Libya and the Rebranding of Manifest Destiny

David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog ^ | April 3, 2011 | Walter Hudson

[Walter Scott Hudson]

The Left has been atwitter in the wake of President Obama's Libya speech, seizing upon his assertion of America's "responsibility to protect" as evidence of a heartfelt belief in American exceptionalism. Of course, what has made America exceptional has been its political and economic liberty, not some esoteric calling to police the world. That said, the topic prompted Salon's Glenn Greenwald to question whether America is exceptional at all.

The pervasiveness of this exceptionalism isn't really surprising. It's a common human desire to believe that one is special, unique, better than all others. Few people aspire to ordinariness. We view the world -- physically and mentally -- from our own personal perspective, and are inherently situated at the center of it. As tribal beings, we naturally believe that our customs and the beliefs with which we were inculcated from childhood are superior to Theirs. Personally, I've never understood how the following thought doesn't obliterate -- or at least severely dilute -- the conviction of one's exceptionalism:

The probability that I happened to be born in the greatest country on Earth -- or, even more so, the greatest country ever to exist on Earth in all of human history -- is minute. Isn't it far more likely that I believe this because I was taught to, rather than because it's true?

Consider the premise. Greenwald speaks of probability, as if the assertion of American exceptionalism were a bet before the flop, as if we don't know whether the country we live in is any different from any other. This is reminiscent of the infamous Obama quote where the notion of American exceptionalism was compared to British or Greek exceptionalism, a tribal conceit, like the boasting of dueling sports fans...

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Walter Scott Hudson.

what has made America exceptional has been its political and economic liberty, not some esoteric calling to police the world. That said, the topic prompted Salon's Glenn Greenwald to question whether America is exceptional at all... Consider the premise. Greenwald speaks of probability, as if the assertion of American exceptionalism were a bet before the flop, as if we don't know whether the country we live in is any different from any other. This is reminiscent of the infamous Obama quote where the notion of American exceptionalism was compared to British or Greek exceptionalism, a tribal conceit, like the boasting of dueling sports fans...

It's not surprising that a partisan media shill regurgitates the Obama boilerplate.