![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
That's My Girl - A Maria Hill music video I found just today.
--
I'm listening to the Broadway recording of 'Come From Away' - I've seen the musical here in Sydney - and wept at half the songs, as one does. The thing I love about it is that it's a story about human experience in the face of tragedy and I love it.
--
Speaking of human experience:
From a question someone asked on Threads:Non-USAians ONLY: What do you consider to be "American exceptionalism"? What is an example of American exceptionalism to you, in practice? Perhaps something you've experienced or seen yourself.
My answer:
Buckle up. This is going to be kinda long, but I think the explanation needs the full size version.
To me, American exceptionalism is the belief that The American Experience is The Height Of Human Experience, and entails the presumption of the best of human experience as uniquely and specifically American.
So, for example, news commentators of the last few days saying "It's so quintessentially American to call your IVF child 'Hope'."
It's not, in fact.
There are plenty of countries with IVF. Heaps and heaps of them. And there are so many kids called 'Hope' or 'Darling' or 'Joy' - even if not in the English language, in the argot of their culture, or the referents of their ancestors.
It's not unique to America, but the pundits commenting on it made the statement that it was.
Were their statements hyperbole? Perhaps.
Yet language shapes how we think of things: "immigrant" vs "illegal", "coloured" vs "POC", "Fake News" vs "news I don't like".
I can't think of another country in the world that would make the declaration that "to call your child the embodiment of a long-awaited dream is quintessentially [our nationality]".
(Maybe China or the DPK? Russia, perhaps?)
Certainly no other liberal democracy claims the height of human experience as their own. Only America.
And that, to me, is "American exceptionalism". The idea that "only America" does these things which are more about being human than they are about being American.
And yes, this goes beyond things that are, indeed, uniquely American: gun violence without surcease, four year election campaigns, a FUBAR "health system".
The things that are claimed "by America, for America" are things which are the best of HUMAN experience - freedom and rights, liberal democracy, the flourishing of both yourself and others around you, peace and prosperity, and so forth.
Is America an amazing country full of amazing people with a rich philosophical and political history, whose power both soft and hard has helped balance the world in so many ways? Sure!
But American exceptionalism is the insistence that America is exceptional *and* that no other country matches up in any way shape or form, along any axis, or in any measure.
American exceptionalism declares that to be American is the height of human existence, and that the height of human existence is America.
I have a problem with that, as do many other citizens of other countries around the world.
Final note: Americans can be patriots and love their country and still not be an American exceptionalists.
I have many American friends. Some are patriots, loving their country (although not without criticism of it), and some are simply content and grateful to be citizens of the USA.
None are American exceptionalists.
They accept that their country can be an overall force for 'better' in the world, without needing it to be the pinnacle of human achievement, the "best ever", the "chosen people", the "promised land", etc.
What's that phrase "a more perfect union"? The implication that you're not there yet, but still striving.
That kind of mentality? That's exceptional. (but again: not unique to America)
"America is the best" is not.
--
Am I the only one getting tired of remakes? Flashbacks to the 80s? I know it's considered 'safe money' but the retrostalgia is becoming overpowering of late.
I can't even remember what this was for. Just that I saw it and thought, "oh, no, not again".
--
Hockey is going well, we topped our grade, have the semifinals to play. I scxored the last goal of our reguar season - a penalty stroke. I wasn't sure if I was going to take it or our Centre Striker was going to, but our team coach/manager/organiser looked at me and said, "you're good?"
It's always a bit unnerving to be facing off ilke this, but I got it in that little corner in the left, between her foot and her hand and the goal post.
We didn't *need* that goal, we already had one on the board, but it was nice to have that little bit of extra leeway and relief.
Now we just have to win against the team next week in the finals - a young team whose skills had us on the ropes to start with in our last game against them. Worryingly, at least one of our players is injured, she's possibly torn her meniscus - she's our most powerful and reliable scorer, dammit!
--
I have two quilts to get ready and up for the quilt show in September. Sandwiched the back-batting-top, quilted it on my home machine, then bound them - all in the last three days.
