American Exceptionalism ... Dead or Alive? ... That's Up to Us

Occasionally we are obliged to consider something which causes us to rethink what we previously thought we knew. And a recent feature article in the 'National Journal' and titled 'The End of American Exceptionalism' (see link hereinbelow) caused me to do just that.


In the U. S., the belief in the idea or reality of American Exceptionalism is very much on the wane for younger Americans: issues such as the roles of (1) organized religion, (2) foreign policy and (3) our egalitarian 'classless' society have substantially different meanings for oldsters compared to the youngsters among us.


Suffice it to say that the America of today is perceived by young Americans to be vastly different from the opportunities I internalized while growing up after the end of World War II in a small working class town in central Illinois. In sum, as youngsters we were taught to believe that anything was possible and that we could accomplish anything if we worked hard enough, regardless of our starting point or current station in life.


Things have changed dramatically in what youngsters believe over the past half century, and many young people now believe that the American dream is dead. But while it's perhaps been seriously wounded, the idea of American Exceptionalism is not dead. Not by a long shot.


That said, The American Precariat is an editorial well worth reading and reflecting upon:


"When foreign visitors used to describe American culture, they generally settled on different versions of one trait: energy. Whether driven by crass motivations or spiritual ones, Americans, visitors agreed, worked more frantically, moved more and switched jobs more than just about anybody else on earth.

That’s changing. In the past 60 years, for example, Americans have become steadily less mobile. In 1950, 20 percent of Americans moved in a given year. Now, it’s around 12 percent. In the 1950s and 1960s, people lived in the same house for an average of five years; now people live in the same house for an average of 8.6 years. When it comes to geographic mobility, we are now at historic lows . . . .

Why is this happening? A few theories offer partial explanations, but only partial ones.

It is true that we are an aging nation and older people tend to move less. But today’s young people are much less mobile than young people from earlier generations. Between the 1980s and the 2000s alone, mobility among young adults dropped by 41 percent.

It’s also true that many people are locked into homes with underwater values. But as Timothy Noah pointed out in Washington Monthly, mobility among renters is down just as sharply as mobility among homeowners. . . .

No, a big factor here is a loss in self-confidence. It takes faith to move. You are putting yourself through temporary expense and hardship because you have faith that over the long run you will slingshot forward. . . .

Peter Beinart wrote a fascinating piece for National Journal, arguing that Americans used to have much more faith in capitalism, a classless society, America’s role in the world and organized religion than people from Europe. But now American attitudes resemble European attitudes, and when you just look at young people, American exceptionalism is basically gone....

Fifty percent of Americans over 65 believe America stands above all others as the greatest nation on earth. Only 27 percent of Americans ages 18 to 29 believe that. As late as 2003, Americans were more likely than Italians, Brits and Germans to say the “free market economy is the best system on which to base the future of the world.” By 2010, they were slightly less likely than those Europeans to embrace capitalism.

Thirty years ago, a vast majority of Americans identified as members of the middle class. But since 1988, the percentage of Americans who call themselves members of the “have-nots” has doubled. Today’s young people are more likely to believe success is a matter of luck, not effort, than earlier generations.

These pessimistic views bring to mind a concept that’s been floating around Europe: the Precariat. According to the British academic Guy Standing, the Precariat is the growing class of people living with short-term and part-time work with precarious living standards and “without a narrative of occupational development.” They live with multiple forms of insecurity and are liable to join protest movements across the political spectrum.

The American Precariat seems more hunkered down, insecure, risk averse, relying on friends and family but without faith in American possibilities. This fatalism is historically uncharacteristic of America."

Summing Up

Are our best days behind us? Are we no longer a unique and exceptional nation? Are we becoming just like Europe?

I say absolutely not.

Nevertheless, "The End of American Exceptionalism" by Peter Beinart (click on the reference hereinabove) is well worth taking the time to read.

Then after reading and duly reflecting on what Mr. Beinart has to say, let's all work hard to get back to being 'all that we can be,' both as individuals and as a society. That's the America I know and have long loved.

That's also our job #1.

At least that's my take.

Thanks. Bob.