American Good Fortune and Misperception about the Outside World

The United States has enjoyed power and success unlike that of any other nation. Regardless of what one may think of the exceptionalist rhetoric that infuses American politics, the American national experience, leading to the United States being the world’s sole superpower, is undeniably unusual. America’s distinct history and situation, and the political culture that has resulted, underlie a distinctly American way of looking at the rest of the world. This way involves not only preferences and objectives but also, more fundamentally, how Americans perceive things beyond their borders and think about the nature of things. As with other cultures, American political culture determines much of what the people who are part of it take to be factual knowledge. That culture and everything that has gone into it constitute a prism that slants, distorts, and colors how Americans see what is around them. Sometimes the slanting is so great that some things are not seen at all.