nation apart. Why is British exceptionalism so exceptional?

Essay from the year 2019 in the subject Sociology - Politics, Majorities, Minorities, Oxford University, course: History, language: English, abstract: The forty months since June 2016 have figured in the national media and consciousness as unprecedented times in UK history. In substance, indeed, our politics have never been quite as they are now. In its nature, however, the bombastic Europhobia presently vitiating the liberal establishment is but a variation on a ritual theme in this country's past: that of British exceptionality. Hallowed in its hymns and verse as the "e;dread and envy"e; of all nations, as a land "e;of hope and glory,"e; and an "e;other Eden,"e; a "e;demi-paradise"e; on which "e;the countenance divine"e; exclusively shines, the United Kingdom and its British and English progenitors have a long and sustained tradition of self-apotheosis. As, in fairness, do most other modern polities. In light of this, it becomes clear that the peculiarity of British exceptionalism is not its simple existence but rather and this is increasingly the case its signal exclusiveness. Incompetent to accommodate broader or narrower identifications such as Europeanness and Scottish nationalism, the inbuilt superiority complex of this scepter d isle is exceptional in its very exceptionality. This essay attempts to answer why.