Sound and Fury....

 

Pic courtesy Dan Connors - Medium

You can always rely on the bard, gentle reader, to find words fitting any given situation.

If he were alive today, I have no doubt that he would apply those words to the statements made by the abomination occupying the White House at the moment.

These statements are indeed sound and fury, but what do they actually signify?

To my way of thinking, they signify a mindset foreign to rationality, but uniquely American. This mindset is known as American exceptionalism. It's an important feature of their culture.

I have met plenty of Americans, in a range of situations including serving beside them in Vietnam (albeit a long time ago), working with American teachers in the seventies when a local shortage meant many were recruited, and visiting their country not so long ago.

My contact with Americans over the years has revealed a few things. Individually, they're reasonable people, but collectively, they harbour beliefs about their country that are largely delusional.

That's where the "exceptionalism" label applies. Many of them believe that because they're Americans, their country is exempt from the rules of international behaviour that apply to everyone else..

Life expectancy - International comparisons

Hence their scorning of international organisations, and most recently their sanctions against the ICC.  Put simply, they believe that they are somehow culturally superior to almost everyone else, and they are simply excused because of this assumed superiority.

Incarceration rates - International comparisons

This "superiority" is a fiction. Their life expectancy, incarceration rates, murder rates  and  health care standards provide real evidence of conditions of national inferiority.

 It's pretty clear that the US is indeed exceptional amongst Western countries, but in a negative sense. 

Health Care system performance

Trump's worldview is a blend of real estate entrepreneur and world championship wrestling promoter. As such, he does indeed represent the world view of many of his countrymen.

Murder rates comparison

 So his words do indeed signify something, but that "something" is exploitative, manipulative, and arrogant.

Not much has changed since 1970, when we used to say as Australians serving aside Americans - "You can tell them anything; sell them anything".

A glance at the images above affirms that aphorism.

As Australians, we have more in common with the Vietnamese than the Americans. Like the Vietnamese, we have a sense of humour, endurance and kowtow to nobody.  Remember that in the end, the Vietnamese overcame American exceptionalism....