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The American Dream: Past, Present and Future. Ever since James Truslow Adams coined the phrase in 1931, each generation has rendered the American Dream in its own image. Today, we face a variety of crises that have rudely awakened us. Our nation is sharply divided over the values that should prevail. We no longer know what we aspire to. The materials collected on this blog will become the source material for a live Performance Installation at Palomar College in April of 2010.
The Epic of America
Of course you can't lump everyone into one idea of what the "American Dream" is, so how can we "define" it's current character? One way, I think, is to look at what our culture consumes and values. Sure it may be a blanket statement to say, for instance, that society has thrown family values out the window, for surely there are millions who still hold strong values in the family unit. But if we are to define it (the American Dream) let us look at what we as a society value by looking at what is sold and how it is sold in our market places and on television. I'm sure there is more that can be added, but I will sum up my idea of this "American Dream" as:
ReplyDelete- Self-Exhaultation (the pursuit of admiration and esteem)
In other words, if you can love yourself, and be loved by others, you'll be happy. Which in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing save for how our society believes this can be achieved. We are sold a bill of goods by being told that we will love ourselves and get more love from others if we look better, get more money, have nicer things, smell better, be smarter, etc etc.
Unfortunately this "value" is of no value at all. It's a cheap scheme to dupe us, as we all have a bent toward this self-exhaultation, into purchasing product. The result is a society of self-centered, materialstic, pleasure-seekers whose conscience has been seered and who value their own happiness above life itself. A society who esteems billionairre athletes who lie, cheat, and steal because of their ability to achieve such ideals, above our service men and women who get little more than an 'attaboy.
The sad thing is that pursuit of happiness in such endulgences is an illusion; like the cruel desert mirage. It offers so much promise, yet when you stoop to drink from the oasis you get nothing but a mouthful of sand.
May we desire to be a society of selfless, serving, loving people who recognize the brokeness in this world and seek to esteem each other above ourselves.
'Tis but one life, 'twill soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last.
God Bless
Thank you for this clear and passionate articulation of the current state of the American Dream. Well said and full of insightful truths. I am not a Christian, but I find truth in your analysis through the lens of his teachings.
ReplyDeletePeace!
The American Dream has always been equality and self-governance. To couch our civic discourse in marketing jargon like "upgrade" and metaphors like "oasis" is to reduce our responibilities as citizens of a democracy to the role of consumers.
ReplyDeleteAs noted, "each generation has rendered the American Dream in its own image," but images only illustrate things. Images imply values. The only thing we have is the Constitution, and this document embodies our common values.
As long as we continue define our values as "things" and continue to conflate our notions of democracy with economic theories like comsumerism, we abdicate our responsibilities as citizens. Neither the state nor corporate entities have taken anything from us; we have failed to exercise our responsibilities to contribute to the common good as citizens.
Our pracitce of capitalism has produced the greatest material wealth for the greatest number of people in history. If we aspire to anything, we should aspire to balance our wealth with the values embodied in our Constitution, its underlying principle of pluralism, and our enlightened self-interest. If we ascribe to these values, we must take personal responsibility for our actions—and our greatest failure—inaction.
My question is: did any of you who don't want the American Dream to be about financial security grow up very poor??? For me, being poor meant being laughed at for having crooked teeth, only a few clothes and those gotten from classmates, having no medical care, little food and being very crowded in a noisy messy dirty house. Why wouldn't a poor person want an American Dream where the person could earn enough money to live with real furniture instead of broken stuff, live in a quiet non crowded home and have nice things? Do any of you pie in the sky talkers have real experience living in poverty?
