A brief reconstruction of American Exceptionalism-Part 6

We have seen in the last five chapters how the idea of American Exceptionalism has influenced American policies in both home and abroad from American independence till today’s time. The belief that the Americans are an exceptional people, whose ideals, values and the ways of life are both morally and materially superior to the rest of the world, still holds sway among a significant amount among the American people particularly America’s intellectual elite.

America remains world’s strongest military power as well as world’s largest economy (despite strong showing by the countries like China and India in the last decade). Moreover America still retains a disproportionate amount of power in influencing the institutions like the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations Security Council and the World Bank which allows her to influence and shape international opinion according to her interests. Since America still maintains vast magnitude of power which it can project globally and retains the exceptional attitude in reshaping the world into her own image there remains a very strong possibility in future for America impacting the world in a negative way as a consequence of her exceptional beliefs. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are very good examples for this argument.

Now let’s think what the other nations in the World need to do to ensure that they can hold onto their own interest, ideals and values in the face of the global onslaught which has been unleashed by the American exceptionalism since the end of the cold war.

The first and foremost important thing is not to give in to the idea of American exceptionalism, itself. The American state tends to project itself in terms of being an exceptional nation among others with no parallel. It uses every possible technique in the book from World Bank or IMF deals to Hollywood movies to project itself as the ultimate, invincible and unconquerable power in the eyes of the hapless people all around the world. Very often the common people in the world also come under the influence of this propaganda and take the ideas of American exceptionalism, seriously. Not only common people but very often even the power brokers in the world capitals also come under the shock and awe of perceived or actual American power. The recently concluded nuclear deal between India and America is a great example of that kind of reverential attitude towards American power.

The progressive people in the world should look to the situation in those nations whose leaders and citizens have accepted American hegemony and American way of life as their own. Let us go through the examples of Japan and Germany in this respect. Japan although currently being world’s second largest economy, has become standstill in terms of economic productivity, in the last couple of decades. The Japanese economy has virtually seen no growth in the last two decades. To complicate Japanese problems, Japan is going through one of the biggest demographic slumps in her history. The population growth has fallen well below the replacement level of 2 children per couple. Germany which holds the distinction of being the largest economy in the world is also suffering from more or less the same ills. Germany’s population growth rate as well as her economic growth rate has fallen to historic lows among the European countries. Both these two countries have accepted American hegemony as their ultimate fate. In the international arena both these two countries are becoming increasingly irrelevant and marginal as they gradually give up their political and economic innovativeness and ingenuity to America.

Compare to these two countries let us take up the examples of countries like Turkey, Brazil and Venezuela. All these countries are asserting their rights and interests in the face of strong American pressure. They are taking bold and new initiatives to challenge the status quo in the world like the recent Iran-Turkey-Brazil nuclear deal. These countries have accepted that in stead of living under the shadow of “Pax Americana”, their interests will be better served by asserting their own values and interests. This should be the way for the rest of the world to follow if they want to hold onto their own when it comes to asserting their interests in this unipolar world.

The responsibility for the people in countries like India is to constantly remind fellow citizens as well as their political decision makers for not being subservient to the overwhelming American hegemony. For too many times we have seen political elites in countries like India surrendering their countries’ legitimate interests to the American superpower. The common people in countries like India have to face the ultimate consequences for these kinds of submissive behavior towards American hegemon.

It is too tempting for people like us Indians to become overawed with the American power and pomp and leave the matter of dealing with America to our political class.
The fact is that when the consequences of being silent in face of American exceptionalism is in terms of having tragedies like Bhopal and Enron, we simply can not afford that. We have only two choices: either fight against the sense of American exceptionalism in every possible way or become a meek and subservient bystander in face of American hegemony. The choice is ours to make.