The Lie of American Exceptionalism
In the aftermath of Charlottesville, a discussion seems to have arisen about the US's white supremacist roots. Reflecting on this reality raises an even broader and very troubling question: what exactly is to be celebrated about the United States?
As a political project, the US may well have been created as a democracy, but using the genuine Athenian sense of the demos. The demos did not refer to "the people", as many mistakenly believe, but rather to those considered citizens of the Athenian polity, thus excluding slaves, freed slaves, women, and resident immigrants. US democracy was similarly designed to exclude these groups, as well as indigenous people who lived on the land the US claimed. The gradual integration of these groups into the political process was not a part of some "arc of progress" envisioned by the so-called "Founding Fathers". Instead, it has run directly counter to their conception of the US project, in which the ruling majority, the demos, was intended to be land-owning white men.
Those who state that, despite its limitations, the US established the most democratic government ever conceived, do so only by looking through a purely Eurocentric lens. It would not be hard to argue that the Native American societies the US sought to destroy were actually far more democratic and egalitarian, with far greater decentralization and distribution of power and far less reliance on systems of hierarchy based on race, gender, or class. Even the Bill of Rights, perhaps the most genuinely laudable aspect of American democracy, was only made necessary due to the autocratic nature of European monarchy; Native societies had no need for such codified protection of civil liberties, as their governments rarely (if ever) produced such despotism in the first place.
The picture becomes even darker once we look at the United States as an economic project. The US's agricultural economy was developed only through expropriation of Native land and the exploitation of black slaves. The transition to an industrial economy was similarly based on resources expropriated from the US's colonized territories - including the American West - and the exploitation of immigrant labor. The whole capitalist economic system has been upheld through the use of state violence, particularly military invasion and occupation. The gist of US foreign policy has always been the establishment of a hegemonic empire - first continental, then hemispheric, and now global - to promote its commercial interests.
The aspects of US history that tend to be viewed as marks of "progress" - emancipation and the abolition of slavery, the granting of women's suffrage, desegregation and the re-enfranchisement of African-Americans, etc - were primarily the elimination of oppressive systems of predominantly European origin. The rest of the "progress" chronicled in US history - wealth production and technological advancement, with credit given to the capitalist system - has actually resulted in dehumanization, social and economic dislocation, and environmental degradation. Progress indeed.
In short, it strikes me that contrary to the view of "American Exceptionalism", of the United States being the "indispensable nation", the Americas, and frankly the rest of the world, would be much better off had it not been for European colonization, and had the United States never been founded.
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Andrew Jackson, Donald Trump's favorite president, battles the
Seminoles (a mix of Native Americans and escaped slaves), as
he conquers Florida for the United States.
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As a political project, the US may well have been created as a democracy, but using the genuine Athenian sense of the demos. The demos did not refer to "the people", as many mistakenly believe, but rather to those considered citizens of the Athenian polity, thus excluding slaves, freed slaves, women, and resident immigrants. US democracy was similarly designed to exclude these groups, as well as indigenous people who lived on the land the US claimed. The gradual integration of these groups into the political process was not a part of some "arc of progress" envisioned by the so-called "Founding Fathers". Instead, it has run directly counter to their conception of the US project, in which the ruling majority, the demos, was intended to be land-owning white men.
Those who state that, despite its limitations, the US established the most democratic government ever conceived, do so only by looking through a purely Eurocentric lens. It would not be hard to argue that the Native American societies the US sought to destroy were actually far more democratic and egalitarian, with far greater decentralization and distribution of power and far less reliance on systems of hierarchy based on race, gender, or class. Even the Bill of Rights, perhaps the most genuinely laudable aspect of American democracy, was only made necessary due to the autocratic nature of European monarchy; Native societies had no need for such codified protection of civil liberties, as their governments rarely (if ever) produced such despotism in the first place.
The picture becomes even darker once we look at the United States as an economic project. The US's agricultural economy was developed only through expropriation of Native land and the exploitation of black slaves. The transition to an industrial economy was similarly based on resources expropriated from the US's colonized territories - including the American West - and the exploitation of immigrant labor. The whole capitalist economic system has been upheld through the use of state violence, particularly military invasion and occupation. The gist of US foreign policy has always been the establishment of a hegemonic empire - first continental, then hemispheric, and now global - to promote its commercial interests.
The aspects of US history that tend to be viewed as marks of "progress" - emancipation and the abolition of slavery, the granting of women's suffrage, desegregation and the re-enfranchisement of African-Americans, etc - were primarily the elimination of oppressive systems of predominantly European origin. The rest of the "progress" chronicled in US history - wealth production and technological advancement, with credit given to the capitalist system - has actually resulted in dehumanization, social and economic dislocation, and environmental degradation. Progress indeed.
In short, it strikes me that contrary to the view of "American Exceptionalism", of the United States being the "indispensable nation", the Americas, and frankly the rest of the world, would be much better off had it not been for European colonization, and had the United States never been founded.
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