American exceptionalizm?

[Michael McKernan]

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
On Feb 22, 2012, at 12:20 PM, Tom Zurinskas wrote:

> from thefreedictionary.com - It reads like it means an attitude of
"American pompousness"

No, no.  With *other* countries it might be pompousness.  But this is
*America* we're talking!

LH

Aha, American Exceptionalism includes an exception/exemption from pomposity?

As I remember it, Marxist theory stated that socialist revolution was an
inevitable, "historical imperative"...so U.S.A. posed a fly to this
ointment, for which exceptionalism was the equivalent of a cosmological
constant, needed to prop-up the theory despite the apparent counter-factual
state of USA affairs, compared to the development of socialism in Europe
and elsewhere.

If so, then like Marxist theory itself, "exceptionalism" is built on the
same, false-premised, house-of-cards, lack of sturdy foundation.

If Marxist theory is false, why bother to argue that USA is an "exception"
to it?

But maybe I'm wrong, and American Exceptionalism could have deeper roots
than Marxist theory.

In any event, how current idealogs are putting the term to use is a hoot,
and well worth a holler!

Michael McKernan
Benson, Arizona
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