America, US.
The sun rises, lighting brilliantly small businesses, the dirt mixing with long fields of grass and expanses of corn. Smoke rises from warehouses and homes, mingling in the bluest sky. It is a fall morning. An American morning. The sun burns the moisture from the Rockies, The diminishing expanse of the Everglades. The sun falls on this land the same as it has these past 234 years, and more. There are people going to work, to play, pursuing the freedom of a choice to make their lives as they see fit, within their own power. This is US.
Our land. Given to us by the exertions of our ancestors. What will we make of it? More than anything else, America has been a place of potential. Yet many of the people in this nation have expectations that have developed over more than half a century that don’t fit within the boundaries given by our constitution. The idea of the United States has changed over time, amended with the changes in history. The flexibility of the laws of this land has given us strength, but it has also been challenged since it’s birth by people who desire to use it as a mechanism of control. Laws can limit the power of the greedy, and also keep safe the freedom of many. But it can also be turned against the people. My people.
An American is any person who wishes to pull together in the boundaries of free will, to protect that right when called upon, and to enjoy it as a member of this nation. Whether you wish to live “the strenuous life” as coined by Teddy Roosevelt, or to create new technologies like Einstein or Graham Bell, or build an empire of steel like Carnegie, or to paint a picture of our identity, using words like Steinbeck or Twain, or the building like Wright, or to live a good life and raise a new generation like the millions who came before us, we live and die a member of this American Nation in debt to those who have died to protect it when threatened.
But some of those who are born of this nation have chosen to make it their goal to take advantage of the flexibility of our constitution. Many politicians allow themselves to be controlled by their own greed, or that of the companies that pay them. This is not a new threat, but it promises to choke the life out of our American Dream.
That term, American Dream, is not a new one. In the early part of the twentieth century, it stood as a beacon, a term of hope, to those that came from abroad. And though there has always been turmoil when new groups have come to this land to make their own place, it is clear that, unlike the despots of Russia or the Castes of India, if a person has a goal to work hard, it is possible to go as far as he can carry himself. It is not guaranteed.
Many people who work in this land, or come to this country, have been influenced by the growing consumerism culture that we are now inundated with. It fills our televisions, we see it every day as a challenge, who has the best home, car, and vacations. But what has changed since the 1950s is the goal itself. Economic experts, after the second world war, saw that the demand for goods during the war produced economic surplus and growth. They presented a model to the companies and the government, believing that the only way to stimulate continued growth was to continue or create a demand for new goods. So, instead of making things that people needed, they decided to plant in the American mind a desire to continually buy new things, because they were desired, and not needed.
For a time this continued to work. The American life was a good one. We built homes, closer and closer together, bigger, space for more cars. In the late 1970s the companies began to build products that failed after a certain amount of time, to increase demand. Styles and trends advertised next year’s products, and the family with the several year old car felt excluded.
The American Dream has been to pursue happiness. But in this exponential spiral of consumerism, I challenge anyone to feel truly happy with a new computer or car. If your happiness is based on the age or style of material goods, then it is destined to be ever challenged by the new production of goods. And, we are encouraged to take credit cards, loans on homes we could not afford, and live the lifestyle just out of our financial reach. The corporations and banks that promote this to make profit believe that they are the winners in this situation, but in reality, there are none.
If you spend money that you do not have, to stimulate companies whose bad decisions, who have played into this game of loan, buy, obsolescence, loan, buy, are failing because the people they depend on to buy their goods are not happy.
Education, one of the most important tools to creating well informed intelligent Americans, is suffering. Many years ago, teaching was considered a high calling. It is, still, in other countries in the world. But for the first Democratic country with universal education as a requirement, we have gone a long way to determining that teachers and students are at a huge disadvantage. They are paid badly, and taxed heavily with loans. The Federal Food Stamp program was started to invest in the future of college students, to help them with expenses. It was only during Johnson’s administration that it was extended to other people. Now hardly any college students know that they qualify for the aid.
Since learning in school isn’t valued (when was the last time most 17 year olds thought American History was cool?) in society, the result is that instead of knowing who we are, and what our founding fathers intended, we know when the newest gen Ipod is coming out. How can we create great citizens if they are being used as cash cows and not treated as people?
I have no answers to this, only more questions. How have we let it get this far? How will we combat it? Another installment is sure to follow.
