It’s easy to sit back and talk about the wonders of the American Dream. After all, it’s something that anyone can appreciate, right? Competence leading to success? Potential becoming product?
The love for ability is ingrained in our DNA as much as the need for a life-companion or food to eat. It’s apart of who we are as human beings.
Then why is it that we constantly ignore this yearning?
Every day people claim to know what it means to be an American. I’m an American and I’m free! What does that mean though? How can someone truly understand what it means to be American in this day and age when we don’t even have the time to step back and look where it all came from. To look at the origins of that freedom and the differences that make America the land of opportunity. We’re a country that was founded on the individual but we’ve forgotten that part of our history. We’re Americans without a sense of authenticity.
It’s not hard to see how this has happened. After all, our culture celebrates reality shows and drunken celebrity binges. We love our celebrities and their screw-ups! Success isn’t something that’s celebrated. It’s villainized! To be successful means that you’re greedy, selfish, and evil! There’s no greater evil than to make money after all. Turn on your television set and you’re sure to see how Paris Hilton has just wrecked her public image once again, but you’re not going to find out about that young man who came from a single-parent household, well below the poverty line, and now owns and operates his own business. That’s not what we value now.
There was a time, when the term ‘the American Dream’ was coined, that these traits were considered what it meant to be a man. To be successful at what you do showed what kind of material you were made of. While we might not celebrate it like we once did, it doesn’t mean that it’s no longer true. That underlying feeling still rests in the American public. I refuse to believe that it is all dead, because unlike those politicians that shove their distorted virtues down your throat, I actually believe in Man. Do you still believe? Or is your reality show distracting you from your heritage, and possibly your future?