Just need to finish sewing down the binding on one, and then sleeve and label both. Then get them to the pickup point a couple of suburbs away. No rush. I've only been putting the damn thing off for the last, oh, 6 weeks...
--
I'm listening to the Broadway recording of 'Come From Away' - I've seen the musical here in Sydney - and wept at half the songs, as one does. The thing I love about it is that it's a story about human experience in the face of tragedy and I love it.
--
Speaking of human experience:
From a question someone asked on Threads:
My answer:
Buckle up. This is going to be kinda long, but I think the explanation needs the full size version.
To me, American exceptionalism is the belief that The American Experience is The Height Of Human Experience, and entails the presumption of the best of human experience as uniquely and specifically American.
So, for example, news commentators of the last few days saying "It's so quintessentially American to call your IVF child 'Hope'."
It's not, in fact.
There are plenty of countries with IVF. Heaps and heaps of them. And there are so many kids called 'Hope' or 'Darling' or 'Joy' - even if not in the English language, in the argot of their culture, or the referents of their ancestors.
It's not unique to America, but the pundits commenting on it made the statement that it was.
Were their statements hyperbole? Perhaps.
Yet language shapes how we think of things: "immigrant" vs "illegal", "coloured" vs "POC", "Fake News" vs "news I don't like".
I can't think of another country in the world that would make the declaration that "to call your child the embodiment of a long-awaited dream is quintessentially [our nationality]".
(Maybe China or the DPK? Russia, perhaps?)
Certainly no other liberal democracy claims the height of human experience as their own. Only America.
And that, to me, is "American exceptionalism". The idea that "only America" does these things which are more about being human than they are about being American.
And yes, this goes beyond things that are, indeed, uniquely American: gun violence without surcease, four year election campaigns, a FUBAR "health system".
The things that are claimed "by America, for America" are things which are the best of HUMAN experience - freedom and rights, liberal democracy, the flourishing of both yourself and others around you, peace and prosperity, and so forth.
Is America an amazing country full of amazing people with a rich philosophical and political history, whose power both soft and hard has helped balance the world in so many ways? Sure!
But American exceptionalism is the insistence that America is exceptional *and* that no other country matches up in any way shape or form, along any axis, or in any measure.
American exceptionalism declares that to be American is the height of human existence, and that the height of human existence is America.
I have a problem with that, as do many other citizens of other countries around the world.
Final note: Americans can be patriots and love their country and still not be an American exceptionalists.
I have many American friends. Some are patriots, loving their country (although not without criticism of it), and some are simply content and grateful to be citizens of the USA.
None are American exceptionalists.
They accept that their country can be an overall force for 'better' in the world, without needing it to be the pinnacle of human achievement, the "best ever", the "chosen people", the "promised land", etc.
What's that phrase "a more perfect union"? The implication that you're not there yet, but still striving.
That kind of mentality? That's exceptional. (but again: not unique to America)
"America is the best" is not.
--
Am I the only one getting tired of remakes? Flashbacks to the 80s? I know it's considered 'safe money' but the retrostalgia is becoming overpowering of late.
I can't even remember what this was for. Just that I saw it and thought, "oh, no, not again".
--
Hockey is going well, we topped our grade, have the semifinals to play. I scxored the last goal of our reguar season - a penalty stroke. I wasn't sure if I was going to take it or our Centre Striker was going to, but our team coach/manager/organiser looked at me and said, "you're good?"
It's always a bit unnerving to be facing off ilke this, but I got it in that little corner in the left, between her foot and her hand and the goal post.
We didn't *need* that goal, we already had one on the board, but it was nice to have that little bit of extra leeway and relief.
Now we just have to win against the team next week in the finals - a young team whose skills had us on the ropes to start with in our last game against them. Worryingly, at least one of our players is injured, she's possibly torn her meniscus - she's our most powerful and reliable scorer, dammit!
--
I have two quilts to get ready and up for the quilt show in September. Sandwiched the back-batting-top, quilted it on my home machine, then bound them - all in the last three days.
Just need to finish sewing down the binding on one, and then sleeve and label both. Then get them to the pickup point a couple of suburbs away. No rush. I've only been putting the damn thing off for the last, oh, 6 weeks...
Tags: