In a 2013 New York Times<\/i> op-ed, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of the dangers of a people seeing themselves as exceptional. \u201cIt is extremely dangerous\u201d, he wrote, \u201cto encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation\u201d. He hinted at what that motivation could be. \u201cWe are all different\u201d, he wrote, \u201cbut when we ask for the Lord\u2019s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal\u201d.<\/p>\n
Putin\u2019s comments were not warmly received in the United States, though his comments are widely shared throughout the world. Putin\u2019s comments suggest that American exceptionalism is rooted in the belief of divine right, a union between church and state. The idea can be traced back to the Pilgrim Fathers. Governor John Winthrop, for example, famously remarked that \u201cWe shall be as a city upon a hill\u201d, a theme later echoed throughout United States history. The theme of American exceptionalism appears to rest in Christian thought and Christian theology; however, upon closer examination, the idea of American exceptionalism is actually quite old, predating Christianity by at least a millennium.<\/p>\n
American exceptionalism is actually rooted in the occult beliefs of ancient Mystery Schools. This is not difficult to believe, when one considers that knowledge of the Americas was well-known by initiates of the ancient schools. \u201cFor more than three thousand years\u201d, esoteric scholar Manly Palmer Hall has observed, \u201csecret societies have labored to create the background of knowledge necessary to the establishment of an enlightened democracy among the nations of the world\u201d. The establishment of an enlightened democracy among the nations of the world found its fullest expression in America. \u201cMen bound by a secret oath to labor in the cause of world democracy\u201d, Hall argued, \u201cdecided that in the American colonies they would plant the roots of a new way of life. Brotherhoods were established to meet secretly and they quietly and industriously conditioned America to its destiny for leadership in a free world\u201d.<\/p>\n