The American Dream, or the Death Thereof (LONG) (1184 hits)
Category: PoliticsLabels: pointless ranting
Rating: 2 on 19 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by shadow (View user info) at 2004-02-25 12:16:08 EST
If you have the attention span of a gnat, please scroll down to the bottom, I've put in a joke for you.
For everyone else:
Consider this post an open forum for debate. For the duration of the time that this post stays front page, I will take no offense to -2s, and no pleasure in +2s. The following is a collection of observations I have made while growing up and living here in the United States of America, feel free to respond with your own opinions and ideas.
When I was young, I heard of this thing called the American Dream. It involved happiness and peace, warmth and contentment. The classic definition seems to be "a car in every garage and a chicken in every pot", which I have always taken to mean that basic needs (ie shelter, food, and transportaion) are provided for, that no one shall go without. Even in the documents that define America as a country, it was stated that we should provide for the common good and promote the general welfare, that we, as a people both diverse and connected, should work to bring contentment and peace to all mankind.
When I was a child, living with my mother and three siblings, we were very poor. We constantly moved from place to place, staying with friends and family until our welcomes wore out, taking food handouts from churches, etc. Even then my mother told me that if I worked hard, I could have whatever I want in life. Hard work would payoff with a nice home, hot food to eat, a warm place to sleep at night and someone special to share it with; and for a long time, I believed her.
Today, I have a very different opinion of the American dream; men and women today seem to want something different, something perhaps more tangible or maybe more gratifying. Americans today seem to want something for free, we want to win the lottery or sue the guy who did, we want to make it big on shows like "American Idol" and tell our tragic tales on "behind the music". We want to win $1 million on reality TV shows like "Survivor" and "Big Brother" which exhibit and encourage the worst kinds of human behaviour, rewarding betrayal and underhandedness with cash and sponsorships. The retail customer wants half-off a blouse because one the buttons is discolored but will not take the one on the rack that's fine. The restaurant customer wants their salad for free because it wan't brought to the table in under 12 minutes. The list goes on.
What ever happened to good old fashioned hard work? Earning your keep? Well the irony here is that on average Americans spend more hours at work per week and have less vacation time per year than just about any other developed nation. Could the porblem be the fact that the buying power of minimum wage has decreased by about 30% in the past 40 years, even though the rate itself is rising? Perhaps, could it be that crass consumerism and the eternal buying cycle of our capitalist society is driving people to throw their money back into the system? There are so many possible reasons, so I'd like to take a moment to examine a few.
1. Consumer culture (aka the Disposable Culture)> We are born and raised to be consumers in America. You learn in first grade how to count money. You ask your parents for toys from your favorite TV show, etc. The average American is hit with an advertising message once every two minutes for their entire life. "Exageration!" you cry, but no! think about it, while you drive or ride to work: bilboards, sign posts, sixty-foot tall poles with golden arches or blue and red stripes. While you're at work: swooshes on sneakers, a cow on your computer, a green and white chick on your coffee cup. And to prove the point, I don't even need to explain that "golden arches" = McDonald's and "swoosh"= Nike. See what I mean? you already knew that! The point is this, when you are taught that these are the things that make life worth while, and you learn that they should be gotten rid of when the next best thing comes out, they and life lose meaning. Your world and everything in it is disposable.
2. Quality of Life > My friend Trey called last night from Kuwait, where he is stationed. He hates it there, said he wanted to mail me a box of sand so that I could see his view of the landscape and what life was like for him out there in a tent in the dessert. He told me to take a few moments and appriciate what I have. I was a beautiful message.
I am rich. I have great friends like Razor (who will forgive me for not visiting his new place yet... please?) and Mike and Ash and jonukah and Trey and silicon_jesus and SpikeGodess and Steve and everyone else who should be listed here. I have a warm floor with blankets to sleep on (no typo, I don't own a bed yet) I have a way to get where I need to go every day, I have food in the cupboard (sp) and beer in the frige. Who could ask for anything more? The only problem is that I'm over 6 grand in debt and my job stresses me like nothing else, and I'm about to drop out of school because I've been here four years and won't be graduating for another four if I don't pull my act together NOW and stop getting bronchitis and my love life SUX and... and... What the hell is wrong with this picture? I should be HAPPY with what I have but something gets in the way of my enjoyment of this crazy thing called life. I always feel like what I have is not enough, not good enough, not nice enough... call it the human need to always have more, greed if you will, but I was not always like this.
I feel compelled to buy, to have, but I don't want to because it's not making me any happier for all the junk I have. At the end of the day it's just junk. Which brings me to my next point:
3. Materialism> My neighhbor just bought 18" spinners for his cadillac. He lives in a one bedroom apt. with a wife and two kids... I don't get it.
