ARTICLE 6 AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

Transcription

1 ARTICLE 6 AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

2 Apart from having favorable geography and benefitting from an unprecedented economy, the U.S. claims to possess a very special feature, which is the American Exceptionalism. American citizens understand this exceptionalism as a unique destiny and purpose, whereas foreigners may challenge the uniqueness of the concept. Almost every single nation professes to be unique. Nevertheless, the very fact the U.S. makes this trait explicit is exceptional. Far from being anecdotal, this characteristic tends to dictate how the U.S. behaves on the international scene as well as internally. This paper aims to demonstrate how political and cultural factors define American Exceptionalism, making the U.S. a Lockean country. This affiliation to Locke and Rousseau, in opposition to a Hobbesian identity, has important implications concerning the relationship between the State, or Big Government, as it is called in the U.S., and the people. Therefore, it also constitutes a domestic and international security issue. To describe American Exceptionalism and to understand what it means for the U.S. identity, I will follow the political and cultural development of the concept; then I will explain its implications today in terms of culture and politics. American Exceptionalism is connected to the American Society from its beginning. The historical development of the idea, the evolution of its meanings shaped step by step the American identity. Among the factors that played a role in this evolution, the political and cultural ones are prominent. Indeed, from the arrival of the first pilgrims on American soil, this migration had a political purpose. While the newcomers had economic motives to undergo the adventure, they mainly aimed to found a new society. 1 Not only did they want to restart their lives on better ground, but they had a political, unique purpose: they wanted to build a city on the hill. The evidence that the colonists believed that America was a holy land (that is, set apart ) is so abundant as to be trite. 2 From this beginning, every major struggle in the history of America dealt with the question what is the American identity? 2

3 The War of Independence, despite its plain and economic roots, also raised the political question, as mentioned in Thomas Paine s Common Sense. 3 The vicissitudes of the new Republic are as many challenges to the definition of American destiny. The Civil War was a test for the Union to resist the economic mirage of slavery, as Lincoln and Grant understood. Reconstruction provides another example of the deliberate purpose of the nation. Instead of crushing his former enemies, Gen. U.S. Grant chose to trust them and empowered them to rebuild the South, making clear his preference of American ideals (end of slavery, and vote right for the freedmen), not revenge. 4 Later, still in the South, the Civil Right Movement gives another illustration of how the fight for values shaped the political landscape. As L.B. Johnson, a Democrat, embraced the cause, he contributed to a political watershed. The Republican Party became the conservative party and gained the majority in the South in the next elections. Once again, the quest for freedom and the necessity for America to fulfill its unique destiny took over more traditional political issues. Those political factors resonated with the particular culture the American developed for themselves. This culture originates in the very motives of the first immigrants. Most of them were fleeing away from what they perceived as an oppressive state or from the combination of a church and a state. 5 Therefore, their quest was one for freedom, and this freedom had to be acquired by rejecting the power of the state (or the government). So, the main attribute of the American culture is the value from which it derives, namely freedom. The preference for liberty over other democratic values such as equality or security has two consequences. The first is to shape a unique American culture that many equate with American exceptionalism. The liberty, almost the necessity, to bear arms to protect against the threatening power of the state; the love for cars as the expression of freedom, the sometimes cheeky liberty of the press; the popular push toward the West despite the federal regulations and protection of the Indians, ending in the subculture of the frontier; all these 3

