Cecilie1200
Diamond Member
You shouldn't have. She's completely wrong
The American Drea, has NEVER been "INDIVIDUALS can accomplish anything they want"
The American Dream is "Obey the law, work hard, and you'll be able to get a job that can support you and your family, and a house with a picket fence, 2 cars in the garage, and a chicken in every pot"
IOW, the American Dream is not about being wealthy, or flying to the moon - it's about attaining a middle class level of financial security.
I disagree wholeheartedly with your desire to narrowly define for everyone else what they can dream about and aspire to.
"The American Dream, sometimes in the phrase "Chasing the American Dream," is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the American Dream, first expressed by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the second sentence of the United States Declaration of Independence which states that "all men are created equal" and that they are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights" including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.""
American Dream - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(I know I don't usually approve of Wikipedia, but I know most of this board seems to think it's gospel written by the finger of God, so . . . )
What is the American Dream?
The term was first used by James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931. He states: "The American Dream is "that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."
In the United States Declaration of Independence, our founding fathers: " held certain truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Might this sentiment be considered the foundation of the American Dream?
Were homesteaders who left the big cities of the east to find happiness and their piece of land in the unknown wilderness pursuing these inalienable Rights? Were the immigrants who came to the United States looking for their bit of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, their Dream? And what did the desire of the veteran of World War II - to settle down, to have a home, a car and a family - tell us about this evolving Dream? Is the American Dream attainable by all Americans? Would Martin Luther King feel his Dream was attained? Did Malcolm X realize his Dream?
Some say, that the American Dream has become the pursuit of material prosperity - that people work more hours to get bigger cars, fancier homes, the fruits of prosperity for their families - but have less time to enjoy their prosperity. Others say that the American Dream is beyond the grasp of the working poor who must work two jobs to insure their familys survival. Yet others look toward a new American Dream with less focus on financial gain and more emphasis on living a simple, fulfilling life.
Thomas Wolfe said, " to every man, regardless of his birth, his shining, golden opportunity .the right to live, to work, to be himself, and to become whatever thing his manhood and his vision can combine to make him."
Is this your American Dream?
What is the American Dream?
The American Dream is DEFINITELY that individuals can aspire to whatever they want, and accomplish as much as their talent, effort, and luck will let them.
If wingnuts didn't lie, they'd have nothing to say
I never said anything about telling "everyone else what they can dream about and aspire to".
I merely corrected your absurd definition of the American Dream. Even the quote you just posted proves you wrong. You said that the American Dream was that every INDIVIDUAL could be whatever they wanted to be. The truth is
"The American Dream, sometimes in the phrase "Chasing the American Dream," is a national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the American Dream, first expressed by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.
I see nothing about individuals becoming "whatever they want to be"
Try again.
Read it again, doofus. How big a dumbfuck do you have to be to not recognize when individuals are being spoken of, rather than a collective?