In the April 2009 issue of Vanity Fair magazine, David Kamp writes an intriguing article about the state of the “American Dream“: view article here.
The subject of much ballyhoo these days is the “Where do we go from here?” dilemma currently dogging our nation, with many Americans facing issues like bankruptcy, foreclosure, loss of healthcare, and unemployment — some are facing all of the above.
We’ve heard talk of legalizing marijuana, nationalizing banks, socializing healthcare, and, in California, many schools are at risk of closing for the ’09-’10 school year.
The amount of debt accrued by Americans over the last ten years is more than throughout the entire history of this nation.
The recent film Revolutionary Road, nominated for numerous awards, speaks to the traumatic loss of hope and stark reality a 1950s couple (Leonardo Dicaprio and Kate Winslet) face when the veil of American mystique is removed, leaving a shaded, moldy underbelly replete with anger, envy, misery, hatred and disgust. What happens when we wake from the dream, and recognize our lives as less-than-stellar? Can we accept what we see?
To address this problem as a nation, to begin to imagine a solution, we need to perform a task that every computer-owning citizen understands: we need to reboot the system.
We need to re-imagine, conceive, enlighten, envision, invigorate, and enliven our cultural infrastructure, educational institutions, and social paradigms.
You ask, “Say What?“ I mean live simply. Forget big cars, big houses, fast lives, and frenetic capitalism.
Focus on friends and family. The notion of neighborhoods has all but disappeared. Get it back. Address the drug and prison dilemma in this nation truthfully. Intensify the foundation and support for our “No Child Left Behind” mantra to make it truthful. Embrace our returning veterans as a symbol of our strength, not shameful patriotism.
At the end of Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper‘s 1969 treatise on the nature of freedom, Easy Rider, Captain America announces his dismay for having lost the spirit of the “American Dream“. That was thirty years ago, when the United States was in the midst of a racial, social, and military maelstrom.
Take a minute, pause, take a breath, and reboot. Not just on an individual basis, but the entire American mythos, ethos, fabric and persona. Ask the question, “Where are we coming from, and where do we want to go?“
When Dorothy gets to the Land of Oz, she realizes she just wants to go home. What’s that mean to us in 2009? This is one dream that will happen in technicolor, or plasma HD, if you’re one of the luckiest to have been spared the demise of the worst financial predicament in 80 years. All we have to do is open our eyes, and life goes on. Simply.
You can watch the 1969 trailer for Easy Rider here.
