by ALDEN C. MAYFIELD
There are some (Korean) academics, teachers, intellectuals, government think-tanks, policy makers, and so forth, who unabashedly promote the unquestioned and unchallenged historical virtues of “American Exceptionalism (Manifest Destiny)” that were ironed out in the mid-nineteenth century, and filtered into modern-day world international affairs. However, it is obvious that this narrow Anglo-American ideology is historically and politically misconstrued.
In constructing their version of “American Exceptionalism” rhetoric, this ideological bent highlights John Winthrop’s ‘Light on the Hill’ rhetoric. However, Winthrop held strident anti-democratic sentiments: “A democracy is, amongst civil nations, accounted the meanest and worst of all forms of government.” Also, Winthrop’s vision was meant for the “white” population, not for Indians, Blacks, or any mixed bloods. In fact, this ultruistic light became a time of abject darkness for the African-American and Indigenous populations as millions were historically erased through slavery and mass murder via the conduits of racism and pandemic disease. Instead, most Puritan missionaries were reluctant to share this light with the “other.” In fact, missionary work amoung North American Indians (and Blacks) was sporadic, begrudging and self-serving, despite the genuine missionary success of John Mayhew Jr. and John Eliot and other Moravian Missionary work in Pennsylvania.
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