Here's another word for exceptionalism for you:
"situational ethics".
The things you can do and the places you go when you are "exceptional".
torture
oil
pollute
invade
exploit
impoverish
Here's another word for exceptionalism for you:
"situational ethics".
The things you can do and the places you go when you are "exceptional".
torture
oil
pollute
invade
exploit
impoverish
2011-05-10
Newt Gingrich has written an entire book which essentially argues that America, the exceptional, is like some titled noble to whom the rest of the world, a collection of lesser nobles, peasants, and slaves, must kowtow.
No, of course he doesn't put it that way. They never do, do they? But no one should mistake the meaning of "exceptional" for anything else: we get to make our own rules and we have special access to the world's wealth and resources because God said so.
The world looked at America, and lo, it saw this: obese children suckling mega-super-ultra-gigantic soft drinks and fries; men in camouflage shooting at helpless animals and beer cans; a city drowning in floods while the government stumbled around like drunken blind crippled men; children on motorized off-road vehicles tearing into the hillsides; cities draining; farmers growing gas; cosmetic surgeries; abandoned factories; Koran-burning pastors; pyramid marketing materialists; bunker-bussing survivalists; drug pushers on the streets; drug-pushers in the doctors offices; poverty and indifference to poverty; screaming hatred at "town hall" meetings.
And lo, America looked at itself in the mirror and did not see what the world saw. America looked at itself and saw that it was EXCEPTIONAL. And that the rules of the world, of fair play and mutual respect and cooperation, did not apply to them, for America was EXCEPTIONAL. And America was chosen by God to be the vessel of his or her grace, for America was EXCEPTIONAL. And he who does not embrace this ideology shall be accused of not loving America and if he does not embrace it, America will hold its breath until it turns blue in the face.
What is truly exceptional is how American politicians like Newt Gingrich have managed to take "I'm better than you are and I can do whatever I want to do because I'm special" and repackaged it as some kind of weird religious-patriotic mishmash expressed in a harmless sounding euphemism: "exceptionalism".
It's code. "Manifest Destiny" is back. Look out, boys. This time, they're after your oil, your fish, and your water. And they've invented a new kind of morality to make it right. And they'll kill you if you stand in their way.