Growing up in the United States, you of course get schooled in the history of the country, how government works, and so on. You come to school every morning and recite the pledge of allegiance. As a child you don't tend to ask too many questions about why you do these things, or at least i didn't. You/i also don't stop to think how the lessons being given might vary if you live in another city, state, or even country. As you get older you naturally realize that other countries educate their children on their own history and government, and i would imagine they try to instill a sense of pride in their achievements and successes. However with the evolution of civil discourse in the U.S., i've come back to wondering about a topic that has bugged me for years: American exceptionalism.

For the uninitiated, i will summarize this idea as the belief that the United States is unique in the world in terms of its ideals and accomplishments. Elements of this certainly filtered into my grade school education, describing the philosophies of self-representation that led to the American Revolution and that guided growth of our democracy and our country as a whole. However even back then i wondered to what extent we were really one-of-a-kind. There was an aspect of bragging to this line of thinking that has never been something on which i've been keen. I'm not enough of a historian to say whether the American experiment in government initiated in 1776 was truly unique. However in recent years this concept has, at least in my estimation, been inflated to unironically suggest that the United States is the greatest country in the history of the world, full stop. In other words, the bragging has gone from implied to front and center.

The thing that bugs me most about this bragging, and most bragging, is that it is wilfully ignorant of any factual basis for the claim. There's a great David Cross bit where he imagines interacting with a chest-thumping 'Murican who is bemoaning how the country is going down the toilet. Cross replies by agreeing, pointing out how the United States, the richest country in the world, lags behind most developed countries in metrics like health care, child poverty, child mortality, to which the red-blooded American throws a fit at someone (other than himself) criticizing his beloved country. This fictional conversation exposes the fact that championing the glory of the United States commonly does so without providing any evidence for this claim. And this is the basis of American exceptionalism ... the United States is the greatest country ever. Just don't ask how.

This concept has been weaponized in the 21st century, used to rally support for politicians who will "preserve" the American way of life. What would be hilarious to me if it wasn't so terrifying is that these politicians are the same ones who are withdrawing the U.S. from its historical positions of leadership, in areas like science, philanthropy, and global politics. The volatile nature of the American exceptionalism debate was on display during Obama's presidency, when he was grilled on whether he believed in the idea. To be sure, for the askers there was only one correct answer to this question, an unqualified yes. But again, why? What exactly about the United States, especially the United States in the year 2020, is so uniquely meritorious?

The other side of this discussion is that American exceptionalism has been used as a vehicle to gloss over the more problematic aspects of our country's history. In particular, the idea that racism exists or has ever existed in America is now amazingly a topic of debate. Wanting to include negative as well as positive aspects of our country's history in primary education is viewed by some as sacrilege. The psychology of this isn't hard to understand ... i watched a school board meeting where one parent said he didn't want his child to go to school just to hear only problems and negatives about the country in which they live. However to me the opposite is no less problematic: instilling in children the belief that their country is right in anything and everything it does. That is the domain of authoritarians and despots. My uneducated opinion on maturity is that achieving it requires facing up to negative as well as positive issues. Sticking your head in the sand and refusing to consider the negative is a childish attempt to shirk responsibility. Sadly our current leaders gravitate to this approach because it tells people what they want to hear, not worrying that this won't actually solve any of the current problems but simply kicks the can down the road. Just look at the government's response to the coronavirus. For people like Trump, that's just fine ... he's only interested in lining his pockets anyway. The fact that the country burns while he does so most definitely does not cost him any sleep.

It's a frightening trend to face, because the solution requires people to admit some unpleasant facts. And the emergence of Trump has suggested to many Americans that they can cede responsibility to a leader who tells them things that make them feel righteous and proud. How do you get these people to accept that it's going to take some pain to make progress towards a better nation? Especially when not only do they not want to feel anything negative, but they also have been convinced that there isn't a problem in the first place?