What is an epic? It can
be a poem of reflection, tales passed down of ancient traditions, or the history
of a nation. It has always been dependent on the people living during a
specified time period, their idealism, their dreams, and what they make of themselves.
One of the great cornerstones of the epic is that people have escaped from
something to build on personal ideals somewhere else.
In 1931, James T Adams
wrote a book, The Epic of America, on
the history of the people who escaped from what they believed was tyranny, extreme
government control, to travel to something new, a wild territory. They were in
search of a new life. Some of the people in search of were nothing more than
people emptied out of a prison somewhere physically or mentally. Some
settlements faced the same problems in which they were escaping from, religious
tyranny or extreme control. Those who felt this pressure went further into a wilderness
to carve out individualism, a life of hard work. They built off the sweat of
their brow, the pain from their bodies, and carved every inch of what they had accomplished
by hand. Some survived and some did not.
But somehow, through the
individualism of time, a nation was built. According to Adams, like the
dinosaurs through the evolution of time, social and economic industry came into
existence where large corporations and capitalism flourished. Further as he
expressed, were corporations, a new type of dinosaur, monster? [1] During this era of corporations and
capitalism, dreams of individualism still existed. Some were rewarded by extensive monetary
gains and others were not.
Those dreams of freedom,
equality, and opportunity were still evident in 1931. Why? It was written as
being evident in the Constitution of the United States. Therefore, it was
evident to white men of property and means. It was soon later extended to all
men; then to men of color; eventually to the opposite sex, women. It took a Civil War to recognize people of
color. It took more than 100 years to recognize women. This way, all of the
shores of America had an equal opportunity at carving out their place for
individualism. In 2018, does that equality opportunity still hold true? The Equal Opportunity Act was just a passing dream, but somehow became a law. It also depends on who is enforcing the equal opportunity -- the powers that control.
It is no secret, that
this so called “American Dream” that was coined by James T Adams, has grown
into something that truly is not real, but creative writing to make the history
of the American discovery somewhat philosophical and greater than reality. Yet,
in 2018, there are still others who are escaping from their tyrannical countries
in search of that American dream which is nothing more that the dream of
material opportunity. A hard lesson one should learn in a capitalistic society about
dreams, they may or may not come true because there are winners and losers in
life no matter how we look at it. It is a given. There will always be the haves
and the have nots. There will always be the poor and the wealthy.
Life is up and down.
Endicott Peabody said "Things in life will not always run smoothly.
Sometimes we will be rising toward the heights — then all will seem to reverse
itself and start downward. The great fact to remember is that the trend of
civilization itself is forever upward, that a line drawn through the middle of
the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend."[2] Is that upward trend always feasible?
Can rising toward new heights destroy what is natures ability to function with
man? Caution will always be needed due to the element of the unknown, human thought.
Just as there were
Hebrews who assimilated into the Egyptian society to eventually gain their
freedom to help build pyramids for the empire, the Pharaoh, there are empire
leaders and empire builders. Do not confuse the two. Hierarchy, the pecking
order, is a part of humanity, or animal nature and inequality will always
thrive in nature or nurture. The Hebrews eventually escaped to be lead by another. It matters not whether people are in a monarchy, democracy,
republic, socialism, communism, or dictatorship, there will always be hierarchy.
There will always be an order. One can argue this fact however, we must look to
the answer within our own lives. Did we not have someone telling us at any point
in life what to do and where to go as humans (not necessarily in a derogatory sense)? Do
the animals battle for the leader of their habitat? Do countries battle for the power
of principle?
In 2018, the American
dream is just that a dream. If one escapes and comes to America today, there is
no wild west to conquer, no undiscovered territory. There is not greatness to
be had. Capitalism of success is a very slim percentage by chance. That same percentage
exists in purchasing a lottery ticket. The American dream is nothing more than
an epic tale written in a 1931 book of inventive writing, a creative choice of
words. It is not materials that one can achieve that makes this country
special. Material possessions are temporary measures in a life we are
just passing through. Materialism is not a permanent fixture. Surely an economy, war, hurricane, tornado, flooding, or fire has taught many this lesson on materialism-- come and go.
What is special about
this country is the real dream is freedom to pray, freedom to speak, freedom to
pursue, and the freedom of opportunity that prevails for each of us. Let us not abuse that fact. It does
not ensure anyone of anything because there are rules and consequences to where
our dreams take us always. It matters not the nation--rules exist. Man should definitely embrace not a national pride,
but healthy respect of that land in which they reside. If anything, we should
consider the self as “…a citizen
of the world, rather than belonging to and being formed by a particular nation…
[W]e should give our first allegiance to no mere form of government, no
temporal power, but to the moral community made up by the humanity of all human
beings. National attachments lead to the alleged evils of nationalism and factionalism,
while becoming a species being will culminate in a gentle transnational
togetherness.[3]
God bless each and
everyone in their lives to achieve “HIS” purpose and none other.
[1] Adams,
James T. The Epic of America. Little
Brown and Co. Boston, page 342.
[2]
Meacham, Jon, “Keeping the Dream Alive.” Time Magazine. June 21, 2012, page 4.
(accessed January 30, 2018) http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2117662_2117682_2117680-1,00.html
[3]
Milikh, Arthur. “Civility and Rebarbarization.” National Affairs. Number 34,
Winter 2018. (accessed January 30, 2019) http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/civility-and-rebarbarization
