Exceptionalism

My thoughts on the idiotic idea that one particular group of people is superior to any or all other groups

Photo by Arno Senoner on Unsplash

Exceptionalism has got to go! And by “exceptionalism”, I mean this idiotic idea that one particular group is superior to any or all other groups based on their skin colour/race, gender, religion, nationality, social/financial status, physical and intellectual abilities or some equally ridiculous rationale, and that this particular group is entitled to rights, privileges, special treatment and dispensations that are denied to others.

Exceptionalism in the form of supremacy—be it White, Zionist, Christian, Anglo/American, male, upper class, whatever—is the single most destructive ideology on this earth. Exceptionalism leads to war, butchery, devastation and suffering. Exceptionalism gives rise to political repression and social injustice. Exceptionalism in its extreme is putting life on this planet in imminent danger and with irreversible consequences.

• Skin colour/race. The most common and absurd form of exceptionalism based on skin colour/race is White Supremacy. Although there are 6 basic skin types—pale, fair, medium, olive, naturally brown, and very dark brown or black—the Pantone Color Institute identifies 110 skin tones. (Picture the wide array of paint samples at your local home improvement centre.) Determined by genetics, skin colour is affected by exposure to the sun in which case skin will either darken or redden, and turn blotchy, freckled, leathery or cancerous. How ironic is it then that white people spend so much time, energy and money trying to turn brown in the summer, yet look down on people who have naturally dark skin?

  Just as no white people are 100% white, unless they are albino and even then their skin is more pink than white, so it goes with black, brown, red and yellow people. (I don’t know about you, but I have never seen yellow Asians unless they might have had jaundice, and I’ve never seen a red Indian.)

• Gender. Elevating male over female is just as absurd for the very fundamental reason that neither sex can reproduce without the other. Saying one is superior to the other is like making the right hand superior to left, or the left brain more essential than the right when both work together.

  In Men are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, relationship therapist John Gray explains the battle of the sexes in terms of their symbolic planetary origins, and identifies 12 areas in which men and women differ: values, coping with stress, motivation, improving relationships, language, need for intimacy, loving attitudes and feelings, love, arguments, keeping score, communication, and asking for support. When it comes to problem solving, for example, men (Mr. Fix-It) offer solutions whereas women (Mrs. Home Improvement Committee) volunteer advice. Because she wants to help, a woman offers unsolicited advice, which the man takes as disapproval or lack of trust in his competence. By recognizing, respecting and appreciating the differences between the sexes, men and women— and by extension everyone—can build rich, rewarding and equitable relationships.

• Religion. Making one religion out to be superior to another represents the height, or depth depending how you look at it, of human arrogance and stupidity. Based on faith in a Higher Power rather than reason, religion should serve to guide people spiritually through life’s challenges and hardships, and illuminate the way toward love, truth, harmony and, ultimately, death. But more often than not, religion has been used to incite people to slaughter each other in brutal wars; to demean, persecute and enslave others; and to perpetrate horrendous suffering all in the name of serving a deity to whom only a select few or a “chosen” people claim to have a direct line.

  Ironically, the three religions in constant conflict—Christianity, Islam and Judaism—have a common origin and deliver common messages. On top of that, they are split into various sects, confessions and denominations that fight amongst themselves for supremacy.

  An aberrant offshoot of religious supremacy is the idea that pain and suffering automatically confer moral superiority upon its victims. As Richard Rohr writes in The Wisdom Pattern,

  Playing the victim is an effective way of getting moral high ground without doing any moral development whatsoever. We don’t have to grow up, we don’t have to let go, we don’t have to forgive, we don’t have to surrender—all the things that great religion has deemed necessary.

  Morally superior victims become self-licensed to intimidate, defame, extort and victimize their victimizers; to commit vengeful crimes against their enemies with impunity; to ignore, flaunt or violate international humanitarian law. In other words, to do as they damn well please because the world somehow owes them eternal sympathy and indulgence.

• Other ridiculous reasons for a particular group to feel exceptional are:

  · they were born and live in the “freest, most democratic, most civilized” country on earth;

  · they are rich, belong to the “upper” class and own expensive and extensive property;

  · they are famous and garner popularity, attention and adoration ;

  · they are physically beautiful, or excel at sports;

  · they are highly intelligent, talented, educated and are considered experts in their professional fields (doctors, lawyers, scientists, academics, etc.).

