It’s Time for a New American Dream
The American Dream as it has been defined throughout the ages since whenever the first immigrants thunk it up has changed and evolved to match those who followed it and dreamed of it. Streets that are paved with gold to give even the poorest shlups the opportunity to succeed, houses, cars, and college educations for families from places where such things were just pipe dreams, sugar, spice, and everything nice are all the stuff that the American Dream was made of. Back then it was even possible for some people to achieve it and so keep the dream alive for the multitudes of others who saw their example and continued dreaming in the hopes that it, too, would happen for them. Dream on, because you never know, you may work hard enough to one day become a millionaire.
Yeah right. Who are we kidding? The American Dream as we have known it is dead, or at least in a coma, and it’s high time we had an American Dream for Americans that is at least remotely possible to attain and actually applies to people who are already living here and whose families may date back to when the first American Dream was conceived. We are living in a time where with Trump’s short lived presidency we are all dreaming, or at least thinking of, a better America. We dream of cleansing ourselves of the horrors brought upon us by a rich American who did not work his way up from the wrong side of the tracks to achieve the American Dream himself, but only inherited it from his father and managed not to blow it all at the craps tables. We are dreaming a new dream, an important dream, a shared dream at this important moment in American history. There has never been a better time to redefine the American Dream and put the old one to rest alongside Trump’s presidential term.
The thing is, the Americans’ American Dream has been dreamed of by generations of Americans for years already but because that old-outdated dream wouldn’t die no one really knew that what they were dreaming is an American Dream as definable and distinct as its predecessor. You see, Trump isn’t the first American to royally fuck everything up. We have been fuck-ups since the beginning of time. Americans have been stupid, inconsiderate, foolhardy, and downright idiotic to the point where we wreck our families, lose our jobs, screw up our relationships and land ourselves in jail through no fault but our own. We drink too much, cultivate our addictions, wallow in our perversions and revel in narcissistic self absorption to the exclusion of everything else until our lives are completely fucked up. We look the grim reaper straight in the eye and still put the needle in our veins even when we know it will kill us. The reason? Because we believe in the Americans’ American Dream. We don’t believe that bad will happen to us, and when it does, we believe everything will turn out all right in the end.
There you have it. That’s the American Dream of today and tomorrow. Trump can make a cluster-fuck of the whole world and we know we can fix it. American addicts can be down and out on skid row and turn their lives around. Felonious convicts can be rehabilitated and become successful contributors to society. Kids can flunk all their classes and still graduate from high school. We live the dream. We believe it. We have seen it come true more often than that other rags-to-riches crock of shit dream. The Americans’ American Dream is one where we can fuck everything up in our own lives and the lives of those we love and still bounce back relatively intact, and maybe even better off than we were in the first place. It is a dream of hope like the one before, it is based on hard work and a little bit of luck like the one before, but it is realistic, even for the poor shlup with 10 kids and two jobs and no hope of becoming a millionaire. He can make some terrible, shameful mistakes and still have a chance of rebuilding his life, That’s the American Dream. That’s a dream for the homegrown American fuck-up who is you and me. That’s the American Dream our children can embrace and proudly strive for.
It’s a good thing we do have that dream too because Trump has fucked things up more than usual and it’s going to take a nation of dreamers to rebuild what he has destroyed. Viva America!