I love cars. As many of you know, I work for an Auto garage and though it's not an easy job, it does afford me the opportunity to play with other peoples' cars. I appriciate cars on two primary levels: 1. it's a tool to achieve your goals thorugh the day 2. it is peotry in motion to watch what was once a hunk of metal change into a powerful machine, and then to control that power...ooohhhhh... but i digress. My neighbor's purchase was not for asethtics, not really. It was not for performance enhancement. It was to show everybody in town who had the money to blow on wheels that start at about a grand each. That could have been part of the downpayment on a house so that his kids could have more room to grow. That could have been college funds for his little girls. Instead, it became a symbol to me that the American dream is failing.
If you would like to add, please feel free, for or against, plus or minus. If you would like to add your observations, do so with impunity; if you think I am a asshat by all means, spell it out for me, just read, think and respond.
Now here's that joke I promised:
Knock Knock.
(who's there?)
Go fuck yourself.
User Reviews
Submitted by JMG114 (user info) at 2004-04-01 12:14:58 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
This deserved more responses than it received. A wonderful piece.
Submitted by K.M (user info) at 2004-02-25 20:29:29 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Everybody has a dream. Everybody. Some people _have_ realized it, and some people will realize it, and still others, the majority of people, will fail miserably. Some people want money. Some people want fame. Some people want to make their mark on the world. Some people want to cash in on intellectual capital, and others want to live in their double wide trailer, never working a day, living the life of a social parasite.
This was actually rather refreshing, not only because it was actually intended to stimulate discussion, but because I had just finished watching Scarface, for the umpteenth billion time.
The "American" dream is nothing but an ideological extension of human nature. It is an innate desire of man to succeed, to live comfortably, to provide for his family, to "get by". Of course, like my dear friend Tony Montana, some people are utterly consumed by their own greed.
But regardless, YOU AREN'T YOUR FUCKING KHAKIS, goddamnit.
Vapid consumerism has reached a depressing height in the last 3 decades. However, I think that those that succumb to the advertisements to the point of your trailer trash friend in the above story, are really only adversely compensating for something that they will never have. His American dream is nothing but a dismal veil. A fake, rotten, polluted state of mind, like the majority of those who seek to attain it.
However, I firmly believe that once you make something of yourself, you are fucking YOU. If you have genuinely acquired something through hard work, perseverance, or your own ingenuity, buy all the fucking khakis in the world motherfucker, you deserve it. It is the people who purchase material possessions in order to uphold appearances, in order to mask the internal malaise that saturates their existence, they are the ones that make me sick.
On a side note, for some reason I found it absolutely odd that Kristin could actually remember a specific reading program in elementary school. I can not remember anything from those years. I can recall teachers names, sometimes, and that's it. Kudos on the photographic memory, Jesus Christ
Submitted by terminator270 (user info) at 2004-02-25 19:49:03 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Great. Our world is extremely screwed up.
Submitted by kilndropheaven (user info) at 2004-02-25 17:42:55 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Very good. The materialism part always gets me too. The rule of thumb is- if costs over $1000, it should be something you can pass to the next generation, or it should at least retain more than 15% of it's value after you get it out of the box.
Submitted by Buttons (user info) at 2004-02-25 17:02:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
1. Damn you for posting this - it was going to be the topic of my first post later this week, once I put my thoughts together coherently. :)
2. Apologies, but see above if I ramble. I tend to do that when I'm unprepared.
I believe we have lost the American Dream. The "chicken in every pot" ideal is gone, brother. Now we all want it bigger, better, faster, and above all, we want it NOW. The American Dream used to be that if you worked hard enough, darnit, you could do well for yourself. That if you applied yourself and stuck to your guns and didnt give up, you could do anything, be whatever you wanted to be. Now, our "new American Dream" is that /somebody/ has to win that 180-million-dollar Powerball lottery. That rich old aunt has to die sometime, maybe she'll leave you the fortune in the will. Like Ribisi's character in Boiler Room said: "Nobody wants to work for a living anymore. Honor's in the dollar, kid."
There IS no American Dream. There is only "I want a new [insert object X here]." The very few of us who have held on to the old dream, the one our parents tried to impart to us, are the ones who actually HAVE the kind of money we comsumer-classers all dream of. (See a certain Mr. Gates. Like him/his company or not, ya gotta respect someone who can amass that kind of wealth over the course of ONE lifetime.) The rest of us are simply sheep to be sheared, fleeced of what little we have en masse. If enough of us are convinced to "Rush Out And Buy Our Great New Product! (TM)", the rich get richer. The rest of us watch our American Dream morph into the American Consumerism, the pursuit of which very very rarely leads to any sort of happiness.
