Belief in a ‘postmodern condition’ is American historical amnesia.

Evidence

America was, in short, exempt from history: from mechanics and industrialization we would derive wealth, power, and productivity; from nature, peace, harmony, and self-sufficiency. — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 474 (#expands, via linked claim)

Vann was sure that he would be able to see what motivated the Vietnamese officers with whom he would be working and persuade them to do what was in their best interest and in the interest of the United States. … History had not shown Americans to be fallible as other peoples were. Americans were different. History did not apply to them. — Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie, 121 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Postmodernism’s pessimism was a local European crisis wrongly universalized; Postmodernism’s American success is a paradox because the concept is devastating to American culture; Postmodernism may be the same epoch as modernism, not a radical break. (+10 more)

Related

• Americanism is an intensification of European civilisation, not a new type (similarity 0.81)
• Postmodernism’s American success is a paradox because the concept is devastating to American culture (similarity 0.80)
• Even America now generates its own social passivity and new residues (similarity 0.79)
• Americans believed their nation was exempt from European history’s burdens (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Americans believed their nation was exempt from European history’s burdens #expands (0.70) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 474
• Americans mistakenly believe they are different from other nations. #expands (0.65) — Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie, 121
• Suppressed knowledge allows the myth of American decency to endure. #complicates (0.60) — Nicholson Baker, Baseless- My Search for Secrets in the…, 1087
• Postmodern theory’s claims of abandoned meaning serve an ideological role masking its own dominance #expands (0.60)
• Secrecy suppresses knowledge, enforcing historical amnesia. #complicates (0.50) — Nicholson Baker, Baseless- My Search for Secrets in the…, 1085
• New theory requires recovering historical events erased from Western historiography #responds-to (0.40)