  I don’t deny that in order to become rich, famous, successful, and excellent in your field of endeavour, you have to be disciplined, dedicated, driven and hard-working. As the saying goes, Nothing comes from nothing. And there is no good reason for anyone not to excel to the best of their abilities if they make good use of their resources, learn from their mistakes and accept guidance, criticism and grace. Of course, there are rich people who were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, but to make millions into billions or to rise from rags to riches, for example, you also need to be greedy, ruthless, relentless, cunning, opportunistic and dishonest—not particularly redeeming qualities.

  What we cannot discount is the significant role that pure luck plays in assigning one’s lot in life. We don’t choose the country or the family we are born into, at least not that I’m aware of. Nor do we choose our particular talents and abilities, be they God-given or genetic, that are ours to develop and to employ. For what fortune has bestowed upon us, we should be grateful rather than proud and self-congratulatory, and we should be mindful that good fortune can just as easily turn in the other direction. Wealth, fame, success, beauty and intelligence should oblige one to help, share, and serve with compassion and humility rather than license one group to lord over another.

When we look at the various ways that we can distinguish one group from another, what we have is not what makes people special or exceptional, but what makes people different. And those differences make human beings, and all forms of life for that matter, interesting, intriguing and, more importantly, fit to survive. Without biodiversity, every living organism would be doomed to extinction.

What makes a person outstanding and admirable is not their wealth, fame, prestige or power because these can be taken away or lost, and who are these people then? Nobody! What does make people outstanding and admirable is their humility, integrity, creativity, sensitivity and compassion—all qualities that no amount of money can buy.

If putting someone down is how you elevate your importance; if making another group out to be bad and evil is the only way one group can feel good about themselves, then there is something seriously wrong. Exceptionalism and supremacy are predicated on fantasies, fictions and fabrications that serve only to concentrate power in the hands of a self-proclaimed, self-aggrandizing elite. More often than not, that power is used to abuse, exploit and dominate. Those who abuse, exploit and dominate are not healthy, normal people; they are narcissists, neurotics, sociopaths and psychopaths who deserve to be shamed, shunned, sequestered in psychiatric hospitals or sentenced to life in prison where they can do harm only to themselves.

So, if exceptionalism has got to go, how do we get rid of it? The simple answer is to change the way we see ourselves in relation to our fellow human beings. In the western cultures, we have been conditioned to value the individual and to put Me first; that’s how companies sell their products and services. While I must value and love myself, I must also value and love others because, despite our superficial differences, human beings are all the same. Though each of us is unique, we have all the same needs and desires, fears and worries, hopes and aspirations, joys and sorrows. We are all links in the Great Chain of Being, not steps on a corporal or celestial ladder. We are all ONE.

I close with these luminous words from Krishnamurti:

Until a radical change takes place and we wipe out all nationalities, all ideologies, all religious divisions, and establish global relationship—psychologically first, inwardly before organizing the outer—we shall go on with wars. If you harm others, if you kill others, whether in anger or by organized murder which is called war, you, who are the rest of humanity, not a separate human being fighting the rest of mankind, are destroying yourself.

This is the real issue, the basic issues, which you must understand and resolve. Until you are committed, dedicated, to eradicating this national, economic, religious division, you are perpetuating war, you are responsible for all wars whether nuclear or traditional.

This is really a very important and urgent question: whether man, you, can bring about this change in yourself—not say ‘What is the point of my changing?’ That is the wrong question, if one may point out. It is wrong because you are the rest of mankind. You are the world, you are not separate from the world. You are not American, Russian, Hindu or Muslim. You are apart from these labels and words, you are the rest of mankind because your consciousness, your reactions, are similar to others. You may speak a different language, have different customs, that is superficial culture—all cultures apparently are superficial—but your consciousness, your reactions, your faith, your beliefs, your ideologies, your fears, anxieties, loneliness, sorrow and pleasure, are similar to the rest of mankind. If you change it will affect the whole of mankind.

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