Part 18: American Exceptionalism and Nationalist Faith

[T]hey had better not publish anything that challenges the idea that America is fundamentally good, the exceptional nation, because this is the one religious belief that cannot be challenged." — David Ray Griffin

By Frances T. Shure

Editor's Note: Frances Shure, M.A., L.P.C., has performed an in-depth analysis addressing a key issue of our time: "Why Do Good People Become Silent — or Worse — About 9/11?" The resulting essay, being presented here as a series, is a synthesis of both academic research and clinical observations.

"If a person’s false self includes identification with America as a country of unequivocal goodness, then to be exposed to information suggesting that America is in fact an imperialistic aggressor . . . is to have one’s self-image seriously challenged."

In addressing the question in the title of this essay, the April 2015 segment, Dissociation, explained that some individuals suffered severe developmental trauma in childhood that caused them to reflexively shut down their awareness of these traumatic events. This biological process is known as dissociation. Such repressed traumas can be activated by information conveyed by 9/11 skeptics — information that implies that forces within our government may have been involved in mass murder of its own citizens — causing these individuals to dissociate once again.