American exceptionalism lead to failed response

In an essay in Foreign Affairs, Jeremy Konyndyk argues that “American exceptionalism — the notion that the United States is unique among nations and that the American way is invariably the best — has blinded this country ’s leaders (and many of its citizens) to potentially lifesaving lessons from other countries.”

Our federal government’s disastrous response to the COVID -19 pandemic is a perfect example of this mentality ’s hubris, closed-mindedness and ignorance about the rest of the world.

Many Asia-pacific countries have succeeded against COVID -19 — South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia. All were hit by SARS or witnessed its economic damage, and they learned from the experience. The only non-asian country with a SARS outbreak was Canada, and it, too, changed its procedures after 2003 and took precautions. Even China learned a great deal from its disastrous SARS response, and, despite early stumbles this time, Beijing has managed to crush COVID -19 so completely that the disease has virtually disappeared from the country where it began.

To respond successfully to today ’s huge challenges — a pandemic, an economic recession, climate change and racial reconciliation — our government leaders need to abandon the self-destructive belief in American exceptionalism. They need to adopt Bill Gates’ approach to problem-solving. He starts by asking two fundamental questions: “Who has dealt with this problem well? And what can we learn from them?” Gates suggests we apply the same philosophy to the pandemic.

Don Bell Troy