ReplyDeleteI, like many acquaintances and loved ones, constantly find fault with "American Values"--greed, superficiality, warmongering, superior attitutde, etc etc. My church group always emphasizes that material things are temporary and meaningless, while core principles are eternal. Most of us have an appreciation for country songs, many of which stress spritual and familial bonds amidst material sparseness.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is that humans are humans everywhere on the planet. Having a grand blog topic titled "The American Dream" calls upon us to try and separate out what is supposedly difinitively "American" vs. other world populations. I think we all know that on some tacit level, understanding a common humanity does wonders in bridging seemingly impossible cultural divides (Hey, North Korean children listen to Michael Jackson, and almost everyone loves Alvin Ailey's "Revelations"). More importantly, that which allows us to think about what is distinctly "American" is also that which links us to non-American peoples--sort of like trying to open the "finder" on your computer and getting the message that you can't open, identify, or compartementalize it because the "finder is in use." One cannot endeavor to make an identifying separation without there being a deeper knowledge of a seeming "too much" unity that requires some kind of separation; I'm reminded of a Canadian friend who strains mightily to define what is "Candian" because "his people" fear being swallowed up, culurally, by Americans. Well, as we've seen with languages over the centuries, there is no point stopping change and melding of cultures, the breaking down of walls. Before the new media introduced us to cultures of peoples around the world, I'm guessing Americans living within 20 miles of their homestead would never think to try and define the American Dream.
With the vigorous, often uncomfortable, tennis pendulum between inclusion and separation, stasis and change, acceptance and rejection of "the other" in most world cultures, I would say that if anything CAN define the American Dream it is the willingess, and some would say recklessess, by which we can accept CHANGE. Our church is not all that "radical" and could--now-exist in many "free" countries, but American seems the right climate in which to convey and live that the only thing that is constant is change. Whatever flaws many think Ameica has, the one thing I think most posters will agree upon is that we have the most freedom to have discussions such as this,along with discussions that are far, far more contentious.
To the poster who asked if those who grew up poor have disdain for the material accumulation our cultural media promotes...The early part of my childhood was "comfortable"--kids don't really know if they are rich or poor. At summer camp in Vermont, I loved sleeping in tents, hiking with buckets to fetch water from a well down the dirt road in the woods, walking barefoot in the cold outside to use the outhouse, bathing and washing clothes in a wash tub, etc. I still love these activities, most of which "should" be causes for suicidal depression in Americans indoctrinated to expect to own a home or be a "loser" by age 30 and who cannot buy a new computer every six months.
ReplyDeleteMy family fell apart and I was plunged into poverty, by American standards, when I was 12. My now single mother fretted and fretted about the leaky roof, increasing rent, and lack of alimoney checks, all of which threatened to keep me from private school and college. So, I got a full scholarship to the private school and a partial scholarship and a part-time job (and loan debt) at a college in Viginia. In truth, I never would have known how "cruddy" our rented house was or how cheap our generic brand soups were until I heard my mother constantly stress herself into cancer years later. My aim after such "poverty" was never ever to want a big house around myself, what with all the unused space and maintencance costs. I am perfectly content, like so many of my European peers are, with a modest apartment that has all the space I would ever need and use.
The one "luxury" I would like, however, is affordable health insurance. But that will not likely happen in this country until everyone contributes to the system, as happens in nations that cover everyone. For the affluent, it would mean one less vacation or plasma TV or iPHone app, but at least we'd be a more "civilized" country. I learned in the first Palomar Campus Explorations, "Poverty in America," that our nation was founded on the principle that, in essence, only the wealthy deserve to stay alive. The wealthy European, male, forefathers (and not the Indians, the REAL American settlers) have handed down this ethose over the centuries.
I'm so glad that we have access to how other nations live so that the new generations can see that maybe a little collective-mindedness can put America in a TRULY better place. As a fiercely individualistic (well, if you don't count folks wanting the same goodies) people, "we" have less available land to swing our arms freely and stake a shelter in seemingly endless available spaces, as previous generations did. In time--it may take decades--we'll be forced to temper reckless, selfish, acquisition with awareness that caring for the collective citizenry will strenghthen "America,," the way it did during the leanest times in our history.