The American Dream

I'm not a historian, not even close, so this blog may ring very wrong in your ears.  But regardless I am writing this, and hoping that there is at least a portion of truth within it.

When the colonists came to the Americas they came because they wanted a place where they could practice freedom and liberty for all men.

When Americans began expanding West, they did so because they wanted to find a life and wealth for their own.

When wealthy land owners began partaking in the African slave trade, they did so as a means to increase production, lower production costs, and thus receive a bigger slice of the American Dream pie they so desperately wanted.

When John is working full-time, and his wife puts their kids in daycare so she can also work a full-time job, it is to bring them closer to the dream of being able to give themselves and their children anything they could ever want.

When Ted Stevens accepts bribes, he does so in pursuit of wanting wealth, power, and freedom that could be associated with a twisted form of the American Dream.

I'm not saying the American Dream is an evil thing, or was wrong in its inception (at least as an idea, not a phrase).  But it becomes increasingly apparent in our country that the American Dream has strayed from a desire for basic human rights and opportunity.  Instead it has been individualized in our minds.  The focus of the American Dream is no longer country or appealing to a higher truth; but, rather, me.  

Our dream is one that looks out for our own immediate self-interest.  We want no law or person hindering what we can do.  It appears we have a thought process that says, "Laws are so other people can't impede on my freedoms."  But that is as far as we want the laws to serve us, their application against us is unfair in our eyes.  Just look at the example of illegal downloading of music.  This is something I point back at myself for.  I wouldn't want anyone stealing from me, but I don't want anyone to hinder my ability to steal from others.  The American Dream, it's all about me.  And we are even destroying our families and relationships, as we try to satisfy and provide what the "American Dream" and Darwin would have us believe is most important.

It also drives us to our division in politics.  Now surely this isn't 100% true, but one can certainly see a trend in what party a person is registered for, based on their income levels or affiliations.

When Sherman Alexie was interviewed on The Colbert Report, he said something that made me think...

Unlike other groups of people in this country, we Indians vote for the good of everybody, and not just for the good of our little group.

-  Sherman Alexie

If you watch the clip you will see he was speaking about why McCain is a better choice for the Native American population, and yet why the Native Americans generally were pushing for Obama.  Now regardless of your or my political views, you can't deny this statement contains a dose of caffein to wake up our minds.  We do vote for ourselves.  Christians vote for the person that seems the most moral (sometimes putting their ability to run the government further back on the list) so they can have the moral character they want to see in office, much of the upper-class vote for the republican candidate, so they can get tax breaks they so desperately want, and many of the low-class citizens vote for the democrats so they can get the handouts they want.

We make our decisions with a form of presupposition.  That is, "whatever helps me or my cause the most, is the best answer."  To find a way to better our country, don't we need to lay those aside?  Shouldn't we do what is right, regardless of whether or not we are the ones who will most benefit or least benefit.  Can we be objective without first denying our self?

Let's stop the American Dream from being focused on what we WANT, and rather, let's keep it at what it started at.  Fair opportunity, liberty, and democracy.  Liberty doesn't ensure you the things that you want.  Opportunity does not afford you the right to break the law to succeed.  And surely democracy was not meant for us to selfishly mandate that our individual desires be satisfied, rather it ignites an obligation for us to educate ourselves and seek true wisdom, ignoring any presuppositions not arrived at in the truth of reason, so that we may look to the good of all before the good of ourselves.

We'll never see the America we're dreaming of unless we forsake this selfish rendition of the American Dream we have so tightly embraced.