American Exceptionalism:
Some Thoughts and an Analysis!
Dr. Pasha
(Bringing Islam to the World One Concept at a Time!
Taking the Qur'an to Every Home and Heart that Needs It --
And which One Does Not?)
Here is a simple fact about life – a Uniformity or Regularity of sorts if you will:
People – most people at least – generally find what they love.
And what they are looking for.
Provided they look with sincerity and diligence.
And provided they look with dedication and perseverance.
That is how Allah’s world is designed and structured.
That means those who love football find football. And those who love soccer or baseball or tennis or cricket find soccer and baseball and tennis and cricket.
And those who look for Love find Love – maybe. And those who look for a Fight and for Trouble find those too.
You know, by “Football” here I mean American Football, which, in American Exceptionalist Logic, is played with hands, and not with feet as the rest of the world does.
Right there, that is a rather cute, if you will, and a more or less innocent and harmless, example of so-called American Exceptionalism for the uninitiated among us:
Things are what and how we Americans say they are.
And not the way the rest of the world says or thinks they are.
And that often may mean:
Right is what we Americans say Right is.
And Wrong is what we Americans say Wrong is.
And, that means, often, the same law and the same set of rules, and the same logic, that apply to the rest of the world may or may not apply to us: The Very, Very Extraordinary and Special American People.
That is because we Americans are different. And we are a “Special People.”
And in that sense, we are an “Exceptional People.”
And we are not like everybody else in the world.
So, basically, we Americans live in a Two-Tier World:
a) We and our own world at one level.
b) All the others in the world and the rest of the world at the other level.
This, if you ask me, is a pretty cute thing in and of itself. Provided, of course, this mindset is not used as prelude or pretext to a Colonial or Imperialistic Domination of other peoples and countries and societies of the world.
And to a contemptuous and exploitative treatment of the rest of the peoples and places and cultures and civilizations of the world.
But the truth is everybody and anybody that is anybody in this world thinks they are not just “Good People,” but they are also “Better People” – better than everybody else.
That they are somehow “Exceptional People,” and all the other peoples of the world are less than them and inferior to them.
And this mindset of a people or group’s own superiority and Exceptionalism, if not put in proper perspective, and if not held in check, and if not treated in time, could have the most deleterious and diabolical consequences for all concerned: the world – for all the peoples and places of the world; as well as for the very holders and adherents of this somewhat nefarious mindset and temperament.
Examples throughout human history abound. I cite only a very few of them here – and not in any particular order either, historical or otherwise. And certainly not based on any particular scale of their severity in terms of their adverse effect for the world and its peoples.
- The Brahmins of India thought they were an Exceptional or Superior People – made so by God himself. And they created an Apartheid Discriminatory Class-and-Caste-Based Socioeconomic System that subjected the bulk of the population of their land to one of the worst forms of slavery and bondage and domination and ill-treatment known to “man.”
- The English thought they were an Exceptional or Superior People. And they used that model to conquer, colonize and plunder the world and subject its people to a highly exploitative treatment. In the process, they got exceptionally wealthy, while the rest of the world grew poor and wretched and miserable. They, then, proceeded to preside over an empire that they built with slave labor and stolen wealth from around the globe.
And when they were finally driven out of many of their colonies, they often left behind a festering legacy of political, social, cultural and economic turmoil that afflicts the peoples of those regions to this day and constitutes a serious and continuing threat to peace and prosperity for the entire world.
- The writers of the Bible fostered a Mindset and Culture of Exceptionalism among the male adherents of its teachings, both Jewish and Christian. The females of the world are still trying to recover from the pernicious effects of that totally perverse Male Exceptionalist Mindset and Culture to this day.
You can scour the pages of history to collect more examples of this perversity – a Mindset of Exceptionalism and of Racial and Cultural Superiority and Chauvinism and Jingoism – that you will discover was more pervasive in the Human Species than you might have first thought.
That may help you to place a mirror in front of you and look at your own face in it as a human being. I will not be surprised if you came to the same conclusion that I did when I set about analyzing some of these things.
A conclusion that I later developed and stated in the form of a Theoretical Model:
To Be Human Can Be Hazardous to Your Health!
And yes. There indeed is at least one exception to this dangerous Cult of Exceptionalism and of Racial and Cultural Superiority and Chauvinism and Jingoism: Islam and Muslims.
Very briefly:
