Friday, March 25, 2011

I See It All Around Me

People struggling to hang on to a long dead American Dream; to an image they believe is safe and secure; and to adults shuffling bills in order to maintain an appearance of normalcy.

People ignore the obvious by burying their fears in alcohol, drugs, petty theft, domestic violence, chronic pain, depression and other forms of self abuse.

Their expectations - honed by years of consumptive conditioning - are far removed from the reality they continue to resist.

And corporate America is only too happy to oblige. The "deals" keep coming; the advertisements continue to entice and ignorant people believe they "need" frivolous imported junk as opposed to the basics: (real) food; (adequate) shelter; responsible, frugal use of utilities; dependable transportation - not motorized, multitasking wonder machines that cost a year's wage or more and are obsolete by the next model year.

If people can't cope with what's happening now, the future is indeed bleak.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the real american dream died when folks were able to stop actually working for it.
When some started expecting someone else to do it for them.
Now there is a 'new american dream'
Let america take care of you.
There is nothing to be proud of anymore that you achieved THIS american dream.
If you don't have to work for it , it means nothing to you to be given it. B.

Anonymous said...

I looked up where the term 'amrican dream ' came from and this is what I found. B.


American Dream James Truslow
Adams coined the term "American Dream" in his 1931 book The Epic of America. His American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."