Vladimir Putin has a point. I’m not sure I ever thought I would say those words, but his recent OP-ED in response to the potential military actions towards Syria got me thinking.

It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

President Vladimir Putin in response to President Barack Obama.

I’ve never really followed Vladimir Putin all that much. Since he came to power in Russia at the end of 1999, he has had a bit of a bad name in the US. At least that is my perception over the years. Some of that might be left over from the Cold War, and I’m sure many people still see him as a dictator rather than a democratic leader. Whatever your feelings might be about the President of Russia, his reference to the words of Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr. can offer a different perception of him.

In the US, we often view ourselves as better than other countries. We live in “the greatest nation” and this is the “best place on earth to live.” The quote above is in response to a part of President Obama’s speech to Americans when he mentioned how “exceptional” Americans are (read the full OP-ED here). I don’t have a problem with national pride, but the tendency is to elevate ourselves as better than everyone else in the world. That is the attitude that justified slavery in the early in our nation’s history.

Exceptionality is based on perception. I am sure that other nations perceive their population as more exceptional than our own. I don’t agree that “encouraging people to see themselves as exceptional” is always dangerous, but I do think pride goes too far when we start thinking about ourselves as better than others.