Selling our Souls to Realize the American Dream
People in many countries may express anger or resentment of the United States for things this country has done. But at the same time, these same people very much envy what we have in terms of our standard of living. It is within the grasp of most Americans to grab at least a small piece of the American dream.
To grab a piece of the American dream... what exactly does that mean? It means mostly, if we are willing to pay the price asked, we can possess certain things. For some people, it is the possession of a lot of material things. For others, it is the pursuit of fame, of power, or of social or professional status. In this country, it is usually the pursuit of more... more of whatever it is we want to possess, especially wealth. The more, the better. And for most of us, this can become an addiction, so that no matter how much we have of what we covet most, it will never be enough.
It would be very nice if we could lay the blame on the self-serving corporations who stoke our desires with a constant stream of ads for everything our hearts could desire. But that wouldn't be very fair or honest on our part. We have to acknowledge that these corporations are just giving us exactly what we are demanding. If we have lost any sense of self-restraint... if we have completely lost our sense of perspective and most of our common sense, it is our own damn fault.
So we have only ourselves to blame if we clutter our lives with a lot of baggage we really have little need for. If the shows we watch, the music we listen to and the movies we go to are in general really very mediocre and in general moronic, that is what we have been clammering for. And if the politicians we elect are inept, clueless, corrupt, unresponsive to our needs and in too many cases entirely useless as representatives of the people, we richly deserve what we get out of them. And if as a people, we continue to buy things which we can't afford and which, in reality, we don't actually need, who can we blame but ourselves. And all the while we are hopelessly putting ourselves into increasingly higher debt.
If that were all there was to say about this abysmal state of affairs, I could stop right here. But there is one additional dimension to what we have done to ourselves as individuals. In a free society like ours, we are allowed to make many decisions for ourselves. We are entitled, for the most part, to establish our own priorities as we see fit. As citizens of a free society, we are expected to assume certain responsibilities, to preserve the rights, privileges and freedoms for which so many men and women have fought and died. And one of those decisions we can make is to choose not to accept those responsibilities or to place them very low on our list of priorities.
Too many of us are too caught up in a self-destructive pursuit of the American dream. We get very busy and so focused on building our little kingdoms, that we are very much in danger of losing our values and our souls. Power can corrupt even the most well-meaning of men and women. An addiction to material wealth or success or the pursuit of fame can lead even the most ideal of people to pathways that will eventually destroy their lives. As a people, we are willing to put ourselves into unbelievable levels of indebtedness, just so we can look good in the eyes of others... or worse, so that we can momentarily feel better, when we fear that we have failed to do that. The whole notion of success has been warped and twisted into something unrecognizable and without merit.
It is ironic, that some of the most wealthy Americans are those who live simply and quietly among us. They do not live ostentatiously and they are for the most part really invisible to us. They don't have to prove anything to anyone. And most of them use their credit cards sparingly and wisely, because to do otherwise would make little sense to them.
The rest of of live tenuously, overextended financially, and living beyond our means. For the most part, we have little to show for all the money and time we have squandered to acquire our "treasures." After awhile, after we have realized the terrible price we have paid to buy into the American Dream, all these things which we have acquired cease to have much meaning or value. We discover this terrible truth, usually only after it is to late to escape the costly consequences of our poor judgment.
We have sold our souls. We have compromised the very values which defined us, to pursue success, however we defined that goal. We may have bankrupted our lives in pursuit of something that probably never existed in the first place.
The terrible irony about all this is that the rest of the world wants to be just like us. Maybe we would do the rest of the world a huge favor if we clued them into what they were actually getting themselves into. Better yet, we would do the next generation of American kids coming up a huge favor, if we clued them into the realities of success in America and of the realities about the "American Dream"... that, in fact, that dream can morph itself into a nightmare from which it is truly difficult to extricate oneself.
To grab a piece of the American dream... what exactly does that mean? It means mostly, if we are willing to pay the price asked, we can possess certain things. For some people, it is the possession of a lot of material things. For others, it is the pursuit of fame, of power, or of social or professional status. In this country, it is usually the pursuit of more... more of whatever it is we want to possess, especially wealth. The more, the better. And for most of us, this can become an addiction, so that no matter how much we have of what we covet most, it will never be enough.
It would be very nice if we could lay the blame on the self-serving corporations who stoke our desires with a constant stream of ads for everything our hearts could desire. But that wouldn't be very fair or honest on our part. We have to acknowledge that these corporations are just giving us exactly what we are demanding. If we have lost any sense of self-restraint... if we have completely lost our sense of perspective and most of our common sense, it is our own damn fault.
So we have only ourselves to blame if we clutter our lives with a lot of baggage we really have little need for. If the shows we watch, the music we listen to and the movies we go to are in general really very mediocre and in general moronic, that is what we have been clammering for. And if the politicians we elect are inept, clueless, corrupt, unresponsive to our needs and in too many cases entirely useless as representatives of the people, we richly deserve what we get out of them. And if as a people, we continue to buy things which we can't afford and which, in reality, we don't actually need, who can we blame but ourselves. And all the while we are hopelessly putting ourselves into increasingly higher debt.
If that were all there was to say about this abysmal state of affairs, I could stop right here. But there is one additional dimension to what we have done to ourselves as individuals. In a free society like ours, we are allowed to make many decisions for ourselves. We are entitled, for the most part, to establish our own priorities as we see fit. As citizens of a free society, we are expected to assume certain responsibilities, to preserve the rights, privileges and freedoms for which so many men and women have fought and died. And one of those decisions we can make is to choose not to accept those responsibilities or to place them very low on our list of priorities.
Too many of us are too caught up in a self-destructive pursuit of the American dream. We get very busy and so focused on building our little kingdoms, that we are very much in danger of losing our values and our souls. Power can corrupt even the most well-meaning of men and women. An addiction to material wealth or success or the pursuit of fame can lead even the most ideal of people to pathways that will eventually destroy their lives. As a people, we are willing to put ourselves into unbelievable levels of indebtedness, just so we can look good in the eyes of others... or worse, so that we can momentarily feel better, when we fear that we have failed to do that. The whole notion of success has been warped and twisted into something unrecognizable and without merit.
It is ironic, that some of the most wealthy Americans are those who live simply and quietly among us. They do not live ostentatiously and they are for the most part really invisible to us. They don't have to prove anything to anyone. And most of them use their credit cards sparingly and wisely, because to do otherwise would make little sense to them.
The rest of of live tenuously, overextended financially, and living beyond our means. For the most part, we have little to show for all the money and time we have squandered to acquire our "treasures." After awhile, after we have realized the terrible price we have paid to buy into the American Dream, all these things which we have acquired cease to have much meaning or value. We discover this terrible truth, usually only after it is to late to escape the costly consequences of our poor judgment.
We have sold our souls. We have compromised the very values which defined us, to pursue success, however we defined that goal. We may have bankrupted our lives in pursuit of something that probably never existed in the first place.
The terrible irony about all this is that the rest of the world wants to be just like us. Maybe we would do the rest of the world a huge favor if we clued them into what they were actually getting themselves into. Better yet, we would do the next generation of American kids coming up a huge favor, if we clued them into the realities of success in America and of the realities about the "American Dream"... that, in fact, that dream can morph itself into a nightmare from which it is truly difficult to extricate oneself.
posted by hfireman | 1:23 AM
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