American exceptionalism

is a reaction to the inability of people to understand global complexity or important issues like American energy dependency, and a resultant search for simplistic sources of comfort and clarity.

That [American exceptionalism] is a reaction to the inability of people to understand global complexity or important issues like American energy dependency. Therefore, they search for simplistic sources of comfort and clarity. And the people that they are now selecting to be, so to speak, the spokespersons of their anxieties are, in most cases, stunningly ignorant.

is the idea that we are a nation of immigrants, first of all, that is built upon a pluralistic society of native people that were here to begin with.

People get tired of talking about American exceptionalism, but I think this is an extraordinary thing about the United States, that we are a nation of immigrants, first of all, that is built upon a pluralistic society of native people that were here to begin with. The issue of diversity is really with us from the beginning.

is an effective notion in part because there is little on the face of it that is offensive.

The notion of American exceptionalism is effective in part because there is little on the face of it that is offensive.

is the recurring character in the nation's narrative.

American exceptionalism is the recurring character in the nation's narrative.

is at root an exception to the fact that the human condition for the vast majority of people on this planet for the entire time of what humanity has been here has been bondage and tyranny, dictatorship, pestilence.

The human condition for the vast majority of people on this planet for the entire time of what humanity has been here has been bondage and tyranny, dictatorship, pestilence. That's really what American exceptionalism is, when you get right down to it.

american exceptionalism, n.All

american exceptionalism