American exceptionalism/Draft
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In historical context
"Exceptionalism" simply a popularized explanation for why and how American society succeded, one that remains at best the collective subjective reflections of a number of 19th century scholars. Other explanations have arisen since, which attempt to answer this question or ones related to it; these range from scientific and historical explanations, to polemic or ethnocentrist diatribes. In essence, "exceptionalism" claims that a 'proper choice' of 'freedom over tyranny,' was made deliberately, and this was the central reason for why American society developed "successfully."
By claiming that "privatization" and "property rights" are largely due the credit, exceptionalism carreis the implication that communist-style "socialization" and "public property" were material options debated within the new United States; while they were raised, they were not taken very seriously. "Exceptionalism" attempts to assert a philosophical basis for why development occurred, in contrast to theoretical opposites which themselves would have no feasibility for creating in American the European-aristocratic society it originally intended. "Democratic rule" simply meant a civil system by which the new American aristocracy could rule through its representatives, and there was very little disagreement at all on the issue of private property as a fundamental right of (priveliged) citizens.
In one way or another, "exceptionalism" and ideas like it attempt to assert an either "divine destiny" of American history (see US nationalism) or are otherwise simply focusing on the subjective and ideological factors while avoiding the material ones. But to avoid or take for granted for example the factor of land incentivization (material rewards for citizen service) reflects a disconnect from practical explanations, such to make "exceptionalism" an abstract idea at best. The real estate-based incentive system remains, though many other material incentives have similar collective influence. (See Materialism).
There are a number of events that one can point to which would contradict "exceptionalism," particulary the calamities and near-calamities of Wars, civil unrest, and political fracturization that exposed very dissenting views to the happy picture that "exceptionalism" attempts to describe. Aside from events, the exceptionalist view is contradicted by
The Civil War represents a refutation of the "exceptionalism" explanation, both for the basic fact that it threatened to destroy the country, and it causes did not fall along the ideological lines that "exceptionalism" explains. In fact, the Civil War represented a division between two largely agreeing camps; the important difference being over the finite boundaries of federalism, to supersede national authority, and the question of slavery; the abolision of which would fundamentally alter the Southern economic system. Because federalism is simply the governmental philosophy of apportionment (land division), both sides were at least in complete agreement that land and its ownership should lean toward the private; without slaves, private land ownership in the South was thought to lose its "self-sustainability."
Because American existence as an influential and powerful society is due to its vast resources, the story of how common American ethos is itself due to its vast resources; the current state of development being the culmination of an opportunity for 15th to 20th-century Europeans upon the discovery of the New World. Even long before the United States ever came into being, the very discovery of the New World brought a stir to the old, that sparked renaissance of ideas regarding wealth, society, government, liberty, and even God. After the dissolution of Britain's corporate rulership, the War of Independence, and numerous territorial disputes, treaties, and purchases, (Spain, France, Russia, Mexico, etc.), the basic design for what was to be the United States' territory was outlined.
Because the existing powers needed the services of (and preferred the company of) Europeans, preexisting Old World restrictions on social class and status were overlooked. The peasant class was abolished in America, replaced at first by an indentured servant class; the Industrial revolution would allow for a more broad definition of classes by their functions. The advent of Labor unions would be the culmination of the cultural mythos of freedom, with the practical reality that labor can, in a new and limited society, control their destinty to a large degree.
The controlled, incentivised, distribution of the land's ownnership would be the single material driving force behind America's development, overshadowing any moralistic or ideaological claims of influence. Regardless of the ideology, the reality of colonialism dictated that there be a shift in culture values, leaning toward the practical and the simple. Because the origin (and continuing) goal of American European-based colonial society was to develop the new "found" land in accordance with its established customs for property ownership and sale, the elevation of social status of European peasants over others was simply a necessary change for the society to become established. By strictly controlling the division of this new land, the American state could maintain a greater degree of security, and hence offer to its subjects greater freedoms, provided they conformed to the preffered economic and legal methods.
Hence, America's development into a European-based society could not have happened any other way than it did. And because America's development could not likely have happened otherwise, the claim that America's growth is due to the wisdom and carefully chosen steps seems rather thin. Careful steps were needed at times to quell dissent, but the basic goals remain the original ones outlined by the British. Thus many look skeptically upon the use of such neologisms like "American exceptionalism" as simply another example of the tendency of societies to develop their own natural national folklore. When the facts are either absent or beyond the ability of most people to understand in context, the lore tends to be quite resonant.
The incentives of land, wealth, "opportunity," and "freedom" that the New World offered were unprecedented, and offered Europeans at least the new hope that they could escape the cruelties of aristocratic rule, and to begin developing new concepts of self and society that had previously been unimagined or inhibited. Populist proposals for dismantling the existing aristocratic societies emerged, based on the new humanist idealism and philosophy that developing reports from the New World had inspired. Called communism and socialism, the emergence of these radical new ideas led to disastrously costly conflicts, in the aftermath of which opportunistic figures would construct totalitarian regimes, rather than the egalitarian ones proposed in ideology. Meanwhile, the new "freedoms" that its vast and untapped resources afforded, had sparked in America a new renaissance and enlightenment with regard to ideas about personal freedom, democracy, and economic delopment. Centuries later, a Cold War would flare up, between a democratic and aristocratic alliance against communist and socialist revolutionary governments. The idealist or propagandist notion of "American exceptionalism" would be used in the mass-media to contrast "American idealism" versus communism; casting them as nationalist personifications of liberty and tyranny, respectively.