Nearly two centuries after the term “American exceptionalism” was coined by the French nobleman, diplomat, and historian Alexis de Tocqueville, there is still much debate about what it means. De Tocqueville wrote the classic two-volume set, Democracy in America, after a long tour of America in the early 1800s. This work is still considered perhaps the most defining analysis of the American Republic ever written. Is this most famous description of America still accurate? Are we still exceptional?  

         Sometimes the best policy for everyone can seem to be selfish by the one implementing it. For example, if an airplane loses pressurization, idealism would have us think that every parent should think of their children first, helping them get their oxygen masks on before their own. However, in the preflight safety briefing parents are told to put their oxygen masks on before helping their children get theirs on. Why?

         There are paradigms that can reveal the reasons for the trajectory of history, the times that we are in, and where we are headed. There is a remarkable one in the Book of Revelation: 

         “After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth...” (Revelation 7:1).