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Wednesday, January 31, 2018

The American Dream; what is it?

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

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