The Power and the Glory

[Briar]

The Power and the Glory

Myths of American exceptionalism

By Howard Zinn

"Boston Review" -- -- The notion of American exceptionalism — that the United States alone has the right, whether by divine sanction or moral obligation, to bring civilization, or democracy, or liberty to the rest of the world, by violence if necessary—is not new. It started as early as 1630 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony when Governor John Winthrop uttered the words that centuries later would be quoted by Ronald Reagan. Winthrop called the Massachusetts Bay Colony a “city upon a hill.” Reagan embellished a little, calling it a “shining city on a hill.”

The idea of a city on a hill is heartwarming. It suggests what George Bush has spoken of: that the United States is a beacon of liberty and democracy. People can look to us and learn from and emulate us.

In reality, we have never been just a city on a hill. A few years after Governor Winthrop uttered his famous words, the people in the city on a hill moved out to massacre the Pequot Indians. Here’s a description by William Bradford, an early settler, of Captain John Mason’s attack on a Pequot village.

Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword, some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so as they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped. It was conceived that they thus destroyed about 400 at this time. It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink and scent thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the praise thereof to God, who had wrought so wonderfully for them, thus to enclose their enemies in their hands and give them so speedy a victory over so proud and insulting an enemy.

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http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15732.htm

A long article, but well worth reading.

[MasonJar]

1. Americans appear to have loved war and mayhem right from the

beginning. That description is very appropos of who we were in the 20th century and who W has made us in the commencement of the 21st. Why are we so sure we are superior? I believe it is because we are so easily malipulated because we are not a people of culture, who cherish learning. We do not even try to understand other countries' ideas and ideals. So few travel abroad in any direction. We are not admired. Why should we be when Bush and Cheney exemplify out choice of leaders? George Bush is so typical; even as a man with a silver spoon he allegedly had never been outside the country until we citizens began to pay for his trips. And Cheney not only did not graduate from college, he also used this malingering as a reason to escape service in the Vietnam War. And yet these losers can swift boat true heroes like John Kerry with impunity. What is wrong with us? It is time for women to have a stab at running this country.

[Briar]

2. Loving war is a common human failing

we are a violent and greedy species. And we never learn. What the article does is expose the rationalisations and excuses used to cover up the self serving nature of that violence and greed. During the days of the British Empire, manifest destiny and a supposed duty of spreading enlightenment and progress to the benighted regions of the globe were cited as justification for violently invading and repressing and looting from countries all over the globe. Now in the US, people prattle on about America's ability to "do good" in the world and assume as a matter of course that is why its finger is in so many bloody pies. At least the right tends to be more honest: America will only involve itself when American interests are at stake, they assert. And that is closer to the truth (as it was with the British Empire) yet the delusions persist.

"It seems that the idea of American exceptionalism is pervasive across the political spectrum.

"The idea is not challenged because the history of American expansion in the world is not a history that is taught very much in our educational system. A couple of years ago Bush addressed the Philippine National Assembly and said, “America is proud of its part in the great story of the Filipino people. Together our soldiers liberated the Philippines from colonial rule.” The president apparently never learned the story of the bloody conquest of the Philippines...

The major newspapers, television news shows, and radio talk shows appear not to know history, or prefer to forget it. There was an outpouring of praise for Bush’s second inaugural speech in the press, including the so-called liberal press (The Washington Post, The New York Times). The editorial writers eagerly embraced Bush’s words about spreading liberty in the world, as if they were ignorant of the history of such claims, as if the past two years’ worth of news from Iraq were meaningless...

One of the consequences of American exceptionalism is that the U.S. government considers itself exempt from legal and moral standards accepted by other nations in the world. There is a long list of such self-exemptions: the refusal to sign the Kyoto Treaty regulating the pollution of the environment, the refusal to strengthen the convention on biological weapons. The United States has failed to join the hundred-plus nations that have agreed to ban land mines, in spite of the appalling statistics about amputations performed on children mutilated by those mines. It refuses to ban the use of napalm and cluster bombs. It insists that it must not be subject, as are other countries, to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

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