Are we Exceptional?

In another thread, the user City Lights said that we are exceptional. It got me to thinking, are we exceptional?

First, let's look at history, what made us exceptional? Pre-Revolutionary times, we were exceptional because we did not have a State Religion. There were times in history that Catholics could be put to death in England, and how many wars were fought over what religion was dominant? So we were exceptional, because people could come here, and worship as they pleased, which was very liberal for the era. (I am not going to get into all the things that were wrong, I'm keeping things in their era not comparing them to what should have been by todays standards. Please stay with me.)

Post revolutionary we have the Constitution, and it had some pretty radical ideals included. Prohibitions against a number of things that other Governments did regularly. Thinks like quartering of soldiers in private homes, prohibitions against self incrimination. Again, for the era, this was extremely liberal, and exceptional.

We've done lots of exceptional bad things, the treatment of Native Americans, the Blacks, and I could probably wear out my keyboard about all the things we've done wrong, you could do it too. I'm thinking of the exceptional though, the positives that set us apart.

Ellis Island. Granted it was a horrific application of the idea. Crowded and filthy. Barely edible food, barely marginal medical care. The people were treated like sheep. But they were free to immigrate to the nation, which considering the rest of the world at that time, was exceptional. Again, for the era, it was very liberal. Come here and we'll welcome you. The words on the Statue of Liberty, give me your tired, your sick, your huddled masses yearning to breath free. Exceptional wouldn't you agree?

Then World War 1. What became exceptional was no longer our accomplishments. The Hoover Dam, the Panama Canal, or the Brooklyn Bridge. The beginning of the skyscraper era that would really take off after the first world war. We had an exceptional army, and navy. We could fight a war. After World War I, we tried to go back to the exceptional again. We tried to do public works. The Golden Gate Bridge, the gigantic buildings like the Empire State Building and the other skyscrapers. But as the 1930's drew to a close, we shifted. We started to equate military with exceptional. Then it was battleships, carriers, cruisers, tanks and rifles. After World War II, the great things we did, the exceptional things, would occasionally shift from military, but always returned. NASA and the race to the moon, some non military, a lot of military. Bigger and better ships, bigger and more expensive planes, faster more powerful tanks, better weapons, better bombs.

What became exceptional was no longer our dedication to the ideals that we started with. The ideals of individual rights, of the liberty. Of welcoming those who wanted to join us. What became exceptional about us was our ability to slaughter, to kill, to destroy. The Greek armies of the Spartans were militarily powerful, but they had other things going on. Great thinkers and exceptional ideals. Rome had a powerful military, but they also had the viaducts, the roads, and some magnificent thinking going on. Great Britain had the fleet, and some great sailors. Yet they also had Shakespeare, and so many great thinkers that it would be impossible to list them all.

I kind of feel like we've lost that exceptionalism. I feel like there aren't any more great thinkers, great statesmen. No one who is able to make us think with their words. We used to have them. FDR and his brilliant speeches about the needs of the people. JFK on so many issues. LBJ on the Civil Rights movement. Even President Reagan on the loss of the Challenger was inspirational. (Another note. I am not agreeing with his politics or policies. I am not forgiving him for anything he did. I am saying that his words at that time were well done. The ideals he spoke of regarding exploration and the tragedy of loss. That is all.)

I could go on for hours about the great speakers of our history, but the problem is that they are becoming ancient history instead of recent. I guess I am really trying to ask is where is the greatness? Where is the dedication to ideals that made us great? It wasn't cannon and rifle that won this nation, it was a dedication to an ideal. It wasn't our military might but our wisdom and idealism that made us desirable to the peoples of the world. It wasn't for the chance to bomb someone that women worked long hours turning out the machines of war in World War II, but the ideal of defending democracy and the ideals of the world. To bring to the world some of our own exceptionalism, our idealism.

We can point to the incredible wisdom of Wilson's 14 points, and his understanding of what the enforced peace of World War I would lead to. But where are those thinkers now? Where are those idealists? So the question is posed. Are we as Americans, still exceptional? Are we leading the world in anything but the application of technology to the military?