Challenge the Establishment: exceptionalism

Showing posts with label exceptionalism. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

GDAE Podcast - Episode 25

2009 GDAE Podcast Retrospective

Themes of:

Music,
Financial Robbery of 2009,
Prosecuting Bush era officials for numerous crimes,
American Exceptionalism,
Human Exceptionalism
Climate Change
Right-wing Fringe Storm Clouds,
Health Care,
Perpetual War
Middle East,
Media Reform,
Humor
Obama
and more

Play Episode 25 from this page:

Click to Download Episode 25.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

GDAE Podcast - Episode 24

US Senate Reform: Filibuster

People's History: Voice of Sojourner Truth & thoughts on Deep Social Change...
Media Criticism: Washington Post disconnect with public desires for real healthcare reform via Fair and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR).
Echo of American Exceptionalism: Congressman Alan Grayson and Chris Mathews via the WakeUp AM Podcast.
Prosecution of Bush: Jane Mayer's Book "The Dark Side".
Musical diversion: Jimi Hedrix "Little Wing".
Filibuster: Healthcare legislation is exposing US Senate as a barrier to majority-rule democracy.
Poetry: Night Before Christmas Debacle.
Bloopers.

Play Episode 24 from this page:

Friday, December 4, 2009

Obama's Exceptional View of America in Afghanistan

In his Afghanistan war escalation speech, President Obama drew on American Exceptionalism to claim US intentions are pure in Afghanistan. It's as if the US dirty wars in Central America, in support of United Fruit and other corporate interests, never happened.

AMY GOODMAN: President Obama also praised the United States as a country that has not sought world domination or occupation.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: More than any other nation, the United States of America has underwritten global security for over six decades, a time that for all its problems has seen walls come down and markets opened, and billions lifted from poverty, unparalleled scientific progress in advancing frontiers of human liberty. For unlike the great powers of old, we have not sought world domination. Our union was founded in resistance to oppression. We do not seek to occupy other nations. We will not claim another nation’s resources or target other peoples because their faith or ethnicity is different from ours. What we have fought for, what we continue to fight for, is a better future for our children and grandchildren and we believe that their lives will be better if other people’s children and grandchildren can live in freedom and access opportunity.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Bacevich, your book is called “The Limits of Power, The End of American Exceptionalism”, responding to... President Obama’s last point about why we are in Afghanistan.

ANDREW BACEVICH*: ... This is the preferred narrative of American history, the way we prefer to see ourselves and, therefore, the narrative that we use to justify all that we do in the world. It is really telling and extraordinary that this president, whose background is quite different from all those other presidents... and who came to office promising to bring about change, it is extraordinary that he himself would embrace that narrative so uncritically. I think that is indicative of the extent to which whether there is going to be any change in Washington, it is simply going to be changes on the margins and that the Washington consensus, the status quo, is firmly in place.

*Andrew Bacevich is a retired colonel and a Vietnam war veteran who spent twenty-three years in the US Army. Bacevich is a professor of history and international relations at Boston University and the author of “The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism.”

Source:

DemocracyNow! December 2, 2009.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

American Exceptionalism: The Connection

So, what's the connection between the concept of American Exeptionalism and the Establishment? There are surely many, but one is a subtext of the two-party system... that the both parties accept the myth of American Exceptionalism.

First, American Exceptionalism is a view, deeply ingrained in our culture, that the United States of America superior among nations as if god-given. The "Gods" in this case were the "founding fathers," and the US form of democracy is viewed as not only the best, but unsurpassable.

This notion of being "special" includes a belief that US actions are for the common good of the world. The US spreads democracy, which is a noble pursuit. It is a belief held by both conservative and liberal Americans, albeit liberals acknowledge past imperfections of slavery, the omission of women's rights in the original constitution, etc.

When it comes to foreign policy in particular, American Exceptionalism binds the Democrats and Republicans to very similar views and imperial activities abroad. Take the following doctrine for example:

Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.

This policy was voiced in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter. To be even more clear, no outside force will impinge on US Control of Persian Gulf Oil... it is unstated that the "benevolent" United States should have control over this oil rather than anyone else. The establishment agrees, and American Exceptionalism is a common underpinning of that agreement.

For More on the mythology of American Exceptionalism, and its implications, check out GDAE Podcast Episode 18 (35 - min).

Saturday, August 1, 2009

On American Exceptionalism

Why does the issue of American Exceptionalism matter?

First, it's worth clarifying that American Exceptionalism isn't simply "patriotism." It is perfectly healthy to root for the home team, but that's different than having delusions of god-given, or founding-father given greatness. Taking pride in our country, and trying to make it good, doesn't necessitate mythologies that promote a false sense of unique, superior position among other nations. Exceptionalism is a belief in the later, which is different than healthy pride in one's nation.

I'll be exploring "exceptionalism" in Episode 17 of GDAE Podcast. It is relevant to challenging the establishment, because the myths of American Exceptionalism are used by members and institutions of the establishment to maintain their exceptional positions.... at the expense of the masses.

I'll be including audio clips from Media Matters that delve into they way ingrained beliefs in American Exceptionalism colors news reporting and other aspects of media. This exceptionalsm has many negative side effects. For example, the United States justifies hundreds of military basese across the world, the use of military force and horrific "collateral damage" on the basis of exceptionalism.

As another example, Americans have been led to believe that "we are great by definition," which creates the social attitude of a nation resting on its laurels. This malaize is expressed in the US falling behind other nations in education, health care, infrastructure and the knowledge to maintain its more complex elements, national debt and many other things.

We can care for our community, whether it be local or national, without having false notions of grandure. Because false myths of American exceptionalism are used to rally a national "manifest destiny" militancy, and quell dissent of people challenging our government and major US corporations, we must challenge the myths themselves.

Challenge the Establishment