On ‘The Greatest Country on Earth’ and American Exceptionalism

On ‘The Greatest Country on Earth’ and American Exceptionalism

It’s the election season (the only season you’ll ever experience on earth that lasts 2-4 years) and we will be hearing the phrase ‘the greatest country on earth’ spewing rather loudly and repetitively from the mouths of Republican and Democrat alike, and probably from the mouths of some candidates from minor and marginal parties as well. It’s supposed to be a kind of unifying, rallying call and those who call it the loudest and longest are deemed to be the ones who love the country the most.

            And that must be a good thing, right?

            Except that it’s bullshit.

            Making that statement precludes this piece from publication in any of the watered-down pussy-whipped rags called newspapers and magazines in this country. It will likely affect my job opportunities, even, if it were. It is simply unacceptable for a wide swathe of the citizenry of the US to utter critical, or even realistic, statements about the place of this country in the world if they seek many of the available jobs; including political office, of course. These dopes that run for office must tire of being endlessly coached on how to praise the country and feign patriotism.

            If they don’t tire of mouthing those platitudes, we certainly do tire of listening to them; those of us out here in the real world.

            But is loving one’s country the same as believing that it is the greatest country on the planet? Is it ever enough to simply think that one’s country is a great place to live and leave it at that - period, full stop?

            If not, why not?

            A rallying cry of a segment of the political spectrum seeks to revive the concept of ‘American Exceptionalism’. What does this mean? It has been said that it means that there is something in the American experience that is ‘exceptional’, unique, special, exalted, elevated to a level that rises above the status of other countries.

            How fucking arrogant and obnoxious can you get? Entire histories filled with pain and achievement, rich and innovative art and music, complex social relations and colourful cultures, vibrant and ancient histories, get cast upon the slagheap so that the puny peons of industry can get exalted to the skies.

            What crap!

            It is no wonder that many people around the globe are not enamoured of the US. How could it be otherwise if the only relationship possible is one of subjection, of subservience?

            Do we, as Americans, really need these concepts and images (myths?) in order to feel good about ourselves?

            I don’t think so.

            It is an odd perspective on life and one that relies explicitly on the belief that others are inferior. It’s a grand delusion that reflects a kind of underlying inferiority complex, where self-esteem can only be found by denigrating others, by putting others down.

            It is a very bad thing I think, a thing which we need to put into the dustbin of history, to grow up out of. Patriotism itself is a debatable virtue, but patriotism that depends on placing oneself on a fictitious pedestal towering above others borders on being evil. It perpetuates divisiveness as a virtue; indeed, even a virtue of the highest order.

            American exceptionalism was perhaps born in the hyperbole of Manifest Destiny – the former colonists, now united in an independent nation, were fated to drive to the ends of the continent, colonizing all that lay before them, capturing all the resources and all the land in order to make the nation that would rise above all other nations.

            The devastation of proud, virtuous, and noble nations that fell in the wake of that massive bout of bullying should be lesson enough on how to navigate the way forward.

             But it hasn’t been, and the revival of a mind-set that seeks to place stupidity above intelligence smacks of the cold fact of continual battle.

            Eyes on the prize people, eyes on the prize.

A View from a Returning Expatriate

When during a phone interview connecting me to my potential colleagues in South Africa nine years ago, I stated that I had no passport, they just about gasped in astonishment. Such a thing is impossible for an academic in that and in most other countries. But it’s emblematic of life in these United States. The US is mired in a blinkered insularity that makes it and its people something of the village idiots to other folk around the planet. The perception that nothing that really counts happens outside the US is so pervasive that anyone who has seen first-hand the falsity of that perception, and experienced the consequences of it upon trying to re-integrate into America, may be forgiven for succumbing to a feeling of hopeless, helpless, frustration and rage.

            God help the immigrants.

            It’s pretty well accepted that the average American’s knowledge of geography is, well; let’s be blunt: piss-poor (When we told a waiter that we were from South Africa, East London to be precise, he enthusiastically bonded with us by telling us he had a friend in Djbouti, which was ‘near there, near Madagascar’.). But the problem ramifies into many levels of what should be routine, or at least humane, administrative tasks.

            Here are a couple of examples.

            There are any number of reasons to fill out online forms – job applications, credit applications, cell phone applications – you name it. Doing this for a US entity is often an exercise in futility if your current or last employer or place of residence is outside the US. The option to select such an outlandish reality simply does not exist. It is not provided for, as if such people do not exist. There are ways around this, of course, but more than once I have been thwarted in completing an application or some other form because my details were not accepted. I didn’t exist. My reality was not provided for.

            This may seem trivial, this business of thwarted form-filling, but I see it as being symbolic.

            Upon returning to the US after 8 years in South Africa I tried to open up a credit card account with a major bank. My application was denied because my credit history was deemed to be too sparse. I was advised to open up credit lines from one money lender or the other. In South Africa I had bought and sold a house and paid off the loan, had a continuous 5 year history of paying rent in full and on time, had paid off a car, had a credit card paid in full – all evidence of good credit. None of it counted. This history didn’t exist to the US bank. It’s as if the globe consists of the wide and bustling US with the rest of the landmasses blanked out, as if nothing ever happens in them, at least that matters to the commerce of individuals in the US.

            It’s interesting to watch tv news here, interesting because it’s so boring - in a fascinating world - but interesting to observe how little news from around the world is reported – except where the US is involved. What’s happening in other countries simply doesn’t matter to the American people, and the powers that be would rather keep it that way. It’s useful to have the people happy in their own little playpen and not looking outside at what the other kiddies are doing - or having done to them - in their name.

            My South African wife has been in the US for a month and said the other day that she felt isolated. By that she meant: isolated from the rest of the world. 

            This insularity of life in the US is almost understandable. In explaining why I didn’t have a passport to my South African colleagues, I stated that I simply didn’t need one. Everything I needed I could find in the US, and the conferences I attended were all typically in the US. It’s a big, well-endowed country. It’s all happening here. But this comes with a cost.

            The cost is not just the perception of the American people held around the world that we are kind of cute but a bit obnoxious and naïve overgrown children. This is the 21^st century we are in, and more and more the problems we face are global problems. It simply will no longer do to look inward, to be ignorant of causes and effects elsewhere in the world, to be careless of causes and effects elsewhere in the world, to be ever more protectionist, drawing the covered wagons round us. Such behaviour will incur a very large cost even in the short-term, never mind the long-run (it already has). We need to work and live with the people of the planet. Become people of the planet, in fact. It’s gratifying that our current President actually is such a person, and appalling that he has been vilified for being so.

            Even the concept of patriotism needs to be refined. Patriotism is a concept that has generally been used as a divisive mechanism. It’s useful in uniting one group of people but has the inevitable consequence of dividing humanity into ‘them’ and ‘us’. This is why patriotism is drummed across the land in times of war, of course. But to the extent that patriotism depends on the patriot feeling superior to ‘them’, it’s a false concept. If one’s sense of self-esteem depends on feeling superior to others, rather than gratified by one’s own accomplishments in and of themselves, then one can be said to be deluded, diseased in a way.

           The US is by no means alone in displaying some of these traits, but it’s exaggerated here, almost a caricature at times, in spite of any ‘what abouts’ one might call forth. I look forward to a United States that does not suffer such delusions, and sees uniting the global community in mutual respect and mutual curiosity as an important goal. A time when striving toward that goal is not seen to be un-American.

            A time when an expat or foreign national can find their country on the bloody drop-down menu.