COVID 19 and the End of American Exceptionalism

The concept of American exceptionalism was drilled into me as a child so relentlessly that I didn’t even think of it as an idea at all but rather as something closer to an incontrovertible fact. 

I was taught that the United States was far and away the greatest country in the history of the universe, a shining beacon of democracy and freedom unmatched in the Western World.

I was conditioned to see the United States as the greatest country in the world in every conceivable sense. We were the most militarily powerful nation, of course, particularly after the fall of the Soviet Union, the preeminent bogeyman of my early childhood. 

And of course we were also the richest nation as well. But it went far beyond that. I was also taught that we had the greatest democracy, with a Constitution and system of government that was the envy of the rest of the world in addition to being the most technologically advanced. 

With great power comes great responsibility, however, so I grew up thinking that the United States, as the greatest and most powerful country in the world, had a sacred obligation to share its almost unimaginable riches, cultural, financial, political and otherwise, with an admiring and envious world. 

It was like the famous episode of Oprah only instead of every audience member getting a new car the United States was kind enough to give every third world country an American-style capitalistic system. 

It did not matter whether or not these countries wanted American-style capitalism, or even if they voted for another system of government, if the United States and its covert military arms had anything to say about it, they were getting American-style capitalism whether they wanted it or not. 

If this sounds like imperialism and colonialism that’s because it is. Leave it to Donald Trump and the America First/Make America Great Again crowd to replace colonialism with something more selfish, narcissistic and arrogant. 

Trump of course sees The United States as the greatest country in the world. But he has replaced the concept of the USA leading the rest of the world as a shining example of what humanity is capable of at its best with the idea that the United States is the greatest country in the world and all other countries and people can go fuck themselves if they want what we have. 

For Trump, it was, and will always be, The United States versus everybody. For faux-patriots like Trump acknowledging our country’s flaws and imperfections and realizing that there are places where we can and should improve is tantamount to hating our country and rooting for its downfall. There’s no in-between for these people: either you think we’re perfect and always have been, even during the days of slavery, or you hate our country and root for its demise. 

COVID 19 has exposed the ridiculousness and folly of American exceptionalism. Trump of course angrily insisted that we were killing it with our handling of what he continues to call the China Virus out of racism and scapegoating but the truth is that we were killing hundreds of thousands of our own people out of selfishness, short-sightedness and greed. 

I watch 90 Day Fiance religiously and am always amused by Americans on it who assume that everyone in the rest of the world desperately wants to be an American citizen, and live in our shimmering utopia. 

One moment sticks out in particular: a goober living in a sad, grey small town takes his beautiful Brazilian fiancé to a water treatment plant thinking that she will be impressed. He does not seem to realize that Brazil is an incredibly advanced country with wonders beyond our imagination. A Brazilian consequently is not going to be blown away by something like an American water treatment or strip mall. 

Out country is capable of wonderful things but unless we disabuse ourselves of the flattering fiction that we’re the greatest in every conceivable way, and have nothing to learn from other, lesser countries, then we will be a country forever on the decline because it refuses to be honest with itself about its faults and shortcomings, not to mention with the rest of the world. 

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