America Is Not the World – And That’s Okay: America Exceptionalism and Woke Culture

America exceptionalism and woke culture

America – land of the free, home of the brave, and, more recently, epicenter of the outrage Olympics. A place so wrapped up in the theatrics of its own reflection that it occasionally forgets there's a world beyond its borders. The “shining city on a hill” spends a fair amount of time admiring its own platform heels, leaning into its exceptionalism, and casting side-eyes at the world as though it’s a bit suspicious that the rest of us just haven’t figured out how to “America” yet. For 15 years, I've lived in this paradoxical wonderland, and after many laps around the globe, let me say – I love you, America, but, darling, you’re not the world.

WOKE: America’s All-Consuming “Awakening”

America exceptionalism and woke culture. What’s the global temperature right now? Well, in America, it’s boiling. Not just due to climate change – though that’s a whole other essay – but from the simmering cauldron of identity politics and cancel culture. Woke culture has become the new religion, a holy order that commands daily ritualistic purges of anything that dares deviate from the ever-narrowing lane of perceived virtue. Sure, awareness of historical inequities, prejudices, and injustices is crucial. But America's hyper-corrective pendulum has swung so far it’s nearly wiped out entire sections of discourse. What’s left? A space where debate feels more like a standoff, and people keep score by the number of offenses avoided, rather than insights gained.

Around the world, there's a distinct lack of urgency for the American brand of wokeness. Walk through the streets of Tokyo, the markets of Marrakesh, or the plazas of Madrid, and while there’s empathy and discourse on social issues, there’s little appetite for the heavy-handed label-policing that seems so intrinsic to American society. In much of the world, people connect across their differences without feeling the need to proclaim allegiance to an ideology as though it’s an exclusive club with a velvet rope. In fact, the rest of the world is often bemused by America’s almost Puritanical quest to cleanse itself of all impurity, to bleach away any hint of difference or dissent in favor of an oddly homogenous utopia.

Enter Trump: The Wrecking Ball America Didn’t Ask For (But Maybe Needed?)

Now, before the tomatoes fly, let’s set the record straight: Trump is many things. Subtle is not one of them. Compassionate? Hardly. A uniter? Not in the conventional sense. But for all his faults – and there are, let’s be real, many – Trump has acted as a sort of anti-woke wrecking ball. His bombast and utter disregard for political niceties crash through America’s polite but stifling “polish,” and, in a sense, his presidency poked holes in the idea that American values should be followed blindly and uniformly by everyone, no questions asked. Like it or loathe it, Trump gave voice to a section of America that was sick of walking on eggshells, fed up with being told to act as though every social norm was a matter of life or death.

Where Trump used his megaphone to bash through political correctness, Vice President Kamala Harris – for all her intelligence and charisma – has often done the opposite, embracing America’s new language of moral rectitude as though it were gospel. Under Harris’s rhetoric, wokeness has become a sort of patriotic duty, something that feels less like inclusivity and more like ideological conformity. It's as if America is a monoculture with a “One Right Way” to live, think, and act, dictated from the podium by well-meaning but ultimately insulated elites.

The Beauty and Flaws of America Without Its Platform Shoes

Having lived in America for so long, I can tell you this: there’s so much to love. America, stripped of its glossy overreach, is a genuinely beautiful place. The landscapes alone – from the arid canyons of Arizona to the moss-covered forests of the Pacific Northwest – are enough to give a writer goosebumps. And the people? They’re a unique breed, brimming with optimism, a quirky sense of self-reliance, and an unshakeable belief that things can get better.

But it’s precisely America’s intense belief in itself, its need to be an example to the world, that creates the rub. No other country has such an insatiable desire to be right all the time, as though it were an elder sibling the world can learn from. That spirit of American exceptionalism is both its driving force and its Achilles' heel. America wants so badly to lead, to pioneer, to champion every cause, but in its determination to set the agenda, it often forgets to listen. It’s a bit like a friend who’s brilliant and witty and worldly – until they’ve had a few too many cocktails and start declaring themselves the life coach of the entire friend group.

America as One Voice in the World, Not The Voice

America’s greatness lies not in its ability to be the world, but in its ability to be part of it – one of many voices, rather than the loudest one in the room. Imagine a future where America’s spirit of innovation and energy is shared collaboratively, where it recognizes the value in other countries’ distinct approaches to governance, social issues, and cultural norms.

Here’s the kicker: that future is possible. America doesn’t have to be a monolith or a moral referee for the globe. It can be itself, in all its dazzling messiness, without always having to take center stage. After all, no one has all the answers – not even the land of the free and the home of the brave.

So here’s to America: may she learn to lower the volume, kick off those platform shoes, and enjoy the world’s conversation as a lively participant, rather than its over-eager host. Because America, you’re beautiful – just the way you are.

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Creator

Roy Sharples, Founder and CEO of Unknown Origins, is in the fight against the epidemic of unoriginality by unleashing creative bravery. Author of "Creativity Without Frontiers: How to make the invisible visible by lighting the way into the future."

Attitude. Imagination. Execution.

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