4 characteristics illustrate the underlying preference for freedom. 6 The second consequence was to build a Lockean or Rousseauian country. According to Locke and Rousseau, the state of nature is one of freedom, and the power of the state is an evil necessary to protect the fundamental rights of the individual. 7 In opposition to the theory of Hobbes, who sees the state as the only mean to guarantee security and liberty for the people, Lockeans look at the state as a threat to individual freedom. 8 This mindset undoubtedly led to the system of checks and balances that drives the U.S. form of government, and to the hate and fear of big government for which each presidential election is a new demonstration, given the topics debated. In so far as culture is concerned, American Exceptionalism is, therefore, the success story of idealists of liberty building the dreamed-of Lockean state. Given the history of the political struggles and cultural background that shaped American Exceptionalism, it is necessary to examine what form this unique feature takes in today s environment., and what challenges it raises regarding security. On the political side of it, as MacDougall points out, the quasi-religious belief in the unique destiny of America goes along with sound respect for its Constitution. This document is almost considered as a sacred text, and its longevity enhances, decade after decade, its prophetic value. Therefore, it becomes more and more difficult to amend it. Policymakers will encounter some challenges, in our era of instant communication, to protect the people s rights, only armed with a 200- year-old document. The Supreme Court s decisions may no longer stem from the Constitution, letting open a breach in the traditional form of check and balance. As the whole political edifice relies on it, today the uniqueness of American Exceptionalism may only appear through some out-dated, weird decisions, such as the death penalty or the gun regulations. 9 On the international stage, they may become less and less compatible with the status of a crusader state, which seems to be the political extension of the original status of 4

5 promised land. 10 Such a challenge may threaten the social contract (Rousseau) and may require a change in the idea of American Exceptionalism. On the cultural side of American Exceptionalism, the idea of freedom translates into individualism. While the American dream incarnates itself in the self-made man or woman, providing strong incentives for the so-called dreamers to try their chance in the U.S., the reverse side of the coin may be the degeneration of the social bonds. The development of the Internet further destroys real-life bonds for the benefit of virtual friendship and online shopping. The historic mobility of the American people often separates households far from their relatives. 11 So, the trend may be to build a nation of locked-at-home individuals, crumbling the society. In this respect, American Exceptionalism engenders its contradiction and what once created a strong national identity may reveal itself as the future fragility of society. American Exceptionalism stems from political and cultural, historical factors. These factors shaped a society based on the value of individual freedom. One can see it as an attempt to build a Lockean society, in which the power of the state is closely watched by the citizens. Many features of policymaking and the culture of the U.S. illustrate this characteristic. They may also carry the seeds of future challenges for U.S. society. As American Exceptionalism slowly becomes American imperialism, culturally and politically speaking, the preference for freedom may reveal itself inadequate in a world where the Hobbesian model of state predominates. The international pressure for equality may require some compromise from the American society, as the quest for individual freedom drives the society toward a conflictual relationship with the state, whereas only the state can protect the rights to equal treatment and opportunity. To put it in other words, the conflictual nature of the relationship between the government and the people is not the least of the security challenges the U.S. may encounter in the future. 5

6 Notes 1 Robert Bellah, Is There a Common American Culture?, The Journal for the American Academy of Religion 66, no. 3 (Fall 1998): Walter A. McDougall, Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter with the World since 1776 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), McDougall, Jean Edward Smith, Grant (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002). 5 Bellah, Is There a Common American Culture? 6 Jeffrey Snyder, A Nation of Cowards, The Public Interest, no. 113 (fall 1976): 40 56; Kristine Oswald, Mass Media and the Transformation of American Politics, Marquette Law Review 77, no. 2 (2009): ; Smith, Grant, John Locke , Essays on the Law of Nature. The Latin Text, with a Translation, Introd. and Notes, Together with Transcripts of Locke s Shorthand in His Journal for (Oxford: Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1954). 8 Thomas Hobbes and J. C. A. Gaskin, Leviathan, Oxford World s Classics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), nlebk&an=12309&site=ehost-live&scope=site&custid=airuniv. 9 Weiss, Philip They ve had Enough, in Jan E. Dizard 1940-, Robert M Muth, and Stephen P. Andrews 1959-, Guns in America : A Reader (New York: New York : New York University Press, 1999); Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow (New York: New York Press, n.d.). 10 McDougall, Promised Land, Crusader State. 11 Enrico Moretti, The New Geography of Jobs, 1. Mariner Books ed (Boston, Mass.: Mariner Books, 2013),