Title: AMERICAN%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20EXCEPTIONALISM
1AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM
2- Our particular claim to greatness as a nation
rests on the fact that we have done without may
elements that might be thought of as the marks of
a great people, among them the myth of origin. -
3- Americans have been suckled by no wolf, sired by
no Trojan fleeing Troy they are not descended
from the sun or from the dragons teeth sown in
the earth.
4- Indeed, our greatness consists precisely in the
fact that we are making it up as we go along --
that we are perpetually in the process of
devising ourselves as a people. - Robert Pinsky, former Poet Laurete
5- All civilizations rest on myths,
- but in America myths have exceptional
- meaning....
- America is different. It is the only peaceful
multi-racial civilization in the world - - Theodore White,
- journalist
6AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM
- Myth...?
- ....or Reality...?
7SOME FACTORStoCONSIDER
8America as a NEW WORLD
- Unanticipated
- Huge, immense
- Relatively unpopulated
- Comparatively vacant
- Resource rich
- Unclaimed by existing political powers
9Whats New?
- New England
- New Jersey
- New York
- New Hampshire
- and (new) Portland -
- of Oregon
- Maine
- and England
10An ABSENCE OF HISTORY
- No feudal traditions...
- of landed aristocracy
- .....or of fixed peasantry
- .....or of inherited statuses
- No incorporation of pre-European --i.e.,
indigenous--settlements into American history
11- Whereas Europe is a land with too much history
and not enough geography, America has little
history and plenty of geography. - - Daniel Boorstin Aldous Huxley
- historian author
12the SIGNIFICANCE OF THE
FRONTIER
- Open land
- Continual expansion
- Verge or Frontier mentality
- Absence of laws
- Acceptance of violence
13- Every movement inward was a verge between the
advanced European civilization and the stone-age
culture of the American Indians, between people
and wilderness. - - Daniel Boorstin,
- historian
14Frontier Characteristics(ala Frederick Jackson
Turner)
15the CENTRALITY OF IDEAS
- Founding documents
- Declaration of Independence
- Constitution
- Background of English Enlightenment
- Lincolns proposition of equality
- The great experiment of democracy
16- European nations are the products of history
and not of philosophy. The United States, unlike
any other nation, has been built upon an
idea--the idea of liberty. -
- - Margaret Thatcher,
- British Prime Minister
17The American Creed According to Seymour Martin
Lipsetcontemporary sociologist
- - Liberty
- - Equalitarianism
- - Individualism
- - Populism
- - Lassiez-faire
18an AUTOCTHONOUS
PEOPLE
- Self-created
- Coming from everywhere else
- Many-cultured
- Rooted in neither time nor place nor history nor
culture - no motherland or fatherland
- Having a Manifest Destiny
19- Americas people come of such diverse heritages
of religion, tongue, habit, fatherhood, color and
folk song that if America did not exist it would
be impossible to imagine that such a gathering of
alien strains could ever behave like a nation. - - Theodore White,
- journalist
20RELIGOUSLY MANDATED
- Being of the elect
- Selected for a larger destiny
- Especially blessed
- Having an extra-national moral responsiblity
21- We Americans are the peculiar, chosen
people--the Israel of our time we bear the ark
of the liberties of the world. God has
predestined, mankind expects, great things from
our race and great things we feel in our souls. - - Herman Melville,
- author
22Popular Mandates
- New England Puritans
- to establish the City upon the Hill
- Joseph Smith
- to found the promised Land of Zion
- Woodrow Wilson
- to make the world safe for democracy
- George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton
- to establish a new world order
23HISTORICALLY EXEMPT
- Since 1812 not invaded by a foreign power until
9/11/2001 - No socialist worker political tradition
- Without a state religion
- Peacefully bordered
24 War Dead
- The War U.S. Dead Total
Dead - Civil War 600,000 600,000
- Great War 30,000 9,000,000
- WW II 300,000 55,000,000
- English civilians alone 60,000
- Viet Nam 60,000 2,060,000
- Iraq II Afghanistan 4922 over
1,425,000 U.S. wounded 32,987
confirmed as of 2/24/2011
25the SOLE WORLD POWER
- Oldest republic
- Oldest democracy
- Oldest written constitution
- Highest GNP
- 3rd wealthiest per capita
- Strongest military in human history
26What is Our National Interest?
- There is nothing in the national interest or in
the American creed which demands that we dominate
the rest of the world but there is much in our
tradition and way of life which requires that we
be the defender and promoter of the democratic
cause on the world scene - - W. W. Rostow,
- economist
27What is Our National Interest?
- Only in a world where the powers great and small
enjoyed liberal democratic institutions could
there obtain the peaceful international relations
in which America could prosper in its own way of
life. - - Charles Hershfield,
- historian
28This is Our National Policy
- History has called America and our allies to
action, and it is both our responsibility and our
privilege to fight freedoms fight. - We seek a just and peaceful world beyond the war
on terror. Evil is real and must be opposed.
29In a single instant, we realized that this will
be a decisive decade in the history of liberty --
that we have been called to a unique role in
human events. We have known freedoms price.
We have shown freedoms power. And in the great
conflict, my fellow Americans, we will see
freedoms victory. - George W.
Bush, President of
the U.S.
30The New Bush Doctrine
- To provide a single sustainable model for
national success freedom, democracy, and free
enterprise. - To defend freedom of religion and conscience from
encroachment by repressive governments. - To engage in proactive counter-proliferation
efforts.
31New Bush Doctrine continued...
- To exercise our right of self-defense by acting
preemptively. - To deter and defend against any threat before it
is unleashed. - To maintain the capability to defeat any attempt
by an enemy to impose its will on the U.S., our
allies, or our friends.
32New Bush Doctrine continued...
- Our forces will be strong enough to dissuade
potential adversaries from pursuing a military
buildup in (their) hopes of surpassing, or
equaling, the power of the United States.
33Critique of the Bush Doctrine
- The development of a U.S.-centered world view in
which the United States presumptively and
unilaterally pursues its objectives as it sees
fit.
34Super Power as Role Model?
- Withdrew from the Kyoto Treaty on global warming,
signed by 186 nations. - Refused to sign the Land Mines Ban Treaty, signed
by 137 nations. - Unilaterally withdrew from the ABM Treaty of
1973. - Refused to join the International Criminal Court.
35- Abstained from the renewal of the Outer Space
Treaty. - Refused to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty,
accepted by 120 nations. - Rejected an agreement to enforce the 1972
International Biological Weapons Convention,
ratified by 413 countries.
36- If we have to use force, it is because we are
America. - We are the indispensable nation.
- We stand tall.
- We see further into the future.
- - Madeline Albright,
- former Secretary of State
37AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM
- Myth...?
- ....or Reality...?