The American Dream?
When US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned two weeks ago, the most remarkable part of his speech went almost completely unnoticed.
“I have lived the American dream. Even my worst days as attorney general were better than my father’s best.”
To be frank there’s actually nothing surprising or uncommon about Alberto’s sentiment; nobody picked up on the quote because everyone just about everyone that heard it understood perfectly what he was saying. Why? Because they all share a pretty similar idea, which goes something like this:
We must take every opportunity to capitalize on other people’s needs so that we can avoid the need to exert too much of our own physical energy on a daily basis in pursuit of meeting the biochemical needs of life. Prestige comes to those who are most capable of consuming the greatest quantity of non-renewable resources with the least amount of physical effort.
Recognize it? That’s the American Dream.
Gonzales’s father Pablo, who passed away in 1982, was a construction worker. He had clearly not achieved the American Dream. He was involved in physical labor. Oh imagine the days when diamonds and emeralds line the sidewalks and no one in America has to actually work for a living. Alberto, your culture is proud of you for being one of so-many disadvantaged souls living in a harsh world who ultimately ascended to a purer state of humanity.
Didn’t anyone notice when our culture decided to collectively devalue physical labor, especially when directly related to our biological survival? It surely happened before my generation, though my middle school years did continue to bear vocational relics of the earlier age. By that point however the sewing machine and wood-shop lessons were a curiosity that one could choose forgo in preference of study-hall.
The dollar made for us an easy-to-use yardstick for measuring success, except that as a result making a living on the land with one’s hands, one’s heart, but not one’s dollar became like cheating. “Sure,” say the Joneses, “the Smiths may be healthy, and happy, and secure, but they’re so poor. And besides he didn’t even go to college!”
There should be little surprise that there are so many MBAs and lawyers in the world. If anything has eliminated democracy from the so-called free market it is the overpopulation and cultural idolization of the business class. Not going to college now means you’re a second class citizen. We spend 12 years telling our children that they have to get ready to go to college - and that not until then will they be old and wise enough to breed, to specialize, and maybe even going to grad school. Only then they will know what kind of business to go into. But if you examine critically what it takes in this system to be successful (get rich,) it is hardly a matter of hard work, perseverance and merit; instead the accumulation of wealth requires the exploitation of social acquaintances, inside information, and of the weaknesses of others. Yeah… that’s my kind of definition for a better humanity.
It’s no surprise that our public education system is so complicated and broken, given the benchmarks we now have for our children’s success. Statistics of how many children go on to ‘higher education’ are as popular an indicator of ‘human development’ as literacy used to be. The standardized test has been institutionalized by our culture as benchmark for form and content of valid scientific knowledge without any philosophical debate over the consequences. That Albert Einstein was dyslexic is more than a mere curiosity or anecdote, but proof that its possible to reason in different, completely incompatible ways. The workers who built the great pyramids in Egypt, Mexico and Guatemala were all illiterate by todays standards, but let me tell you anyone who suggests the architects deserve all the credit for these marvels has never visited them first hand.
I know that I’m not saying anything new here, but I realized recently that sometimes you have to keep trying, saying things over and over and in slightly different ways until people start listening. Ultimately, this American Dream rat race undermines most of what people really need in the first place. It is impossible to cultivate strong social relationships with a community of people if you live a way of life that thrives on taking advantage. They say you should never go into business with your friends. I say that if you can’t go into business with your friends, your business model is flawed. We are social by design; we are happier and healthier and safer when we do rely on other people and they, in turn, rely on us.
