Some cogent and well thought-through arguments advanced, here, Leighton. Clearly (to me, at least), ‘exceptionalism’ is indeed regarded as a ‘politically correct’ form of racism by too many, too often. That word is, sadly enough, way-overworked by a vast number of people these days, who chose to interpret and apply it to their own doctrinaire theories and hypotheses, regardless of any attempt to adhere to the strictly accurate definition of the word. This is the same dynamic that makes policies like ‘affirmative action’ all too often a joke, since the actual application of that notion involves a form of reverse racism that is still, nonetheless, a blatant form of bias.

I once learned the hard way about ‘exceptionalism,, back when I was touring a US Air Force Base (Beale AFB, home of the U-2 and former home of the SR-71 ‘Blackbird’). We were being escorted around the facility by a young and very sharp black 2nd Lt. (a woman), who impressed us all with her alacrity, knowledge and capabilities. A week or so later I contacted the base commander and made some lavish complimentary remarks about her, probably owing to a ‘liberal’ sentiment that she deserved to be singled out for excellence (the inference was, ‘despite her being black’). The commander responded, thanking me for my comments, but apparently also informed the young Lt., who wrote me a rather stiff note stating that she was just doing her duty, like any other officer, as would be expected from anyone given her duties. Reading between the lines, I quickly picked up on the fact that by going out of my way to compliment her, I had in fact violated that rule of ‘exceptionalism’ and it was indeed interpreted by her as a PC form of racism. I’ve never repeated that error (being a fairly bright lad myself, LoL).

Cheers, K2