Cultural Resources
The American Dream
During the Middle Ages, the clothing, lifestyles, and social position of each generation was much the same from generation to generation. Then mercantilism brought exotic new goods from foreign lands and garment factories produced new fashions. New middle- and upper-middle classes emerged whose members desired upward mobility, if not outright wealth. As these new professionals and capitalists gained more political power relative to old-guard aristocrats, growing consumerism led to social discrimination. The rise of industrialization encouraged the spread of elitist, hyper-competitive, selfish individualism throughout Western society—within hearts as well as social structures.
James Truslow Adams popularized the phrase “American Dream”in his Epic of America, which defined the term as “that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for every man, with opportunity for each according to his ability or achievement.” H.W. Brands wrote, “The old American Dream ... was the dream of the Puritans, of Benjamin Franklin's ‘Poor Richard’..., of men and women content to accumulate their modest fortunes a little at a time, year by year by year.” In fact, however, America had more horizontal mobility than upward mobility, as poor people moved from the Eastern seaboard to the Western frontier to “make it.”
In 1851, a German immigrant described the United States as “free from the despotism, privileged orders and monopolies, intolerable taxes, and constraints in matters of belief and conscience. Everyone can travel and settle wherever he pleases. No passport is demanded, no police mingles in his affairs or hinders his movements.... Nor are there nobility, privileged orders, or standing armies to weaken the physical and moral power of the people…. Above all, there are no princes and corrupt courts representing the so-called divine ‘right of birth.’ In such a country the talents, energy, and perseverance of a person ... have far greater opportunity to display than in monarchies.”
However accurate or inaccurate this description, the 1849 Gold Rush transformed the American Dream. As Brands reports: “The new dream was the dream of instant wealth, won in a twinkling by audacity and good luck. [This] golden dream...became a prominent part of the American psyche." The advent of mass advertising to sell newspapers at this time aggravated this passion for rapid upward mobility. Desire for comfort and security evolved into a passion for obscene wealth. The American Dream is now based on the belief that every child should have a good chance to rise from humble origins to enormous wealth.
“Keeping up with the Jones’”—the title of a popular comic strip that ran from 1913 to 1940—summed up the spirit. “To get ahead” by any means necessary became the nation’s dogma. “Greed is good” became a widely accepted mantra used to quiet the conscience. Climbing social ladders and looking down on those below became society’s driving force. Television programs like the top-rated “Survivor”—where contestants progressively eliminate other contestants until one wins the million-dollar prize—symbolize this competitive consumerism. In sports, “winning is everything” replaced the old ethic “It’s not whether you win or lose that counts but how you play the game.”
Richard Easterlin and Eileen M Crimmins found that from 1970 to 1987 the percentage of college freshmen who aimed to be very well off financially increased from 37% to 75% (while the percentage who aimed to develop a meaningful philosophy of life decreased from 65 to 37 percent). By 2011 that percentage had increased to 81 percent. Though more recent data is not available, economic conditions may have led to a decline in high aspirations, but the desire to “get ahead” and “make it” surely remains strong.
The credit or blame for success rests on individuals’ shoulders. Americans discount the advantages and disadvantages inherited at birth and neglect the importance of luck, cheating, and extreme selfish ambition. Unlike Europeans, most Americans don’t acknowledge that forces beyond personal control greatly influence success. Rather, they believe people are almost always rewarded for hard work and skill—and they feel shame if they lose out.
But throughout our history, most Americans have never risen far above their parents’ status. In White Trash Nancy Isenberg documents how “upward mobility” has always been a myth. Worse yet, Isenberg reports that the American Dream is based on assumptions of moral superiority. Isenberg believes the myth of upward mobility affects who we are and how “we judge people by the way they’re dressed, by the way they talk, by the unwritten codes of class behavior.” Contempt toward those who are lower on the ladder of success, envy, resentment toward those who are higher, shame for “failing,” and fear of those deemed a threat are widespread.
The result is fragmentation and social discord. As summed up by GoodTherapy.org, “Healthy levels of competition can improve self-esteem and increase enjoyment of life,” But obsessive competition (which has become common) “may lead to perfectionism, chronic feelings of inadequacy, or mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety.”
In Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations Amy Chua affirms a self-critical American Dream “that recognizes past failure.” Throughout its history, America inspired the world with its ideals and successful war of independence, but America is also responsible for many crimes, including slavery, oppression of poor white indentured servants, genocide of Native Americans, exploitation of Mother Nature, suppression of workers’ right to organize, militaristic exploitation, efforts to dominate other countries, and other offenses.
But Chua also concludes that “progressive elites who have taken it upon themselves to expose the American Dream as false” have often adopted a “form of tribalism,…creating a virtuous Us and a demonized Them.” Her point is well-taken. Countercultural rebels have rightly rejected the dehumanizing version of the American Dream and its “corporate technostructure…that reduced everyday life to a hamster cage of earning and spending,” as Jackson Lears expressed it. But these critics often express a holier-than-thou attitude toward typical Americans and don’t adopt a balanced stance toward America’s strengths and weaknesses.
Chua’s less judgmental perspective declares that “generations seeking justice have done so for the promise of America,…which] allows—indeed, gains strength from allowing—all those subgroup identities to flourish….” She proposes strengthening America’s identity as the only nation that is not based on ethnicity, but rather is an inclusive “super-group” with everyone “united by their common humanity and love of liberty.” She believes, “It is not enough that we view one another as fellow human beings; we need to view one another as fellow Americans. And for that we need to collectively find a national identity capacious enough to resonate with, and hold together as one people, Americans of all sorts…. What holds the United States together is the American Dream. “ Her definition of the American Dream is rooted in the pursuit of wealth. She says: “America’s have-nots don’t have wealth—many of them want it or want their children to have a shot at it, even if they think the system is ‘rigged’ against them.”
This dream has included four beliefs: 1) equal opportunity; 2) the ability to advance; 3) a passion to get rich, and 4) assumptions of moral superiority. A productive redefinition of the American Dream would affirm the first two and set aside the others. A healthy dream would avoid obsession with great wealth and moralistic judgments toward those who less “successful.”
Establishing economic security for all would help assure an equal opportunity to a good life, enable those who so choose to gain more income, and enable others who so choose to adopt a simpler lifestyle that leaves more time for meaningful activities. Then, the American Dream would serve humanity, the environment, and life itself.