Abstract
American exceptionalism is based on the belief that America is a uniquely exceptional country with its enduring values of competitiveness, individualism, freedom, and liberty. The paradox is that what binds Americans together (as exceptionalists) are the very values that pull us apart (individualism). Yet, the United States, compared with most developed countries, ranks poorly on many indicators, including poverty, firearms per capita, obesity rates, infant mortality, inequality, incarceration rate, military spending, and so forth. I conjecture that our exceptionalism creates such an obsession with individualism that we lose sight of the overall collectivity. The Bill of Rights (including amendments) is presented to highlight how individualism has historical roots. Finally, I show how the current political polarization in the United States affects Americans’ understanding of climate change.
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Notes
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Anti-immigrant backlash in America is not new. The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed in 1882 and the immigration act of 1924 dramatically reduced immigration. Later, the United States imposed immigration restrictions affecting European Jews in the during the Holocaust, and between 1933 and 1945 the United States took in only 132,000 Jewish refugees, only 10% of the quota allowed by law.
- 11.
xAside from individual inequality, there is also great inequality among corporations. Eighteen US firms own 36% of business assets, and the top 20% hold 89% of business assets. See Vicki Neeedam, “18 Firms Hold a Third of US Wealth.” The Hill, August 19, 2014: http://thehill.com/policy/finance/economy/214757-report-18-companies-hold-over-a-third-of-us-wealth
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OECD Infant mortality rates: https://data.oecd.org/healthstat/infant-mortality-rates.htm#indicator-chart; see also: Global Research. Debunking the Myth of American Exceptionalism: http://www.globalresearch.ca/debunking-the-myth-of-american-exceptionalism/5477634; Christopher Lloyd, “American Exceptionalism: A Reconsideration.” European Journal of American Culture Vol. 33, 2014, 159–164.
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- 28.
Occasionally a government will infringe on these rights, as the US government did when it engaged in torture (“cruel and unusual punishment”).
- 29.
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Blau, J. (2017). The Paradox of American Exceptionalism. In: The Paris Agreement. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53541-8_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53541-8_5
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