I'd like to point out that Oskar wrote;

The US, and many USians, think they are truly "better" than other nations. Hence the constant criticism. We're tired of hearing that nonsense.

Note the use of the word "many". As in a lot of U.S. citizens, but not all.

And that's true, many do think that way. No doubt with the help of Fox News and others.

Thak you for actually taking the time to read and understand ALL the words posted, John.

At the U.S. Military Academy last year, Obama pronounced unequivocally: “I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being.”

http://www.factcheck.org/2015/02/obama- ... tionalism/

The current Australian Government is cutting funding to "remote communities" - Aboriginal Communities that have been set up in remote areas to maintain traditional ways of life on tribal lands, claiming that it is simply "a lifestyle choice". Without the funding these communities aren't really viable.

I have never voted for any member of the current party in Government in any election since I first voted in 1972.

But I am an Australian. They have taken this action as MY Government. They have acted in my name, and that means that I share the responsibility for that action. When other countries and people criticize Australia for that action then I must accept that criticism. If nothing else, I choose to remain Australian even in the face of my Governments actions. I can't both be an Australian and then not be an Australian when Australia does something I disapprove of. Citizenship can't be switched on and off at will. I can be part of a collective (for that is what a nation is) when things are going well and then suddenly become a private individual when they aren't. If you want the benefits then take the flak.

The fact that I personally disagree with the action doesn't change anything.

And that is why I am both deeply ashamed of my country, and deeply angry at what my Government has done.

I'm not sure what the practical effect of that is. If someone from Outlandia corners me and excoriates my nation for, say, invading Iraq after 911 I will let him or her vent and not take personal offense, nor feel personal shame, since I agree with what they're saying. If they make me out to be stupid and short-sighted and arrogant on behalf of my country, as though I were personally complicit in the decision to invade, then we have a problem.

I don't hold with all that "American Exceptionalism" crap. It's just another way to say "my country, right or wrong!" It's ultra-nationalism, You-are-either-with-us-or-against-us-ism. Or "If only you were more like me, you'd be a lot better off", etc.

We don't need that kind of national vanity to feel love for our homeland, which I think is a part of human nature and a good thing.

Excellent posts, folks.
Problem is that "American exceptionalism" is pounded into USians from the moment they are born. What better way to create the cannon fodder for the MIC's wars?

I'm not sure how you can separate out "personal shame" and "collective shame" Gramps. At least not very easily.
After all, my being Australian is personal - its part of who I am.

I can feel shame without feeling guilt. It makes perfect sense to me to say something like "I did not do this, but I am ashamed that we did.

You're welcome, Oskar.

American exceptionalism is the theory that the United States is qualitatively different from other nations.[2] In this view, U.S. exceptionalism stems from its emergence from the American Revolution, thereby becoming what political scientist Seymour Martin Lipset called "the first new nation"[3] and developing a uniquely American ideology, "Americanism", based on liberty, egalitarianism, individualism, republicanism, democracy and laissez-faire. This ideology itself is often referred to as "American exceptionalism."[4]

Although the term does not necessarily imply superiority, many neoconservative and other American conservative writers have promoted its use in that sense.[4][5] To them, the U.S. is like the biblical "City upon a Hill"—a phrase evoked by British colonists to North America as early as 1630—and exempt from historical forces that have affected other countries.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism

It is also (although usually not by Americans) used to suggest that the rules that apply to everyone else don't apply to the US.

So, everyone is bound by international law (except the US).

I can be ashamed of something my country has done, if that's what you mean by personal shame. I don't know for sure what you mean by collective shame.

Every country is qualitatively different from every other. The way it's used now, in this national propaganda fest we're experiencing, American Exceptionalism denotes national moral (and other) superiority. It's akin to the idea of "God's chosen Nation". In fact, that's exactly how so many American exceptionalists think of the U.S. There's a strong religious component to it. As though after all those many millennia of human engineering, God finally got it right when he set us up on these shores, and He's still happy about it, still smiles when He thinks about us, which is we became so wonderful and have done such wonderful things.

I love it too, but don't think it's all that exceptional beyond being different.

That's what I'd mean by "collective shame" Gramps.

Personal Shame is when you are ashamed of something YOU have done.

Thanks, Cattleman. No argument from me.

I think "God's Chosen Nation" sums it up perfectly Gramps.

That's (ironically) why there's this assumption from some that it is the misdeeds of the US (not Russia or Fiji or Outer Mongolia or Madagascar) that will bring on the Apocalypse.

And God spake unto His faithless American children, saying ARGHH! For thy sins shall I punish thee with deep snows upon thine eastern coast, yea verily shall I cause the roofs of thy gay wedding chapels to leak around the stained glass windows where thou hast carelessly caulked them, even until the last day and etc. etc.! I have spoken.

Did somebody say "American exceptionalism"?



This from the guy that helped start a war and carry out a torture program.

His pacemaker sadly uses exceptional great batteries.