Prager’s American Trinity
Dennis Prager
For those of you who took the time to savor Dennis Prager’s speech on American Exceptionalism that I posted yesterday, I know you were blessed (unless you’re one of these sour socialists who loathes America, in which case you probably seethed).
In case you didn’t have time to set aside about 40 minutes to watch the entire speech, this video below is from Prager University, and encapsulates that speech into about five minutes. It examines what Prager calls the “American Trinity” of our unique selection of values: E Pluribus Unum, In God We Trust, and liberty.
Read this excerpt from the transcript, then watch all the video to learn the rest. Prager has other videos and courses at the website, so check it out.
Ask almost any American what’s different about America? Why are American values different, let’s say, than France’s values or Britain’s values or Uruguay’s values or any Democracies values? Is there anything unique about the United States and especially is there anything unique about the American values system? Well in fact it is unique; it’s part of the reason some people speak about what we call American exceptionalism, meaning that America‘s values have been exceptional.
The uniqueness of the American values system has made the American experiment indeed the experiment for humanity. That’s why people who come here assimilate faster than in any other country in the world ?? without disparaging any other countries, and there are many wonderful people in every country, and many miserable people in our own, surely.
But nevertheless the American experiment is unique. If you come to Germany, let’s say, from Turkey where many people have immigrated from, you will find that most Turks remain Turks for generations. They are not considered fellow Germans or fellow Swedes or fellow Danes nearly as much as somebody from Turkey would be within a week in the United States. Why is this? Why is America unique?
Well, we have a unique values system. I call it the American Trinity. It’s not to be confused in any way with the Christian Trinity, that’s a theological statement of Christianity. The American Trinity is the three pillars of American values.
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The problem with Americans saying it is our values that make us 'exceptional' is that it is we ourselves who are making that argument. Would kind of be like the many parents in this country who think their own children are more 'exceptional' than other children. It is subjective and not democratic in concept. Lets poll all countries and see what the tally is on who thinks who has the best values in order to be objective and democraric, since that is what we say we believe in.
There's nothing wrong with us acknowledging that our values are exceptional, provided it's true. One need only look around the world and at history to recognize that our values are exceptional. No nation in history has adopted a better set of values (starting with moral ones of course, but also spanning out into legal ones, governmental, economic, etc.). Further, the proof is in the pudding: no nation has experienced the affluence we have, nor the greatness on the world stage, nor the level of longstanding domestic tranquility.
What's more, many people from other countries throughout our history have recognized how exceptional America is. One of the earliest and most notable was the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville who toured the United States and wrote his hallmark book on America entitled “Democracy in America.” In this book, he cataloged many of the reasons for an manifestations of American greatness, not the least of which was the unique role religion played in America and the effect that had.
We don't have to rub the world's nose in our exceptionalism, but we darn sure don't have to be ashamed of it or pretend it doesn't exist, either.
Don't get me wrong- I love this country and wish to live no where else.Travel makes you realise that. Not sure that things like 'affluence' and 'world stage presence' are the best measuring sticks of what makes a great country ( or a person for that matter) . Rome and even England comparatively had 'world affluence' and 'stage presence' for as long or longer than we, which has really only been for the last 100 years so
I am not sure we are the only nation nation ever to achieved these goals.
Domestic tranquility- maybe, maybe not- but lets not forget early severe labor strikes, the civil rights era,Vietnam era and demonstrations and deaths, the Civil War etc etc.Since we have only really been 'on top' so to speak for the last 100 years or so, lets wait another 300 or 400 years before we claim exceptionalism