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”.
