For this first post I'd like to offer a theoretical alternative to the "we had it coming" thesis, that the Marxist-ish left loves to promote. One can find many refutations of this thesis, but it seems to me that, like all big lies, it contains at least one small kernel of truth that gives it unwarranted credibility. And that kernel has to do with what S.M. Lipset calls the "double-edged sword" of American Exceptionalism.
This "other edge" concerns the observaton, made long ago and by many people (including the inimitable Hannah Arendt), that there have been few nations founded on the American example. The price of exceptionalism is, well..., that we're atypical. We are the only nation founded entirely on an ideal, or philosophy, rather than an ethnic identity, for one thing. And for a people seeking a "national" experience, we aren't a short cut.
But the implications are now much more dire than they were during Arendt's time, or when Lipset published The First New Nation. Because now we aren't merely failing to serve as a Lockean model for national foundation. The alternative to the classical liberalism that virtually defines us as a nation, and that we help define for the world, has us in its sights. It is not simply that we've failed to inspire, but that we've inadvertently inspired hatred. Or more accurately we've stood by and allowed the haters to inspire the skeptics. So, although we certainly did not "have it coming" in even the most oblique sense, one might still see 9/11 as the product of our neglect.
Much of the world, taking the lead of the Euro-left, thinks of the US as petulant and arrogant, which may in fact be true to some extent. But arrogance is not a flaw of our ideology, nor is our arrogance as great is it is purported to be. The US is now, and has always been, surfing the leading edge of the wave of history. It is a fact that we were "the first new nation," even though our nation was inspired by the Scottish and even the French liberal movements. So it may be the arrogance of misplaced envy to suggest that this pre-eminance is anything other than a simple fact. There's plenty of room on the crest of this wave were anyone bold enough to join us. And our task, which may be formidable, and which may in fact require considerable humility in the long run, is to inspire a few more peoples to try the crest of this wave. And of course, in that sense at least, cease to be quite so exceptional.
But make no mistake, there's no advantage for us to kick out of the wave and join the crowd on the kiddie beach. Nor do we intend to crawl into the soft cocoon that has become Westen Europe, largely at our expense.
Much more later.
Posted by Demosophist at September 14, 2003 04:20 PM