I dreamed the American dream the other night, and promptly forgot it when I woke up.
The American dream is a myth, and it means different things to different people. If you think it dead, it’s dead. That’s a pretty negative point of view in my mind. In fact, it’s an irresponsible view. It suggests passiveness and an inability to do much. Quite the opposite from the American dream I know.
In my American dream, if we have ideas, and take responsibility for making them happen, and we work hard at it, we’ll likely succeed. Success, of course, is not guaranteed. But I don’t think sour grapes is the answer. The answer is to identify problems, and work hard to fix them.
Sometimes that involves compromise. You might not get all of what you want. Or sometimes you might fail utterly. Just because you fail doesn’t mean the American dream doesn’t exist. It just means you didn’t have a good enough idea, or you weren’t responsible enough, or you didn’t work hard enough. Blaming the system is a cop out. We are all responsible for our own fates. Let’s get cracking!