exceptionalism

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The state of being special, exceptional or unique.
2. (countable, uncountable)The belief that something (a nation, species etc.) is exceptional, superior, or does not conform to an established norm.

   “If Covid-19 eventually imbues human beings with some humility, it’s possible that we will, after all, be receptive to the lessons of this lethal pandemic. Or perhaps we will sink back into our culture of complacent exceptionalism and await the next plague that will surely arrive.”

   ““This is a moment of American exceptionalism,” Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said when asked about the flight during a Tuesday news conference.”

   “But in fact the antinomy of exceptionalism and assimilationism has been there all along, and otherwise puzzling decisions from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries become readily understandable when seen as moments when assimilationism was ascendant.”

3. (countable, uncountable)A philosophy of prevention or of intervention.