Is America exceptional among nations? Are we, as a country and a people and a culture, set apart and better than others? Are we, indeed, the “shining city upon a hill” that Ronald Reagan described? Are we “chosen by God and commissioned by history to be a model to the world” as George W. Bush said?
This year, for the first time, most Americans did not say yes.
According to a report issued on Thursday by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, when Americans were asked if they agreed with the statement “our people are not perfect but our culture is superior to others,” only 49 percent agreed. That’s down from 60 percent in 2002, the first time that Pew asked the question.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/19/opinion/blow-decline-of-american-exceptionalism.html?_r=1Ah yes CRITICAL marker at the end of Empire. Exceptionalism is a marker of Empire, all empires have shared this at one point or another...