The Unmasking of American Exceptionalism

Extremism in the ultra rights culture of the individual over community welfare

Ever since the 2003 SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak mainly in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, wearing a surgical mask is a very common sight on the streets of Asia. The SARS epidemic resulted in over 8000 cases worldwide with 744 deaths.

In 1999 in Malaysia, there was an outbreak of the Nipah virus that decimated the local pig farming industry due to the transmission of flying fox fruit bat urine and saliva contamination of pig swill. Culling the pig population limited the spread of the virus, but there were still 105 deaths out of 265 cases.

Masks have a long history in Asia due to health concerns and traditional values. Influenza pandemics, pollution and Chinese medicine practices are a few reasons for avoiding contact with the ‘bad air’. Japanese youth even use a mask to signal their desire to maintain a ‘social firewall’.

Throughout Asia, masks are not wear by the masses, but it is a large enough slice of the population to notice. It’s also not a big deal and nobody gets flustered on either side of the mask.

So what gives in America? Is it really a burden to wear a mask for the protection of others? Is following a public health order to Stay-At-Home or Shelter-In-Place an infringement of a right? Is the right of an individual to put others at risk through contact contamination worth the extra strain on health, police and government agencies?

A pandemic is not the best time to blow your own self-righteous horn. It requires a bit more thought to realize that abiding by a few restrictions to combat a virulent disease keeps the death toll down. Yes, the economy is in shambles and people need to get back to work, but its’s a tough call to know when the ‘coast is clear’ to minimize coronavirus risk.

In contrast, Malaysia enforced a Movement Control Order on April 18 and and extended it to May 12. The order restricts travel to other states and limits personal movement to seeking medical attention and to buy groceries. COVID-19 cases are now dropping to pre-quarantine levels and the situation is under control. The community is calm and dealing with the reality of the pandemic to protect the public welfare.

Malaysians are not shy about fighting for their rights, even under restricted circumstances. They also appreciate community due to the nature of their multicultural makeup - Malays, Chinese, Indians - that presents inequities in the society.

Extreme Rights Rule

America has lost the large middle ground of the bell curve to live on the extreme left and right ends of the axis. Nothing is normal about the distribution of hate speech, toxic trolling, doxxing, culture wars and cancel culture. These are aberrations in the American culture catalysed by the ease and anonymity of social media platforms.

Are Americans really fighting each other over the right to wear a semi-automatic rifle to a restaurant as an act of freedom? Do gender pronouns garner more respect if you refer to someone in a neutral form - zir, zie or hir? These ultra rights positions are based on individual supremacy over the collective goodness to the community.

Who the hell wants to take the family out to dinner seated next to a person with an open carry loaded gun? And how the heck do you learn dozens of new gender pronouns that sound meaningless? Remember, we couldn’t even adapt to the metric system.

As an American living abroad for over 30 years, you learn to appreciate your inherent American rights even more. Your perspective sharpens when viewing them from the outside. They gain in value when you see the rights of others limited, restricted or abused.

Americans need to stop living on the far ends of a normal population and gain the middle ground again, where society peaks and individual rights are still intact.

Exceptionalism Gone Awry

American exceptionalism is now a misappropriated term. We cannot rest on our historical laurels and still believe that the mission is unique. Abraham Lincoln gave us a big task by stating that Americans are encumbered to ensure that,

… government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Oops, Houston we have a problem? If our history and mission made us special enough to feel superior to other nations, then we are a long way from the revolution.

Individual ultra rights have replaced our special nature. Exceptionalism is a collective endeavor. In America today, exceptionalism belongs to the professional managerial class, elites and aristocracy. They are a strong clan with strong interests in perpetuating their wealth, status and positions in modern day society.

The middle class is now an anachronism. And the working class bears the brunt of bailing out corporate welfare. Calls for wage increases, universal basic income, health care for all, and safe working conditions only fall on the deaf ears of bogus politicians.

Mainstream America is so invested in the culture wars that they fail to realize that the real culprits - Wall Street, private equity firms, banks - have culturally appropriated your mission along with the money. Back in 2011, Occupy Wall Street was really on target, they just got caught up in egalitarian overkill that led to confusion over who’s leading the fight. They need to make a comeback.

COVID-19 is exposing the atrocities of capitalism to take care of everyone in the system. Extremism rears its ugly head again in the stock market. In 2019, about half of all Americans owned stocks via mutual funds, 401Ks, IRAs and pension investments. But only 21% of those households earning $30,000 or less had money in the stock market.

And guess who owns most of the stock market wealth? The top 10% of stock holders owned over 80%; the top 1% owned 38%. Do you feel exceptional or exasperated?

If America is going to function based on stock market wealth, then the game is over for most of the working class. The stock market does not reflect the real America. It is skewed towards the top end and creates a false narrative about the robustness of the economy. Workers who depend on wages are not part of the growth cycle. A report by The Hamilton Project in 2017 stated that:

After adjusting for inflation, wages are only 10 percent higher in 2017 than they were in 1973, with annual real wage growth just below 0.2 percent. The U.S. economy has experienced long-term real wage stagnation and a persistent lack of economic progress for many workers.

