I strongly disagree with that. The American dream is that you get ahead through hard work, etc, but it’s not at the expense of others. It’s not winning the rat race. It’s creating something of value from your own hard labor. It’s carving a farm out of the wilderness, it’s not being under someone else’s thumb, it’s starting your own business and providing something of value.
Now I’m not saying this is always true, but the fantasied American Dream ™ isn’t about pulling down others, it’s about rising up yourself.
I agree that is how the Dream is sold, but the reality of capitalism is that it is founded on exploitation. One person can rise above others because the system is pushing them down. And in order to justify that inequality, we have the ideology of American Individualism, which says to always take care of “number one” first. So people who are born into privilege get told that they deserve it, and that people who don’t have it are undeserving because of some moral failure.
The very system breeds the ideologies of selfishness. It doesn’t matter if some Americans are different, on a societal level, we are crazily selfish.
I strongly disagree with that. The American dream is that you get ahead through hard work, etc, but it’s not at the expense of others. It’s not winning the rat race. It’s creating something of value from your own hard labor. It’s carving a farm out of the wilderness, it’s not being under someone else’s thumb, it’s starting your own business and providing something of value.
Now I’m not saying this is always true, but the fantasied American Dream ™ isn’t about pulling down others, it’s about rising up yourself.
I’m with you, but it also reminds me of the George Carlin quote:
I agree that is how the Dream is sold, but the reality of capitalism is that it is founded on exploitation. One person can rise above others because the system is pushing them down. And in order to justify that inequality, we have the ideology of American Individualism, which says to always take care of “number one” first. So people who are born into privilege get told that they deserve it, and that people who don’t have it are undeserving because of some moral failure.
The very system breeds the ideologies of selfishness. It doesn’t matter if some Americans are different, on a societal level, we are crazily selfish.