Howard Burton - EXCEPTIONALLY UPSETTING: How Americans are increasingly confusing knowledge with opinion & what can be done about it

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About the Author

Howard Burton is the author of three other books: First Principles: Building Perimeter Institute, Burning Down UNESCO: A Guide to Innovative Fundraising and Letters From Languedoc.

He holds a PhD in physics, an MA in philosophy, and was the founding executive director of Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics from 1999-2007.

In 2012 he founded Ideas Roadshow, which was broadened into Ideas On Film in 2021. He has created dozens of films and edited over 100 books based upon detailed, long-format conversations with internationally renowned experts in a wide variety of different subject areas.

Visit www.ideas-on-film.com for more details on all books and films. He lives in France.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

PART ONE

Exceptionally Confused

Democracy

Freedom

Capitalism

PART TWO

Exceptionally Hopeful?

Party All The Time

How We Got Here

Reorienting Passion

A Path Forwards

A Note on Resources

Preface

These are the times that try mens souls.

Thomas Paine

The United States often likes to think of itself as exceptional. It is often hard to know exactly what to make of such a claim.

On the one hand, tautologically, every country is exceptional insofar as each one has had a uniquely distinct historical trajectory which has culminated in a range of identifiable national characteristicssome decidedly more substantial and meaningful than others.

And then there is the time-honored trope of powerful countries calling themselves exceptional or privileged as some sort of realpolitik maneuver in order to justify whatever unilateral geopolitical acts theyre persuaded are in their best interest at any given moment.

But on reflection there is, clearly, something noticeably different about the United States based upon its unique origins: an often highly self-conscious, unabashedly grandiose desire to promote itself as nothing less than an exemplar for the entire world. As Alexander Hamilton put it: The world may politically, as well as geographically, be divided into four parts, each having a distinct set of interests. Unhappily for the other three, Europe, by her arms and her negotiations, by force and by fraud, has in different degrees extended her dominion over them all. Africa, Asia and America have successively felt her domination. The superiority she has long maintained has tempted her to plume herself as the mistress of the world, and to consider the rest of mankind as created for her benefit...Facts have too long supported these arrogant pretensions of the European. It belongs to us to vindicate the honor of the human race, and to teach that assuming brother moderation

It was not enough, apparently, to simply argue something like, After careful review, weve come up with a really great way to structure our new federal government in a manner that will provide maximum prosperity and justice for all, and we feel that its important to the common welfare for your state legislature to ratify our proposal. Instead, right from the get-go, Americans were imbued with a determination to clothe their domestic political convictions in terms of how they might inevitably become the standard bearer for all the oppressed people of the world and poke those damned hubris-riddled Europeans in the eye.

But aside altogether from any triumphalist rhetoric from its founders, it cannot be denied that there is also a certain distinctiveness about America exhibited by what I would call its exceptionally large societal dynamic range, a conspicuous ability to simultaneously hit the extremes of almost any social issue youd care to mention: a counter-intuitive combination of unprecedented scientific accomplishment and passionate religiosity that seems to fly directly in the face of classic Weberian secularization theory; a strikingly high level of social tensionracism, violent crime, economic inequalityjuxtaposed with unusually high levels of community engagement and profound generosity of spirit towards others both within and beyond its borders; a world-leading medical research culture coupled with a dispiriting number of citizens without regular access to basic medical care.

Beyond that, there is, very importantly, the uniquely American can-do attitudethat formidable fusion of intellectual chutzpah and single-minded determination that every American seems to magically possess from birthenabling them to continually create transformative new products and ideas, merrily indifferent to the fact that nobody else ever seemed to regard them as necessary or even possible.

Related to that, perhaps, lies a distinctive sort of political uniqueness too. When I was growing up in Toronto and starting to pay attention to the social world around me, I remember finding it nothing short of incomprehensible that so many poor, underprivileged Americans would regularly vote for a political party that was consistently determined to lower tax rates on the extremely wealthy. Anywhere else, the have-nots typically support political representatives dedicated to wealth redistribution, which serves as a natural break on the rich and powerfuls determination to retain their social and economic advantages. In America, meanwhile, an often-found view among those currently living in a trailer park seems to be something like, Its vitally important to lower the tax rate of billionaires, because whenIbecome one I dont want to be forced to support the types of people Im currently surrounded by. The positive way to interpret this sort of statement is to declare that it represents an irrepressible form of societal optimism. A rather less sympathetic way to describe it is as a form of collective insanity. But either way, you certainly cant deny that its different.

So for most of my life, despite having unconsciously imbibed a constant stream of American culture from the infield fly rule to Oceans 11, there was always the sense of not having quite understood everything correctly, that at some point when I might least expect it something truly head-shakingly odd would arise that I couldnt possibly have predicted. That, too, of course, is part of the interest, part of the appeal. For the appeal is undeniable: the concept of America is also one deeply wedded to a sense of excitement, a sense of genuine, unabashed fun. Equally importantly, beyond all the silly flag-waving triumphalism and political theater, it has always been evident that the vast majority of Americans are, at heart, decent, generous and fundamentally good people, kind of like a deeply eccentric, brilliant uncle. You may not want to live with himand you might well think twice before inviting him to dinner when youve got company coming over youre trying to impressbut youre very glad hes around, particularly when times get tough.

And right now times are particularly tough. We are in the midst of a global pandemic the likes of which none of us have seen in our lifetime, wreaking havoc with our health, our economies, and our state of mind.

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