When Did The American Dream Become Impossible?
New York, NY (November 30, 2007) – As a young kid, it’s usually everybody’s dream to live a rich, famous and happily-ever-after life. Prior to graduating eighth-grade, we filled out surveys for the yearbook. It was the usual, favorite TV show, favorite song, celebrity, etc. One question still lingers though - in ten years (that was 1996), I was supposed to have been playing in the major leagues and been married. Most of my friends were going to be NHL or NBA stars, married to models and, oh yeah, rich beyond their wildest dreams.
Fast-forward to 2007, and you’d be hard pressed to find any of us living the dream we aspired to. Out of that particular 8th grade class, only one of them is locked into doing what he set out to do… and even then, he assumed he would have transitioned from playing football for Army to a career Army officer, not football for the Navy and a career underwater. At the time of this writing, I know of two people (not from that eighth-grade class) that are living their childhood dreams – one buddy is in the Army flying Blackhawks, the other, in the Navy flying F-18s. Many are successful in their own right as cops, racing gurus, doctors or mothers, but no one, at least to my knowledge, is uber-rich in pocket.
At least, not yet.
But what am I talking about here… Well, it’s a personal belief that the way we fix this nation (and culture) is through widespread and accessible education. Through education children, adults, whoever, can unlock the potential of their own mind. It’s in that process that we begin to think for ourselves and that our own little idiosyncrasies and quirks and interests and desires are given a foothold to become reality. I was fortunate to be able to take advantage of that. Others were not, and are not, so lucky. And it’s those missed opportunities that make for a lot of shattered American Dreams.
Money and perspective make the world go round, and for those that have money, they’re allowed to flex their perspective and influence the rest of us. Those few are the dreamers, the entrepreneurs and self-made millionaires of the world. They played The Man right, gambled on a hunch or FOUND the right mix of idea, means and passion. Newsweek ran an interesting article about how past and current generations/social classes have actually achieved more of their financial goals than previously thought. What those people did with that wealth was not part of the study, but what I found interesting in the whole thing was the diffusion that had to take place. It’s a necessary evil in a capitalistic society, but it’s the evil that makes for the good of the whole. While not everyone can be rich, everyone has the OPPORTUNITY to be rich. It’s a matter of finding the motivation within oneself, developing the ability needed to achieve and maintaining the attitude to succeed that separates the classes. It’s not race or religion or sex. It’s that ‘something’ everyone struggles with and not many conquer.
Maybe I’m a little too optimistic; maybe I’m shortsighted. But in the end, I think that’s all that keeps us from our own American Dream. Here’s an excerpt from the article, written by Robert J. Samuelson:
…”Indeed, the high degree of intergenerational economic mobility is Pew’s most interesting finding. What happens at the bottom of the income scale also happens at the top. About 60 percent of children born of the richest fifth of parents do not themselves end up among the richest fifth; about 23 percent drop into the next-to-highest group and 9 percent fall to the bottom. Parents influence their children’s destiny but do not determine it.
“Everyone knows that economic inequality has increased in recent decades. The richest 10 to 20 percent of Americans have gotten richer faster than the rest. But the people at the top are not all the same people or even the children of the same people. This vindicates one version of the American dream. There is opportunity. People do move up—in both total income and class rank. Economic success is not static.”
So what does that mean? It means that regardless of status, there is always the opportunity to succeed. Looking back, if I had really wanted to play baseball professionally, I would have worked out harder in high school, gone to more mini-camps, foregone other activities like skiing, martial arts, student senate and chicks, all to basically dedicate myself to the sport. Hindsight is always 20/20 and that’s what a lot of us miss at the time. In our own minds, we are on the right path, and anyone with any type of advice seems more like an obstacle than a set of wings. But right now, I have the opportunity to write about music, musicians and everything associated with it. While it wasn’t my boyhood dream, it’s 50% of my dream as a man.
After reading the Newsweek article, I’m in agreement only up to a point, and it’s mainly because the American Dream has become so defined as economic success. Wrapped up and packaged neatly on our TV, satellite radio and Internet, we don’t see the caustic effects the pursuit has on us a whole. If money, power and success are what you’re after in this music shit, you have brains in your head, feet in your shoes, go steer yourself. From the dugout, balcony or wherever else the rest of us are sitting with our perspectives, though, I hope that there’s more to it than that.
But, hey, what do I know? I’m not rich.