During the first week, while still in-person, we spoke as a class about what “American Exceptionalism” really is. Since then, I have continued to mull over that idea. As we talked about, most people believe that the USA has the best opportunities available, regardless of their political beliefs. It is not wrong to think that, it is just what we grew up with and likely what we learned in school in one way or another. It is who we are as Americans.
However, I think it also makes us numb to what happens around us. When I found this class, I was probably like most other students in being very surprised that connections could be found between the events in Ireland and the events in the US. Even more, I did not see how a whole class could rest on these connections. However, we learned from Geoff Brown and Sam Lord that much of their ideas and drive came from seeing the civil rights movement. Leaders of the movement in the US even traveled to England and Ireland to speak about their experiences. Yet, this makes me think of the likely many times that this has happened, where a foreign event has been shaped by an American event or vice versa. Do we as Americans spend too much time thinking about what has happened here and not enough time thinking about who we are affecting and who has affected us? The answer, likely to be influenced by subjectivity, is not easily answered definitively. I hope, in this class, that I might find my own answer, even if just on a small scale with respect to 1968. I also hope that I will be led to continue to broaden my horizons in my knowledge of the connectivity of worldly movements and events.
I too had a similar experience regarding the notion of American Exceptionalism, and I agree with Sean’s comment about the neutrality of the term. Another thing that particularly struck me, building off of being skeptical about building an entire course off the idea of connections between the US and Ireland in this era, was the three-pronged approach: studying Black America, Irish America, and Ireland in tandem. I am very curious to see how this concept develops more.
Regarding American Exceptionalism, I think you can look at that as a neutral term, both positive, negative and inherently neutral. American exceptionalism can be used to describe our military might, our cultural dominance, our proud history of civil demonstration. Or it can be taken to mean our unique status in the middle east, our problematic military industrial complex, or our increasingly turbulent domestic political arena.
Many people today might be feeling sympathetic to anti-American sentiment as there is an overwhelming amount of public outcry over various issues today. We are exceptional as Americans because we can and will unite politically to change things we deem improper. Believe in the US, and protect the constitution