I just received an email from The Nation (magazine) entitled, The Future of the American Dream. It futures a column by William Greider, among others. I'm sure it a well written article that makes a lot of points I would readily agree with. But here's the thing -- I don't have an American Dream and I think a dream of this nature explains a great deal about the many problems our civilization faces.
Before some of you think I'm going to go off on an anti-American rant, hold on to your horses. I only highlight the American Dream because I happen to live in the US. I'm equally opposed to the Iranian, French, Japanese and South African dreams too. This incessant fixation on the idea that people in different lands have widely different needs and desires is what I rebel against.
To be certain, we each live under different political and religious systems. Our worldviews are different because of these systems. However, at the end of the day, all humans desire basically the same things: love, companionship, food, water, shelter, creativity and respect (among other things). We may state these needs in different ways and in different languages, but these insignificant differences don't change the commonalities we share.
So, if we must have this imagery of a dream, let's sweep away all these ethnocentric and nationalistic tendencies. Let's quit erecting these artificial barriers. Instead of an American or Peruvian Dream, why not a World Dream?
Before some of you think I'm going to go off on an anti-American rant, hold on to your horses. I only highlight the American Dream because I happen to live in the US. I'm equally opposed to the Iranian, French, Japanese and South African dreams too. This incessant fixation on the idea that people in different lands have widely different needs and desires is what I rebel against.
To be certain, we each live under different political and religious systems. Our worldviews are different because of these systems. However, at the end of the day, all humans desire basically the same things: love, companionship, food, water, shelter, creativity and respect (among other things). We may state these needs in different ways and in different languages, but these insignificant differences don't change the commonalities we share.
So, if we must have this imagery of a dream, let's sweep away all these ethnocentric and nationalistic tendencies. Let's quit erecting these artificial barriers. Instead of an American or Peruvian Dream, why not a World Dream?
Beautiful, RT.
ReplyDeleteGood one.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking this the other day, someone said "God bless America" and I immediatly thought, "what about the rest of us"
ReplyDeleteI'm Canadian and American :)