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Speaking about the United States of America, most people will definitely imagine a large country made up of various races and ethnicities. They will also think of a unique culture that is based on constitutional rights and god given freedoms peculiar to each of its citizen. Some may even place America a step higher than other countries and perceive its culture superior to the rest of the world. This point of view, in fact, served as a basic characteristic of a special theory called American exceptionalism.
Such theory claims that the United States of America considerably differs from other nation states. Originating during a revolution as “the first new nation”, U.S. exceptionalism soon developed into an original American ideology, Americanism that was mainly found on individualism, democracy, freedom and non-intervention. Though this term does not indispensably include supremacy over others, many neoconservatives as well as conservative writers tend to refer to it as the biblical “City upon a Hill”.
For the first time America was named an “exceptional” country in works of Alexis de Tocqueville in 1831 and 1840. American exceptionalism, however, began to be used in its precise meaning since 1920s, after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin punished members of the Jay Lovestone-led faction of the American Communist Party for their convictions of America as completely autonomous from Marxist laws of history. This independence was explained by country’s natural resources, absence of stringent class distinction and production facilities.
Postnationalist scholars though, got used to disapproving American exceptionalism. They stated that the United States of America had not broken from European history and as a result preserved class-based and race-based disparities as well as readiness to carry out wars. Moreover, most nations could also somehow be referred to the ideology of exceptionalism.
The question of American exceptionalism is quite interesting one and deserves to be discussed in details. In this essay we will attempt to draw some parallels between the theory of exceptionalism and American Dream. This would help others to understand if America is in reality better than almost any country because of its citizens’ freedoms and if it could be considered the freest nation not just personally, but also politically.
First of all, it is necessary to pay attention to the concept of nation and its two cultural artefacts, nation-ness, as well as nationalism that are the key ideas of the theory of exceptionalism. In the modern world nationality is considered as a socio-cultural concept that on the one hand is natural to every person the same way as the gender. On the other hand, however, there exists irreclaimable singularity of its concrete manifestations.
Benedict Anderson considered “that nation can be defined as an imagined political community, both by nature limited and sovereign”. Though the members of even the smallest nation will never be able to know the majority of their fellow-members, meet them face-to-face, or even hear of them, there will always live the form of communion in minds of every rational person. The nation is imagined as limited due to the fact that even the biggest one, consisting of about a billion living human beings, has restricted boundaries that separate it from all other nations. The whole humankind could not belong to only one nation and form one single community.
It is imagined as sovereign because it originated in times when the legality of the divinely-ordained, hierarchic dynastic kingdom was gradually ruining by the era of Enlightenment and Revolution. Even the most pious supporters of any general religion were one day faced with “the real pluralism of such religions as well as territorial interstices”. Every nation simply dreamt of obtaining freedom under God and the emblem of such free state was actually the sovereign state.
Finally, in spite of the existent asperity and exploitation that could easily exceed in each nation, it was though understood as a profound and horizontal comradeship that made it imagined as a community.
Let’s now dwell on the uniqueness of an American nation and the distinction of its country that formed the basis of the theory of exceptionalism which in its turn contributed to the foundation of American Dream.
The United States of America is often called the first new nation that did not have to build a culture or develop technology from the very beginning. This country includes a great amount of immigrants who had already gone through those stages of evolution in some other places. Another reason of the prosperity of America can be its comfortable geographic position between two vast oceans and enormous natural resources.
According to American Exceptionalism, everyone in America can chase equality, freedom and opportunity to success to an extent incomparable with any other nation in the world. Each American also possesses an exclusive destiny and is capable of educating other nations and helping them to obtain liberty and democratic values.
The most significant idea of the American exceptionalism and the American dream is certainly that of the liberty of land. It suggests that people are free to arrive and settle anywhere they want. Thanks to their scrupulous work, they could obtain great results and in such a way make a profit to themselves and others.
One more fundamental principle of American exceptionalism that is also a characteristic of the American dream is grounded on the unrestrained possibility of every human being to move up the social ladder regardless of their inborn social status, national origin or belonging to any ethnic as well as religious groups. The thing is that American society supports each member, providing indefinite opportunities for economic, socio-cultural and other progress.
According to American exceptionalism, the Constitution of the United States of America is also believed to be the best in the entire world. It was created by one blow due to the endowment of the Founding Fathers who were considered to be fabulous demi-gods. American Constitution, for example, admits its society as almost classless one. It is not only able to efficiently overcome poverty but at the same time could make fair relationship between different classes and social groups within the country.
American exceptionalism is in fact an influential ideology that is capable of motivating people to fight for their rights and providing equal opportunities to everyone in order to build their own happiness in the world full of different asperities and constant instability. People should not perceive the theory of exceptionalism as something to boast of before other nations, but attempt to demonstrate that they are worthy of this exceptional status and that they could help the rest of the world to obtain the same democratic institutions and values as they succeeded to do.
No matter how much time passes and what changes will happen in the world, the concept of exceptionalism will be there to remind people how the ideal road of happiness should look like. According to Seymour Martin Lipset “due to belief in American Exceptionalism socialism has never taken hold in the United States, Americans were resistant to absolute quotas as a way to integrate blacks and other minorities, and American religion and foreign policy have a moralistic streak”. Without American exceptionalism, the American Dream could just exist as an invisible shadow. American Dream, in fact, appeared from the ideology of American exceptionalism when people became more confident and determined to make a change. Thus, the faith in exceptional origin together with great desire to prove it first of all to oneself was the ethos of every American that led them to just and richer life.
So, the concept of exceptionalism will surely modify with the passed time. However, at heart every American will see it as a symbol of opportunity and equality regardless of any social position as well as belonging to religious group or racial reasons. Thanks to the theory of exceptionalism, there appeared the American Dream and each citizen of the United States felt the joy of the realization of their own cherished dreams.
Вibliography
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, London: Verso, 1983.
Lipset, Seymour Martin. American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword, New York: Norton, 1996.
