The American Dream (22 Jan 2006)
22 January 2006
Newspeak: Propagandistic language marked by euphemism, circumlocution, and the inversion of customary meanings
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
(See also the Wikipedia article on Ninteen Eighty-Four).
There was a gabfest on TV this morning about zero-down interest-only mortgage loans. One of the “expert” guests started a statement with “Since we all know that purchasing a first home is the American Dream…” I’ll leave alone for now the entire question of what we mean by the word “purchase” anymore (hint: think owe vs. own). The point is, he said this phrase as if it were an axiom.
There were about six people representing opposing sides of the real estate bubble debate, and no one from either side flinched. I flinched. Actually, I grimaced like I’d just heard fingernails on a chalkboard or the words “tech-heavy” before the word “Nasdaq” for the millionth time. (On an aside, I noticed that all the guests were also in relative agreement on the fact that home prices were safe since they have “never gone down.” I’ve already discussed my views on that assertion.)
The gradual change in the way the phrase “The American Dream” is used shows that it has devolved into little more than a marketing cliche’, not unlike the changes in Santa Claus, who spends most of his time not at the North Pole, but filming television commercials.
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The American Dream 1800 - a dream of personal liberty in a place where families would be free to exercise their (unconventional) beliefs without fear of persecution. Nonconformism at its best.
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The American Dream 1900 - a dream of financial independence, where through hard work one had the opportunity to achieve a higher standard of living, a concept still centered in individualism.
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The American Dream 2000 - a dream of immediately obtaining the most expensive material possessions possible through whatever means necessary, including leveraging one’s entire future earnings power (i.e. succumbing to easy credit), in order to be like everyone else.
These material possessions may be as absurd as a 6500lb SUV for a single grandmother or cookie-cutter houses built wall-to-wall in the middle of a cow pasture (pardon, a gated cow pasture) for young couples. Everyone scrambles for these things and the only reasons they give are the reasons which they have been given. Pure conformism.
Forgive me if I don’t join in the fantasy. My dream is still one of personal freedom to be just like me …I hope that doesn’t make me un-American.
Do you really want it?
Do you really need it?
You gotta keep on grindin’
Just to try to keep it.
We’ve got no time for ourselves,
We’ve got more for ole Jim Beam.
We’re goin’ crazy dreaming
The American Dream.
-Hank Williams, Jr., The American Dream