The end result? We ARE our fucking kakhis, simply because that is the life we choose for ourselves. Break the mold, dammit. Fight Club? Great movie. Better message, at least until they get to the crazy shit at the end. The only way to reclaim the American Dream is for us to fight the "gatherer/hoarder" instinct we have been taught, and reclaim the "hunter/gatherer" version we are supposed to have: I gotta get enough for me and my family to live. Not live in Beverly Hills. Just live. Money aint the place to find happiness, folks. You have to find THAT 'great new product' on your own.
Alright, that's enough of my disjointed sermon. Carry on. :P
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2004-02-25 16:11:31 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
but potatoeman, Pepsi has a monopoly here at UMCP, as does Comcast, as does blah blah blah, and yet my tuition is still jumping every year, kids are still dropping out of school, or killing themselves on campus, my books still cost hundreds of dollars a semester, and the only difference I can tell is that now I have to walk or drive a mile and a half just to get a cherry coke or coffee that isn't made by starbucks.
The students don't benefit at all, the companies do
BTW there's a new book out called "Jennifer Government" you and Loki should read it, I liked it a lot
Submitted by Random Joe at 2004-02-25 15:59:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Capitalism is what you make of it.
Submitted by potatomanjack (user info) at 2004-02-25 15:51:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2004-02-25 15:10:37 (#)
Ranking: 2
Every kid at the Y thinks they are going to make it big in the NBA. News flash here kiddo, you will go much further with this math homework than that jump shot you don't have will take you. I don't know what you do about it. Horatio Alger is a sick sick lie, it's true. What do I tell these kids?
The commercialization of schools is unfortunate but without funding I can't blame the schools for getting money wherever they can.
------------
Ya, but loki, when I was a kid I dreamed of playing in the NHL. That's what kids do, they dream about what they could be. It's OK to dream. Where the problem starts is when kids are no longer hoping for a career in something wonderful, but are counting on it. My biggest problem is that not only are a lot of parents counseling against this type of behavior, but that schools are encouraging it through less stringent policy regarding sports and grades, and bascially treating high school stars as if they actually were in the NBA.
Now, as for products in school, I'm right with you. If Pepsi can offer my kids access to a better eductation and all they ask is for their machines to be the only ones offered in school, then A-OK by this cat. In fact, as long as my kid won't be learning about how the human lung works through documentaries sponsored by Philip Morris, I'll take any handout that the school can get that will improve the level of education offered within the school.
Submitted by potatomanjack (user info) at 2004-02-25 15:39:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I don't know what to tell you. Consumerism runs the country and that's a fact. Money doesn't just make the world go round but it also slices and dices in over 50 fashions. Everything runs on a fuel known as cash, and I really don't see that changing anytime soon.
So, it becomes a little bit more understandable why everyone wants either more of it or at least to give others the impression that they have more of it. I know that I'm not the biggest consumer out there, so maybe I can look at this a little more objectly. I mean, I'm happy driving a standard model car that will get me from point a to point b consistently and reliably and also gets good gas milage. My biggest indulgence is to take my girl out to a nice restaurant every now and again (even though she makes more than men) and to pick up the latest video game that has piqued my interest.
That said, what I think it all comes down to is how the consumer culture of not just America (although it's stronger in the USA) is moving more and more to defining themselves by what they have. As opposed to what Tyler Durden says, in fact you are your fucking Kakhies, because that's what others will see you as. It's not enough to have a loving family and a steak dinner because you can't leave love parked in the driveway for everyone to see.
In fact, I think that not only is it already starting, but personal debit in general is going to become a huge problem for the developed world in the future. I mean, 10 years ago you never saw the bulk of ads for personal finance companies that you see today. The only reason for those ads to be on TV is the fact that there is the volume of debtors large enough to support the industry. Also, the fact that people want more and they want it now will continue to cause people take take out loans that they really can't afford and that they will be a slave to for years afterwards.
Heck, maybe in the future, all we'll have is companies that hire employees by owning all of their debt, and the higher the level of debt that you're allowed will define how important your job is.
There's something wrong with the way we define ourselves today. There really is.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2004-02-25 15:10:37 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Every kid at the Y thinks they are going to make it big in the NBA. News flash here kiddo, you will go much further with this math homework than that jump shot you don't have will take you. I don't know what you do about it. Horatio Alger is a sick sick lie, it's true. What do I tell these kids?
The commercialization of schools is unfortunate but without funding I can't blame the schools for getting money wherever they can.
