Posted on 10/11/2015 5:10:12 PM PDT by Libloather
Doubtless you have heard more than once the term “American Exceptionalism.” It implies, in short, that we are somehow special, different, superior. We are the “city upon a hill” whose freedoms and accomplishments set us apart. Alexis de Tocqueville coined the phrase midway through the 19th century, and it has enjoyed constant deployment by politicians and pundits ever since, because it lights a warm bulb of self-satisfaction in many bellies … and people feeling good about themselves are easier to convince. Salesmen thrived on this axiom before Babylon’s bricks were laid.
For the sake of comparison, here’s something exceptional: Médecins Sans Frontières. Founded in France, the organization is most commonly known in the US as Doctors Without Borders. Made up of more than 30,000 medical professionals, administrators and logistical experts, this organization provides vital health care in places mired in war and strife: Sudan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Afghanistan… sadly, the list has included some 70 countries over the intervening years, and does not stop. Military personnel have a saying: “Run to the sound of the guns.” Doctors Without Borders volunteers do exactly the same thing.
(Excerpt) Read more at billmoyers.com ...
Wee Willie Alert.
Bill Moyers is at it again.
Our Founders were exceptional. Our Constitution is exceptional. We are not so much. See Bill Moyers as an example.
I believed in American exceptionalism before soebarkah made it mute.
Bill Moyers .... **spit**
Last I heard was that Will was on a drunk and exiled to a cabin in the woods.
Ordinary people and desperate people came to our great nation from Europe. They became extraordinary people because of the Freedom and Promise the Constitution of the United States provided them. This document allowed our people to build this great nation. We are the “shining city on the hill.”
If this magnificent document of Freedom is not preserved our great nation will be great no more and our people will be very ordinary. At this point a stronger nation will defeat us.
America at one time was founded on the principle of being a shining light, a city on the hill. We never quite lived up to that, but we did try. The same thing happened that happens to all human endeavors, humans messed it up through the never ending grasp for more power.
Bill Moyers...Maoism with a Texas twang.
What happened wasn’t that Europeans or even Americans earned an exceptional stature. Christian blessings did.
Such blessings are effective only as long as they are accepted. Go mucking around with the devil and the blessings go unused and the one who does it becomes unable to use the blessings.
IN THAT SENSE America served as a crude proxy for Christianity. And it did so without theocratic edict because it was of a widespread common private consensus.
If America is going to regain that blessing the foundation for receiving it must first return among the people. There is exactly zero that any government structure could go to that end. Give Washington to fundamentalists or whoever, and if the people aren’t voluntarily, through love (commandments #1 and #2) behind that attitude towards God and one another, you have achieved nothing of lasting import. Righteousness exalts a NATION (notice this doesn’t say a government) but sin is a disgrace to ANY PEOPLE (again this doesn’t say a government).
Even the bible says sooner or later no matter how well faith does in the meantime, there will be a fizzle of faith and a judgment.
We don’t know the exact schedule and until evangelism becomes literally impossible there is no excuse for not attempting to revive it and keep it up.
They just don’t get it.
Id love to see how long these Commies would last in a Socialist or Communist Country..I say 2 days tops before they beg to come back to the US
Unless they succeeded in sucking up to some High Official. After all even in North Korea not everyone eats tree bark.
When Alexis de Tocqueville made that statement, he wasn't coining a phrase but uttering the reality. A reality that existed well into the majority of the 20th century.
What the idiot fails to tell is the root cause of this, Progressives and Liberals.
Once they gained control of the education system from top to bottom. and began the slow process of dumbing down our society from an early age, it became merely a waiting game. Building upon success there penetrating religion became a much easier task.
Devoid of real education and faith has indeed lowered our exceptionalism to the point of near extinction. I can only pray it can be resurrected before it is lost completely, from the few flickering lights still shining.
Moyers is a pile of dung. . .American exceptionalism is not a claim that we are “superior”. . .what an ass. . .it IS a claim to the unique principles upon which the nation was founded. . .particularly the idea that each individual has equal legal standing with all “the powers of the earth” via the inherent determination of the laws of nature and of nature’s God. Thus, and this is what all Leftist and Progressives HATE, .. .THUS, the power to govern. . .originates NOT from government nor from its governors. . .but rather from the people. . .and therefore, JUST governance is eternally declared to be that which derives JUST powers at the CONSENT of the PEOPLE. . .THIS is what Moyers hates about America!!!. . because it is what keeps the “experts” from dictating to us what is “sustainable and unsustainable”. . .and too, what shall be the limits of the sphere of our freedoms based upon THEIR assessments of what is socially expediant.
Pitts is full of sh*t. In three years time maybe 20,000 Americans have died from shootings. Of that number, 90% are black or hispanic males. Many are gang shootings. And most certainly they all support King Barack.
It looks to me like faith itself waned. The hardships associated with early America made a favorable environment for faith. No atheists in foxholes, so to speak. Going after “religion” would almost be an afterthought now. It has become well ready to believe in garbage and all that is happening is that it has become open.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.