the puritans errand into the wilderness reconsidered

THE PURITANS ERRAND INTO THE WILDERNESS RECONSIDERED CODE

Indeed, the very illusion that a nation is under divine dispensation may perversely inspire the pride that goeth before a fall (“thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God”) or the many bad ends to which reckless adolescents are prone. If the term means rather that Americans are somehow exempted from the laws of entropy governing other nations-that (as Bismarck reportedly quipped) “God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America”-then such exceptionalism can only be proven sub specie aeternitatis. is exceptionally vicious for falling so short of those ideals. was exceptionally virtuous given its precocious dedication to civil and religious liberty, equality, justice, prosperity, social mobility, and peace and harmony with all nations, then ipso facto the U.S.A. All great nations cherish national myths.” 1 If it means that the U.S.A. If it just means that Americans have believed their country is special, then (as a British skeptic writes) there is “nothing exceptional about this exceptionalism. What does it mean to say the United States is exceptional? If it just means unique, then the claim is unexceptional because no two countries are exactly alike.

THE PURITANS ERRAND INTO THE WILDERNESS RECONSIDERED CODE

That is because exceptionalism, a concept that is not sui generis, not very old, and not even American in conception, has come to serve as code for the American Civil Religion that dare not speak its name. identity that had been widening since the end of the Cold War. Of course, it was demagogy-as-usual on both sides. What a surprise, therefore, when at the Democratic Convention the usually wooden John Kerry made a fiery speech that chanted “exceptional” fourteen times, branded his own party’s values as such, and hurled the issue back in Republicans’ faces. By 2012 it seemed the Republican presidential candidates openly vied for the mantle of most zealous defender of exceptionalism against Obama’s suspiciously European values. Her persistent theme was American Exceptionalism, which she considered an article of faith to all patriots but an embarrassment to President Obama to judge from his notorious interview in the Financial Times. In 2010 Sarah Palin toured the United States promoting “Tea Party” candidates and her new book titled America by Heart: Reflections on Family, Faith, and Flag.

The puritans errand into the wilderness reconsidered