One More Twist On American Exceptionalism

I last wrote a little on the misconstrued concept of American Exceptionalism as put forth by right-wing pundits.

I wanted to follow it up with a few images to give a visual to what it is that these so-called experts just skip over whenever they talk about this situation as if it just exuded nothing but pure wonder.

American Exceptionalism came into being as a by-product of slavery. Its birth came from the blood, sweat and tears of a people who were the property of more fortunate Americans and seen, until quite recently, as three-fifths of a person. For some this view still remains.

American Exceptionalism couldn't be possible without hard work. Everyone would agree with that but then we don't like to think about the fact that much of that hard work was being done by children.

Think about this--in 1842 Massachusetts passed a law limiting the work day for children to just 10 hours a day. We didn't really address this issue until 1938.

American Exceptionalism doesn't seem to care one bit about our environment and I'm not talking about being green or a carbon footprint. I'm talking about wholesale blight. Today pundits lament an inability to put up wind farms off our coasts. Gee, why would anyone mind?

When the point is profit at the cost of nearly everything else the lines get a bit blurry, or is it just the smog making them harder to see?

Much of the blight that was created came right out of one company--Standard Oil--that ruled industry with an iron fist. By the early 1900's Standard Oil controlled 91% of production and 85% of sales of all oil products in the United States. Countless millions were under its thumb and even the government couldn't reign it in until it broke it up into 34 different companies in 1911. Almost nothing in the country could be done without it in some way being controlled directly or indirectly by Standard Oil. 70 years later the government would break up AT&T in the same way ushering in an era of phone innovations and price savings previously unimaginable.

American Exceptionalism was never more prevalent in the rise and prosperity of the Robber Barons. Students should spent far more time learning about this period of our exceptional history. These were men who sought profit above everything else and made sure nothing and no one got in their way in their pursuit of owning all they possibly could reach.

After all of this "greed above all else" mentality is it any wonder we ended up in the Great Depression? There is no way like the American way.

I'm sure everyone living in "Hooverville" felt just great about American Exceptionalism. Of course today's pundits would tell you all of these people--their ancestors in some cases--were all just losers or represented the laziest among us.

We started with slavery and nearly 200 years after this great American Exceptionalism we still hadn't seemed to fully escape its grip.

It wasn't American Exceptionalism or capitalism that ended these travesties in our country. It was only through the power of the people and the sword of government that these things were mainly driven into exile. Remember that the rose-colored glasses that the pundits wear seem to keep them from seeing our own history when they speak of these things. Our country was the way they wanted it to be for most of its existence. It's an existence few of us would tolerate today. I say we owe it to everyone to remind them.