EXCEPTIONAL | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary
There is then the concept of 'exceptionalism':
... the idea that a person, country or political system can be allowed to be different from, and perhaps better than, others:
EXCEPTIONALISM | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary
... the perception or belief that a species, country, society, institution, movement, individual, or time period is "exceptional" (i.e., unusual or extraordinary)
Exceptionalism - Wikipedia
And it's not just a European thing:
Thai exceptionalism - a myth or reality? - Thailand Visa Forum | The Nation
Chinese exceptionalism, law vs etiquette and ‘chopsticks people’ | South China Morning Post
And it's getting quite dangerous:
Modi and Indian exceptionalism
The National Identity XXIX: Stop Perpetuating the Myth of Kashmiri Exceptionalism
However, it's normally associated with the West - as covered before in this blog:
Jay Doubleyou: is the west better than the rest?
And in particular the United States:
American exceptionalism - Wikipedia
Here's a recent critique:
American Exceptionalism Is a Dangerous Myth
And here's an interview from last month with Noam Chomsky which looks at where the idea comes from:
Another recurring theme of U.S. history involves religious fundamentalism, which is still widespread throughout the country. Does the United States, in some ways, look more like a fundamentalist nation rather than an advanced secular republic?
Throughout its history the U.S. has been an unusually fundamentalist society, with regular Great Awakenings and beliefs that are far off the spectrum of developed societies. Almost 80 percent of Americans believe in miracles. There is a huge Evangelical community, a large part of Trump’s base, which he keeps in line by throwing them crumbs. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a devout Evangelical Christian, speculated recently that God might have sent Trump to save Israel from Iran — which is threatening Israel with destruction in the fantasy world of doctrinal verities. Fully 40 percent of Americans expect Jesus to return to earth by mid-century (23 percent certainly). It’s possible that this accounts for some of the “looking away” that we were discussing earlier. All in all, it is a curious form of exceptionalism that goes back to the earliest settlers.
Noam Chomsky: To Make the US a Democracy, the Constitution Itself Must Change
Meanwhile in Britain - again, as covered before in this blog:
Jay Doubleyou: brexit: and what the british think of themselves
Jay Doubleyou: the problem with the english: england doesn’t want to be just another member of a team
Yes, the idea of 'exceptionalism' provides a very good way to understand Brexit:
The Imperial Myths Driving Brexit
Britain alternately believes it has been a towering empire and a plucky underdog, narratives that distract from real issues in its decision-making process.
AUG 12, 2019
For more than three years, the world has watched Britain attempt to act on the result of its 2016 referendum and leave the European Union. Yet while the causes of the Brexit vote were complex, the causes of the catastrophic handling of the Brexit process might be familiar to anyone versed in imperial and postimperial history.
They stem from what appears to be a belief in British exceptionalism: the idea that Britain is inherently different from, and superior to, other nations and empires.
Margaret Thatcher asserted British exceptionalism with regard to the EU in a 1988 speech, and each of the past three prime ministers has approached the EU from that standpoint—believing that Britain deserves preferential treatment and more-than-equal status.
They have all also believed in their own personal exceptionalism. David Cameron believed he could win the referendum and thereby head off the electoral threat to his party from the right. He did not. Theresa May believed she could turn a narrow 52–48 vote in favor of leaving into a mandate for a “hard Brexit” in which Britain got everything it wanted and gave up nothing. She did not. Now Boris Johnson is voluntarily manufacturing a crisis over no deal—in which Britain would leave the EU without any agreement on the rules and regulations governing how it would trade and work with the bloc—that could send damaging shock waves through Britain, Ireland, and the rest of the EU.
There has been much discussion of the roles of history and memory in relation to Brexit. It may be easy to overstate a simplistic, literalist connection between the empire—imagined as glorious, and unjustly lost—and the impulse to leave the EU. Yet it is hard to avoid the sense that embedded in Brexit is a form of “Make Britain great again.” Sharper parallels are perhaps drawn between Britain’s collective recollection of its part in World War II, heavily mythologized as the moment it stood alone against Adolf Hitler, and the attitude of Brexit supporters to the isolation and hardship Brexit may bring.
While the myths constructed around the history of empire and World War II reinforce British exceptionalism, they are contradictory. The first casts Britain as a superpower; the second as a lone, plucky underdog...
For more than three years, the world has watched Britain attempt to act on the result of its 2016 referendum and leave the European Union. Yet while the causes of the Brexit vote were complex, the causes of the catastrophic handling of the Brexit process might be familiar to anyone versed in imperial and postimperial history.
They stem from what appears to be a belief in British exceptionalism: the idea that Britain is inherently different from, and superior to, other nations and empires.
Margaret Thatcher asserted British exceptionalism with regard to the EU in a 1988 speech, and each of the past three prime ministers has approached the EU from that standpoint—believing that Britain deserves preferential treatment and more-than-equal status.
They have all also believed in their own personal exceptionalism. David Cameron believed he could win the referendum and thereby head off the electoral threat to his party from the right. He did not. Theresa May believed she could turn a narrow 52–48 vote in favor of leaving into a mandate for a “hard Brexit” in which Britain got everything it wanted and gave up nothing. She did not. Now Boris Johnson is voluntarily manufacturing a crisis over no deal—in which Britain would leave the EU without any agreement on the rules and regulations governing how it would trade and work with the bloc—that could send damaging shock waves through Britain, Ireland, and the rest of the EU.
There has been much discussion of the roles of history and memory in relation to Brexit. It may be easy to overstate a simplistic, literalist connection between the empire—imagined as glorious, and unjustly lost—and the impulse to leave the EU. Yet it is hard to avoid the sense that embedded in Brexit is a form of “Make Britain great again.” Sharper parallels are perhaps drawn between Britain’s collective recollection of its part in World War II, heavily mythologized as the moment it stood alone against Adolf Hitler, and the attitude of Brexit supporters to the isolation and hardship Brexit may bring.
While the myths constructed around the history of empire and World War II reinforce British exceptionalism, they are contradictory. The first casts Britain as a superpower; the second as a lone, plucky underdog...
The Imperial Myths Behind Brexit in Britain - The Atlantic
And one of the strongest myths is that 'Britain stood alone' during the last world war:
Brexit is not World War II – politicians should stop comparing them
Quite literally:
WW2: When Britain stood (not quite) alone
And one of the strongest myths is that 'Britain stood alone' during the last world war:
Brexit is not World War II – politicians should stop comparing them
Quite literally:
WW2: When Britain stood (not quite) alone
At a time when both sides of the Brexit divide are invoking memories of the Second World War, historian Keith Lowe examines the realities of Britain’s role during the 1939–45 conflict, considering just how isolated its struggle was…
So if the British did not stand alone at the beginning of the war, nor at the end, what about during the middle? When most people talk of Britain standing alone, they usually refer to a single year, between June 1940 and June 1941. So let’s examine that year in detail.
... the fighter pilots defending our shores were no more exclusively British than any other group of people. Britain’s most successful squadron during the Battle of Britain was the Polish 303 Squadron, without whom, according to the head of Fighter Command, Sir Hugh Dowding, “I hesitate to say that the outcome of the battle would have been the same.” Some of our most successful fighter aces at this time were from Czechoslovakia (Josef FrantiĊĦek), Ireland (Paddy Finucane), South Africa (Adolph Malan) and New Zealand (Colin Gray and Brian Carbury). Pilots from 15 other nations fought during that famous summer. Together they constituted 20% of Fighter Command.
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