Exceptionalism is a major root of evil.

If you can say with a straight face that one’s people are the quintessence of uniqueness or imply your own national, ethnic or religious greatness, then you will invariably advocate for or support destructive, discriminatory policies. Such policies cause unjust war, genocide, ethnic cleansing, prioritizing hiring of the so-called exceptional group members and provide the special group members housing at the cost of the unexceptional.

At root is in-group infatuation at the expense of everything else. All because you were born with a certain face, grew up amidst the tight community of a church, temple or mosque where you clamped you hooks and sang praise. The approbation continued, as you whistled your parents’ ascriptive tune. Your family sat around the dinner table, and while holding hands, formed a chain-link fence. Beyond the fence, the barbarians roamed. The outsider will suffer for their existence while you, in your matchlessness, gaze at your inimitable coat, watching glistening in the sun.

Some religious Jews around the world, especially in Israel, believe they are exceptional due to Yahweh granting them a Chosen status. To some degree, this has rubbed off on less religious Jews, secular Zionists, who cite a “right” to a land where their ancestors lived two millennia ago. If such a claim of historical right to land were made universal, the world would be riddled with perpetual ethnic cleansing and genocide against modern inhabitants. Jewish Zionists’ self-conception of exceptionalism has, in many ways, led to their present-day atrocities, genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass starvation, and land theft against the Palestinians.

Exceptionalism runs heavily through Americans’ veins, too, with their holy duty to spread democracy around the world. Or, more accurately, dominating the world and if a country gets “out of line,” using debilitating sanctions, overthrow or war. Post-colonial Vietnam had the bad luck to get caught up in America’s exceptional self-image during the Cold War in its effort to protect the “free world” from communism; or, rather, to protect open markets for US companies. This is only one instance of several where American exceptionalism helped subordinate the sovereignty of weaker countries through mass violence and atrocity.

Narendra Modi and his BJP party cite Hindus’ exclusive right to India thanks to their exceptional status. The evidence provided is the Hindu creation of the internet several thousand years ago, as well as aircraft, guided missiles and stem cell research. Such extreme supremacy mandates that Hindus should look down upon their Muslim brothers and sisters through exclusionary citizenship laws, building Hindu temples on disputed grounds and fueling countless anti-Muslim riots across the country. The BJP claims that Hindus have the original right to the land; Muslims came later, so the story goes; hence, they are outsider barbarians.

White nationalism is another abysmal form of exceptionalism. It has stoked dehumanizing policies against immigrants and refugees entering and within the US, as the darker-skinned people are “poisoning the blood” of the country. This sentiment, heavily mixed with American exceptionalism, has allowed for a radical authoritarian white nationalist to be elected twice as president. Europe has seen a similar phenomenon in which the exceptional white nationalist mood bled into policy that criminalizes those who try to save refugees from capsized boats crossing the Mediterranean. The goal is to keep Europe white, “pure” and “untainted” by unexceptional people.

Exceptionalism is a fly that wallows in cow dung then looks into the mirror and says, “My, you simply are magnificent.” For what else does the fly know, other than that it exists right here and now and chants the songs it once sang during group worship at the family dinner table. The fly is so particularly matchless that it drops dung bombs on people who it deems to be in the way and on those who pollute its pure blood. Thus, it ensures the barbarian outsiders do not participate in activities exclusively designed for the exceptional.

In short, exceptionalism can go to hell.  

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