Noam Chomsky on American Exceptionalism

the idea that America always seems to be on the quote right side when it comes to promoting democracy around the world and you know I guess that's same here with situations in Egypt and Syria and so forth and the media always seems to kind of jump in and you know support this idea that America is always right Roy's ones with the white hats were the exception ones could you elaborate on that because I just thought that was so profound yeah well there's a it's true that even a name for it it's called American exceptionalism and it's a adopt it's a doctrine which is adopted it pretty much crossed the spectrum there is a debate going on about foreign policy so a lively debate about to say what's called sometimes the Obama doctrine every president has to have a doctrine ever since Nixon so what's the Obama doctrine well there's a debate as to whether Obama is going to hold aloft the the banner of American exceptionalism the way his predecessors have done proudly maintaining that the u.s. is exceptional or is he going to veer towards what's called isolationism which is strange notion and so isolationism means and we should obey international law and accepted practice and and not act like a rogue state that throws that uses force violence and thread that will that's called isolationism but both between these extremes the debate rages of both extremes except the fundamental principle of what's called American exceptionalism namely what you describe that the United States is dedicated to freedom equality democracy human rights of all good things they agreed worse that we sometimes make mistakes in our innocence or naivete or their blunders but nothing can be fundamentally immoral or improper that's American exceptionalism that's accepted on all sides a couple of comments to make about this for one thing it is nothing particularly American about it every great power takes the same stand so a Stalinist Russia prided itself on its advancing the cause of human civilization promoting democracy people chakra C defending the world against the fascist forces led by the United States Imperial Japan and it's right in the midst of its worst horrendous atrocities you will read its internal documents they were discussing with each other how they're going to bring in earthly paradise to the people of China now they're gonna in Manchuria the ones they were mastering they're going to protect them from the Chinese bandits who were trying to disrupt the peace and harmony than development that they're bringing and so on the same with Hitler Hitler was my day when he took over Czechoslovakia was by end ethnic cleansing bringing the conflicted people of the country under the cover of Germany with its advanced culture and advanced technology and help them develop Britain of course was so magnificent that only those who were really backward could they impute ugly motives to it even the leading figures like John Stuart Mill advocated this position France had its civilizing mission I go back anywhere you like you find the same thing so it's not American exceptional it is not exceptional another aspect of it is that it the doctrine is immune to fact it doesn't matter what the facts are actually that's even been pointed out by some of the most well-known and respected advocates of American exceptionalism so take for example conce Morgenthau fine scholar one of the founders of the dominant field of the dominant school of international relations it's called realism hard-headed no sentimental realism Morgenthau was one of the founders and he wrote a book called the purpose of America in which he presented the thesis that the United States is unlike all other countries past and present in that it has a purpose a transcendent purpose the purpose is to bring equality and freedom and democracy and other good things everywhere but he was a serious scholar so he looked through the record and he point he recognized that the United States has consistently acted in ways which violate its purpose and then he has an interesting comment which is to the point although not in a way he intended he says to criticize the notion of American exceptionalism of the u.s. fundamental u.s. idealism to criticize it on these grounds is like the error of atheism which criticizes God the gods munificence on grounds that evil exists and says we can't fall into the error of atheism that means that the doctrine holds whatever the facts immune to fact so it's a religious doctrine and it should be regarded that way it's a secular religion one commonly constructed by power systems to justify themselves justify their own crimes and atrocities which are at most as obama said about the invasion of iraq a blunder a strategic blunder he was greatly praised by for that by liberals to say it's a strategic blunder so they didn't bother pointing out that you could read the same thing in Pravda in the early 1980s where commentators who had their own form of exceptionalism Russian exceptionalism it complained that the invasion of Afghanistan was a blunder it strategic blunder should have done it or for that matter the German generals after Stalingrad they recognized that Hitler's two-front war was a strategic blunder should should have done it should have knocked off Britain first well we don't admire them for these stands in fact we regard them as morally grotesque but the same stand on our own part is regarded as highly moral and extremely added purple so Obama is honored for taking this position and that follows from the Exceptionalist doctrine that whatever we do is very well motivated even though we can make mistakes we were innocent we were naive we didn't think that's through so we got something wrong I mean even the most saintly that person or power system can make mistakes that's a with regard to democracy with you broke which brought up it's an interesting case and it occurred very well with Morgenthau's thesis inadvertent thesis that the doctrines are religion so for example have been it's consistently the case that the United States opposes democracy you mentioned the Middle East consistently the United States has opposed democracy in the Middle East and this has been recognized internal so for example you go back to 1958 at President Eisenhower that raised the question with his staff why there is what he called a campaign of hatred against us in the Arab world and not by the governments which more or less support us but by the people and the security council main planning agency in fact came out with the analysis the documents all been Declassified in which they explained the campaign of hatred they said there's a perception in the region among the people that the United States supports harsh and brutal dictatorships and blocks democracy and development and that we do it because we have the goal of controlling their energy resources and it went on to say that this is pretty accurate and furthermore that's what we should be doing but nevertheless we support democracy

Channel: Chomsky's Philosophy

Views: 23,045

Rating: 4.816092 out of 5

Keywords: American Exceptionalism (Literature Subject), Exceptionalism, United States Of America (Country), Noam Chomsky (Author), Foreign Policy (Literature Subject), Imperialism (Film Subject), Sam Harris (Author), History (TV Genre), Religion (TV Genre), war, states

Id: 7bsYOQltflA

Length: 9min 31sec (571 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 26 2015