note that broad usage of the term itself didn't actually take off until the 1980's: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=American+excep...
I think the term is much too loaded, so most discussion around it is really about something else (eg, is actually about relative decline or ascendancy of the US or another place, most of which does not necessarily speak to the exceptional nature of either). Exceptional meaning both "too different to compare" and "excellent" make it more difficult.
Note that broad usage of the term itself didn't actually take off until the 1980's: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=American+excep...
I think the term is much too loaded, so most discussion around it is really about something else (eg, is actually about relative decline or ascendancy of the US or another place, most of which does not necessarily speak to the exceptional nature of either). Exceptional meaning both "too different to compare" and "excellent" make it more difficult.
Most Americans under the age of about 50 have no personal experience of the US being anything else than "Number 1".
To those people, "American Exceptionalism" equates to "America is Number 1".
When America becomes "Number 2" in the near future, it would be an unimaginable disaster for those people. That's why the Wolfowitz Doctrine and the Thucydides Trap will bring actual disaster for the US - wars, financial collapse, etc.
Of course, those of us that are older can remember lots of times when America was not Number 1 at all. And so we're not as fussed about the coming demotions.
To those people, "American Exceptionalism" equates to "America is Number 1".
When America becomes "Number 2" in the near future, it would be an unimaginable disaster for those people. That's why the Wolfowitz Doctrine and the Thucydides Trap will bring actual disaster for the US - wars, financial collapse, etc.
Of course, those of us that are older can remember lots of times when America was not Number 1 at all. And so we're not as fussed about the coming demotions.
That's an interesting take, to me as a 50 year old who identifies more with people younger than with people older.
I think you're talking specifically about being the world's sole military superpower. That isn't what I think about when I hear "American exceptionalism", though it is part of it.
For people under 20, they've never lived a world where the US wasn't locked in a War on Terror, even though the most terrorists they've ever seen attack the US have been other Americans. Our sole super-power-ness has been of little value.
For people my age, we remember the brief period after the Cold War and before the War on Terror. We remember it fondly, but it's becoming dim. We crushed Iraq and Afghanistan but aren't thought of as victors.
We're #1 in military strength and will remain #1, but it doesn't matter. Maybe China will force us into the Thucydides Trap but they seem to prefer fighting economically. They like the saber-rattling, but then, so do we. I think we're all feeling a return to Mutually Assured Destruction dread, but it's not yet the top of our minds.
Closer to the top of our minds is all the other things I associate with American exceptionalism, and those are looking even more worn. There's a lot of current events poking at that, but even before pandemic and chip shortage, we were looking at a continuing stimulus for a recession that technically ended a decade ago, and a student loan crisis, and a generation that feels like it won't ever get ahead. We know we're still richer than poor countries but it doesn't feel like we're exceptionally, permanently superior.
And for those older than me, it looks to us as if they're wedded to the Cold World Order. They fight tooth and nail to praise the virtues of their childhoods, and declare that if America isn't exceptional it's because everybody younger than them has thrown off their own specialness. We're lazy, dumb, immoral, etc. That's just the usual generational grumbling, but ratched up to 11 by American Exceptionalism and a world catching up to us.
I think you're talking specifically about being the world's sole military superpower. That isn't what I think about when I hear "American exceptionalism", though it is part of it.
For people under 20, they've never lived a world where the US wasn't locked in a War on Terror, even though the most terrorists they've ever seen attack the US have been other Americans. Our sole super-power-ness has been of little value.
For people my age, we remember the brief period after the Cold War and before the War on Terror. We remember it fondly, but it's becoming dim. We crushed Iraq and Afghanistan but aren't thought of as victors.
We're #1 in military strength and will remain #1, but it doesn't matter. Maybe China will force us into the Thucydides Trap but they seem to prefer fighting economically. They like the saber-rattling, but then, so do we. I think we're all feeling a return to Mutually Assured Destruction dread, but it's not yet the top of our minds.
Closer to the top of our minds is all the other things I associate with American exceptionalism, and those are looking even more worn. There's a lot of current events poking at that, but even before pandemic and chip shortage, we were looking at a continuing stimulus for a recession that technically ended a decade ago, and a student loan crisis, and a generation that feels like it won't ever get ahead. We know we're still richer than poor countries but it doesn't feel like we're exceptionally, permanently superior.
And for those older than me, it looks to us as if they're wedded to the Cold World Order. They fight tooth and nail to praise the virtues of their childhoods, and declare that if America isn't exceptional it's because everybody younger than them has thrown off their own specialness. We're lazy, dumb, immoral, etc. That's just the usual generational grumbling, but ratched up to 11 by American Exceptionalism and a world catching up to us.
It is awesome if you are rich, which I am now, but man it sucked when I was poor.