American Exceptionalism Analysis

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Alfred Bester and Andre Norton have very different views about American Exceptionalism. According to Bester, "American Exceptionalism is very real, whereas to Norton, it is nothing more than an "ideological fiction, and a "malignant myth."1

According to Andre Norton, "The only exceptional thing about America is the exceptional ability of an entrenched oligarchy to convince ordinary people that their nation is superior in the world, which masks the fact that those ordinary people are acutely inferior at home."2 She claims that the ideology of democracy and egalitarianism were nothing more than a device by which the rich and powerful tricked ordinary people into obedience. Unlike the British, who often used force to control the lower class,