I'll join you off-topic, Penelope. Why is it that the Brits have such a way of making TV series with characters that viewers really come to care about and feel as though they know? I shrink a little in embarrassment at the shows that we send your way in exchange...I mean "Dallas", etc??? My wife and I were recently hooked on "Doc Martin" and were sad to see the new episodes end.Penelope wrote: Ooops....Off topic aren't I.
But getting back to the topic, the American excellence or exceptionalism discussion is relevant. I think it's hard to feel the need to preserve and improve anything, such as a country, a neighborhood, or an organization, without holding that thing in esteem. Otherwise, why would we care about it? So belief that what we have is somehow special seems to be a good and necessary thing. Our competitive natures probably get in the way of this healthy impulse when we come to think that excellence or virtue must be exclusive to our group, or that we've set the standard. That is where I come into conflict with the exceptionalism idea, and I do think we need to hold at arm's length our loves that in themselves are nothing harmful. Others have just as strong and as valid an attachment to their loves, and we need to conduct ourselves with this in mind.