Are Americans the Chosen?

I am not the chosen! Are we? Robert R. Odle, Ph.D. an aspiring good citizen of the earth

… are we the chosen? ....

I am not the chosen.  Remember in the old testament the Jews declared they were the chosen of God.  The  Islamic religion, I think has a similar story as do many religions of the world.

Although, we say it differently, when we talk about our country, when we say we are the greatest country on the earth, aren't we saying we are the chosen.  We often say it is our destiny, our responsibility, to lead the world.  

Manifest Destiny

Back in the day, when we were settling the west, we came up with the concept of Manifest Destiny which was a widely held belief in the United States that American settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent. We thought our people and institutions were more virtuous than those people living in the West (or anywhere else for that matter) and therefore it was own mission to redeem and remake the west in the image of ourselves. Historian Frederick Merk says this concept was born out of "a sense of mission to redeem the Old World by high example ... generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven".  Sounds a lot like we believed we were the chosen people, doesn't it.
Well, there were two general schools of thought on how we should pursue our  Manifest Destiny.  One school justified using the "gun" to realize our Manifest Destiny and to destroy whoever stood in the way, mostly Native Americans, but a few Mexicans also had to die. The other school of thought was that we should lead by democratic example instead of by conquest. WE know how it played out.

manifest destiny syndrome ...

Believing We Are the Chosen affects our Judgement

I think we still have the Manifest Destiny syndrome.  When we believe we are the chosen, we look at what we are best at and decide' that is what must be important.  For instance, without a doubt we in America are the best at making money, making a profit.  If you are a shareholder then our ability to make a profit in this country is very important.  If we believe we are not the chosen, we might ask ourselves what is important, what are our values, and then ask ourselves how are we doing living up to our values. For example, we might decide our most important value is taking care of the weak in our society and then act accordingly.

I don't this is a conversation we have had for a long time in America.  We need to ask ourselves not what we are good at, but what do we want to be good at. For instance, we are good at war, putting people in prison, and making profits.  I wish we could be good at helping the homeless have homes, helping those without medical care get the help they need, and helping children without a stable home life have such a life.  When I visit another country, I wish I could say to them America has found a way to use our wealth to make the lives of all its people, and even those visiting (legal or not), better.  If I had to chose, I would chose for my country to be known as a compassionate country instead of a country with a great military.