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2004-02-25 14:57:48 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I lived for a while in a place called Columbia, MD. Its lies in one of the most affluent areas in the US, (Howard County) I have met more miserable disillusioned people from that town than i have in Laurel, Fredericksburg, Richmond, Ocean City (etc. ) all put together.
You have kids growing up in an area where they are made to believe that anything they want is within their reach if they make good grades and don't do drugs and of course don't fuck, but at the end of the day these kids wind up working shit jobs at the local mall unable to find anything in this culture that makes life worth living. some go to college, some just leave. Others stay and watch as the community centers are torn down and replaced with condos and fast food chains. FOr all the material wealth their parents gave them, they were incomplete, confused and bitter.
Submitted by Kristen (user info) at 2004-02-25 14:45:01 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
It's called the Book It! program, loki. I kicked ass with that thing when I was a kid.
I don't know how it's run now, but when I was in grade school they used to give you these hologram pin/buttons with blank stars. Every time you read an approved book, your teacher would give you a sticker to put on top of one of the stars. Once you filled an entire pin, you got a coupon for a free personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut.
Anyway, I was filling in those buttons like no one's business and I never saw a goddamned pizza. My dad, who made upwards of 100 grand, would use my coupons for his lunches!!!
Bastard.
Once I hit high school, they swapped Book It! for some other program called The Accelerated Reader's Program. With that thing, you could pick any book from a list and it would be worth X amount of points. You would take a test on a computer after reading the book and depending on how you did on the test you would be awarded points accordingly. Then you could take those points and go shopping for anything from a "free" homework pass to pencils and upwards of a Sony CD player or tickets to a theme park, etc. So you can toss Sony and Mickey Mouse in the bin with Pizza Hut and M&M's.
Submitted by mikethescottish (user info) at 2004-02-25 14:30:20 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Reminds me of 'The Great Gatsby' by F. Scott Fitzgerald- and hell, he wrote that 80-ish years ago! As a British citizen wanting to emigrate to America, the American dream has always had a distinctive allure. A kind of nice feeling that even the poorest of people can rise to the top. The problem I feel may be that the dream has been subverted, manipulated by the machinations of capitalism: the inevitable mindless pursuit of riches. I think people forget that the 'white picket fence' ideals and spiritual satisfaction are component parts as well. And people constantly feel the need to show off a wealth that they don't really have- such as the example of the car used in the post.
People confuse monetary wealth with a general satisfaction of being. If the American dream is essentialy a capitalist agenda, then for every person for whom the Dream is realised, there is a whole group of people who fail to attain it. I'm not going to say that the over-simplification of American culture and desire for immediate gratification are to blame. I think that the American Dream has outdated itself by unintentionally spawning a consumerist, selfish society held together by little more than a vague, fading sense of nationalism. But what would I know? In Britain we have no such dream and yet do have the same destructive consumerism. I guess it's just a social disease, man desiring superiority to other men. Shame, really. In itself the American Dream is an admirable ideology.
Submitted by beer-turtle (user info) at 2004-02-25 14:26:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
loki we know you are a hippy
no further proof is needed, anything you say will not dismiss the a fact we already know.
Consumerism without concern to long term enironmental and psycho-social detriments.
Sounds almost like an economics thesis or something.
Can someone survive on Minimum Wage: Yes, BUT not without social assistance.
The poverty line is is interesting. http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/04poverty.shtml
Shows you what the poverty line is, rather how litttle one has to make to be considered poor.
minimum wage 5.15 x 40 x 52 (no vacation) = 10712 dollars a year GROSS.
if you give em 2 weeks vacation it is about 416 less
still above the poverty line but still unable to survive on their own.
Fucked up world
-TUrtle
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2004-02-25 14:19:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
There is another thing going on where if they read so many books, they get Pizza Hut coupons. It's predatory.
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2004-02-25 14:15:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
It's amazing what advertisers can get away with, taking advantage of a captive audience in a math class! that's jsut terrible!!
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2004-02-25 14:08:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
You scared everyone off by calling this long.
I think something should be done to protect kids from advertising. Have you seen the textbooks the kids are using these days?
I spend a fair amount of time doing elementary and high school math at the Y. I've been really surprised by a few things I've seen in the kid's books. Here's one:
There are 56 m&m's in a bag. If you and two friends split the m&m's evenly, how many m&m's would each of you get and how many would be left over?
I only WISH I were making that up.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2004-02-25 13:23:12 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Anything I say here can and will be used against me in accusations of being a hippie.
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2004-02-25 12:16:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
When will I learn? The answers to life's problems aren't at the bottom of
a bottle. They're on TV!
-- Homer Simpson
There's No Disgrace Like Home