American Exceptionalism

In reading Economic media one hears a lot about "American exceptionalism".  The context is usually some author bemoaning why the rest of the world should be like America.  It rankles me a bit.

It is not that we in the United States don't have much to be grateful for.  Despite the often crass dysfunction of our politics and hyper chattiness of our media, we have freedoms difficult to obtain in many parts of the world, we have many of the most dynamic businesses and our overall standard of living, although it has slipped a little bit, is still one of the worlds highest, and is certainly the highest for a country of our size and population.

What rankles me is that usually the people touting "American Exceptionalism" do so in support of their notion that if people work hard they will be successful, so all the poor folks of the world (and the US) need to do is just work hard and they will be successful.  Certainly success without hard work is difficult.  But who works harder than slaves? Who works harder than garment workers making pennies a day in Bangladesh?   Who works harder than the migrant farm workers traveling from low wage job to low wage job.

What separates us from the rest of the world is the extraordinary head start we gained when our ancestors populated a continent depopulated by the diseases they brought with us, and by our ability to push aside native populations with overwhelming technical superiority and use the oceans that insulate our continent from opposition or aggression from the old world that match our technical development. 

For 200 years we spread across the country, the government giving free land to any citizen willing to live on the land and improve it.  We have had it so easy.  We never experienced the situation where there is not enough land to feed our population.  We never experienced having most of the population dependant upon landlords who owned all the land and forced us to work for what they chose to pay us.  As a result we have never been seriously tempted by the desperation that drove revolution in France or Russia or China.  Then within the last 100 years virtually all of the Eastern Hemisphere suffered massive damage and dislocation from World Wars that, while they cost us some money and the lives of many young men, left our infrastructure and homeland largely untouched.

What I hear when someone start using the term "American exceptionalism" is usually a combination of arrogance and complacency.  The context always seems to suggest we are special people, smarter and more hard working, than all those less successful people than the world.  It is usually in the context of disdain for social safety nets - they are a nuisance at best and probably un-American.  That pundits and leaders of big Corporations that have scrambled to the top of their field must be wiser than the rest of us so we should do what they think is best. 

Its only a phrase, but to me, when someone starts talking about 'American Exceptionalism" I am immediately suspicious the persons view of the world is infected by the complacency of personal success, and their notions of what we need to do for a stable, free and prosperous society are probably more likely to lead us down the road toward a society that is just an updated version of feudalism.