The coronavirus is an event horizon for the rich. As pointed out in the Wikipedia page of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein:

[Shock therapy] … centers on the exploitation of national crises (disasters or upheavals) to establish controversial and questionable policies, while citizens are excessively distracted (emotionally and physically) to engage and develop an adequate response, and resist effectively. 

In the past, the Iraq War was good enough cover for special interests to gain new wealth. Now biology brings forth manna from Wuhan. What a country?

Is Resistance Futile?

A toxic virus has infected American society for decades. The cultural clashes and political camps are destroying the very fabric of the nation. The monied and managerial classes snicker at the ‘deplorables’, glorify the excesses of capital gains and praise the benefits of globalism to keep growth on track. They pay scant attention to saving manufacturing jobs, improving infrastructure, paying meaningful wages and keeping the working class solvent.

Are Main Street Americans up against the Borg of capitalism?

The outcry of tyranny over lockdown protocols are misguided. Governments - local, state and federal - are responsible for public health matters. We can’t rely on the collective smartness of individuals to overcome a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic. Your rights are gone if you succumb to an infectious disease. And what gives you the right to pass along a virus to others?

I grew up in North Texas in the path of Tornado Alley. When the sirens blow you stay inside and hide in the bathroom or basement. We dig out storm shelters in the backyard and stock it with essentials to protect our families in case it gets real bad. No one gives a shit about the right to move freely when a nasty funnel descends from the dark sky. Of course, a tornado is only scary for a few hours, even if it demolishes your home.

Why do Americans come together after hurricanes, tornados and other natural disasters? It’s probably because they are in the same situation and need to rely on each other. At that time governments are hard-pressed to provide real and immediate relief. We depend on charity, church and civic pride instead. We rise to the occasion to help our neighbors in need.

Goodwill may be all that remains as most Americans try to cope with a decimated economy, new social restrictions and a bleak future. Set your anger on the tyrants that suck every dollar out of your taxes to pay for their power status grabs and gross financial shenanigans.

The elites have stolen your fair share of exceptionalism.

Third World Rising

Living in non-Western countries exposes you to the hardships of others at a different, more intense, level. Among my memories are refugees riding atop train carriages to flee war-torn homelands, shantytowns made from discarded pieces of tin and plywood, and the homeless rolled up in dirty blankets like shrouds placed along the sidewalks at night.

America is not ready for another Depression. We are too soft to sustain the adversity. We are escape artists avoiding the noise with drugs, food, video games and 24/7 access to online entertainment. Times are already tough with mile-long lines at food banks and renters worried about being kicked to the curb.

In truth, America is functioning as a Third World country. Money is siphoned from every working class well so the upper echelons can splurge. Political and cultural tribes are tearing each other down as the divisions between us define our existence.

Since March, over 30 million Americans filed for unemployment claims. How are taxpayer resources inexhaustible when bailing out corporations and the super rich institutions, but limited to a pitiful $1200 payment for regular folk with no real support mechanisms? Why are elite groups given a social safety net, while the working class falls through the cracks of society? Why is the ownership of resources consolidated by the wealthy class while workers lose their homes and future?

Dylan Ratigan, speaking on The Jimmy Dore Show, made powerful insights into the myth of America. Summing up his comments:

The American Third World architecture is more masterful only because of the mythology of the American Dream. America hides behind four influencers: Wall Street, Hollywood, Silicon Valley and the military.

In addition, the power and dominance of only a few mega-companies poses a major threat to the rest of us:

The monopoly issue is probably the most significant issue of our time. Ultimate monopolies like Amazon, Google and Facebook have so much wealth and power and are at the very foundation of the hammerlock on the control of politicians. If you were going to do one thing in this country, you would break up the monopolies. Using the antitrust enforcement mechanisms would meaningfully reduce the influence of the banks and digital companies.

Ratigan further explains that the single most important factor driving business behavior is leverage.

No one has more leverage than a monopoly. The problem with monopolies is that they create absolute leverage, which then allows the annihilation of entire nation states for the benefit of the monopoly without any ability to resist.

As of early May there are over 75,000 COVID-19 related deaths in the United States. And the daily death rates are not slowing down. A restless nation is already itching to end the lockdowns and assume the risk to restart the economy. More death is a certainty. Just how much more the American public can stomach during the second round of the virus is not known.

The failure of government to rally around ‘essential’ workers, instead of wealthy cronies, and pay them six months worth of a pandemic wage is pure negligence. Now workers are forced to gamble on their health just to feed their families. Trillions of dollars worth of bailout money trickles down to leave only a few scraps for bottom feeders. What happens when the nation goes hungry en masse?

Disruption is definitely the theme for the rest of 2020. Lives will be forever changed by the coronavirus. Are you going to waste your energy yelling for individual rights or try to find a common solution to survive the ordeal?

Oh, and wear a mask. It ain’t gonna kill you, it may just kill someone else.