The American Dream

Somewhere in this patriotic and compulsive pursuit of happiness and other somewhat ambiguous qualities and ideals we Americans seem to have lost the ability to perceive and appreciate simple reality. The American Dream which we have projected upon the entire globe (read; our dream must also be your dream), is just that-a dream, and dreams are not real, nor are they achievable, nor even necessarily desirable.

How appropriate that our politics and politicians have less to do with vision, ethics and leadership than with image management and marketing. How perfect that we now vote for Hollywood actors to be our leaders, governors and presidents; Hollywood, the factory from which all fantasies and dreams are issued.

What does it say about who we have become; that the only qualifications we require from our leaders is that they can look a camera square in the eye and spout rhetoric written by dramatists intended to create a sense of security by mezmorinizing us with a few deft impassioned clichés-commercial hooks, really?

We are already hypnotized, we are asleep on our feet and in the voting booths. We wouldn’t be able to identify the truth when we did hear it because it is impossible to wade through all the fiction that bombards us in the guise of journalism each day. So we end up looking at somebody’s smiling face and deciding from our gut if we believe in this or that guy or gal.

The dream making machinery has come so far; there used to be a warning, “Don’t believe everything you read in print”. Now we have electronic print and words spoken or read still hold sway with enormous power.

Meanwhile…now that so many of us have bought and own the American Dream; now that we have 2.5 children and a 3 car garage and a 4 bedroom home in a clean and safe development with decent schools, why are we still aching for what we thought the dream would fulfill? Why are we not serene and secure? Why are we not satisfied and fulfilled?

What do we really value after all? Ask people what they want and they usually answer, “stuff”. Along with all the stuff we work so hard to obtain comes pills and therapies and divorces to maintain our functioning so we can keep working to get more stuff. Maybe I got the wrong stuff! Now Ill go buy the “right stuff” and this will make me happy and content.

I am addicted to the dream along with most others. I am addicted to what is not real. I am addicted to a promise of happiness, excitement, sexual fulfillment, security, health, family accord. If I just but the right “stuff”. If I drink the right beer I will get laid a lot and with the right car I will feel excited and virile and if I buy some new hair and take Viagra I can have a sustainable romance with my darling wife who just rebuilt her boobs and ass.

There is no room in the American Dream for reality; for who we really are under the clothes and fake body parts and pretigious jobs and cars-the true frightened souls who just don’t feel serene with themselves.

We age and grow old and weak and sickly. We also grow wiser sometimes but America doesn’t value elder wisdom. As our bodies deteriorate we come closer to spirit but America has no need for spirituality. The only prophets valued here are econmic profits. The irony is printed on our coins, “In God we trust”. If the truth were printed on coins it would say, “In this coin, we trust”.