Toon: We're Exceptional!

[n2doc]

[XanaDUer]

1. lol

Love the gin-blossomy nose.

[xchrom]

2. Awesome. nt

[Scuba]

3. Yeah, what is it with that "exceptionalism" bullshit? I suppose it works on idiots...

... who have never been out of the country.

[Shandris]

4. Exceptional is what we should try to be...

...(although it should be a never-attainable goal...there is no such thing as 'remaining exceptional'). We should WANT to be exceptional in every category that matters. Human Rights. Civil Rights of all stripes. Humanitarian efforts. Progressive thinking. Science. Math. Electronics and Technology. Modern Energy Solutions. Etc.

Unfortunately, the people that this crap is aimed at are those who have no difficulty buying the myth that we ARE exceptional (in most areas, we are not, and in some of the areas we are, we don't want to be) and because of that, will always BE exceptional. They don't understand the principle of change very well. They don't understand that just because something could possibly be, that it won't necessarily always be (hence, 'exceptionalism unattainable').

But you have to remember, in many ways its a crutch to them. "Yeah, my life sucks and I'm not winning anything, but at least I'm suffering for the glory of the greatest country on Earth HOO RAH!" A very weak, very feeble crutch...but very important to keeping too much dissonance from setting in.

Edit: for clarity

[Scuba]

5. Good summation, thanks.

[PatSeg]

6. K&R