The American Dream is being once again put into question. I always just believed the American Dream was the stereotypical poor person working hard and living in a nice suburban house with a white picket fence. But after everything I have learned in this class I know know that it is so much more than that, or should I say less... We just read another piece on the American Dream except it’s an older one and it’s different. According to Walter Fisher there is two types of American Dreams, the materialistic which “relates to the values of effort, persistence, playing the game, initiative, self reliance, achievement, and success.” The other is the moralistic which is more about helping your fellow man. Nixon ran his presidency on the first and McGovern on the second. Nixon won.
Obviously this was 45 years ago which changes the perspective. Today, I believe, people are much more materialistic and individualistic than compassionate for the fellow man. As I talked about in my last blog, once luxurious items are know viewed as necessities, i.e. cars, computers, expensive phones etc. People don’t want to give away they money they make for themselves, they want to use it for themselves and their families. And that isn’t a bad thing. I mean it makes sense that people want to do well for themselves and do whatever they can to provide for themselves and family. The thing is though, people get obsessed with having all the best materials and get lost in it. Helping others is an important part of being American. Whether it’s donating to support local homeless people in need or help spread the word about people in need. I’m from a town about 40 minutes away from all the fires in Northern California and it was affected a lot of people. A school I played against in basketball last year burned to the ground. My family and members of my community have been greatly affected by it. Many people have been helping the people directly by providing them shelter or giving them resources and that is the compassion that we as Americans are known for. We need to not steer away from that.
Our whole identities revolve around the sense of morality and materialism. If we lose one or both we aren’t the same. It is important to use both aspects in our life to the fullest of our capabilities.
Its true, we are drifting away from moral values like compassion and falling into a vicious cycle of materialism. Its sad that many Americans just care about themselves and turns a blind eyes to the injustices and horrors that plague our society. I'm guilty of it as well. The problem is that America has always been a materialistic society, we've been the main consumers of the world since I believe world war 2. We need to put an end to this, one way or another. I agree with you.
ReplyDeleteI like how you focused on American's drift away from moral values during and since the 1972 election, and how you identified that materialism isn't inherently negative, it just needs to be tempered by valuing morals as well. Furthermore, talking about the fires in Northern California added a lot to this point. (btw I hope your family/community is ok).
ReplyDeleteYou really mentioned how the American Dream has changed as we are not compassionate towards others. In my opinion that is worth more than acquiring material because when you help somebody else, then the feeling good lasts longer than buying new stuff. American selfishness is only making others be against each other rather than United. United States of America are you really United?
ReplyDeleteI really liked your commentary on the American Dream and how it is constantly changing throughout the decades. I also liked how you compared things in this blog to your last blog post. I agree with the idea that people care more about money, the stuff they have, their appearance, etc. then they do about the fellow man. I think that if many more Americans became unselfish then the world would be a better place and the American Dream would also continue to get better.
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