White picket fences, highways, commerce, individuality, capitalism, this intoxicating belief that you can be anything you Dream of. These things are what would become the foundations of the modern American Dream.
This idea was coined after the war, but it is rooted in our foundry. As we migrated from England to colonize the Americas, we did it for the love of country, exploration, and to go down in history. But our parent country England saw promise, strength, and wild growth out of this revolutionary population. Soon with Armed Forces, Tea Taxes, and raids, this New America was under fire.
This is the inception of the American Dream, of a rebellious commune that believed they could do anything. A population with the audacity to cut support in the light of a new promise. A promise of the future. The ideas (dreams) of these colonials became goals; dreams with a deadline. There was great urgency for change and a wild belief in success where there was great risk.
Gazettes, fire stations, policing, civility, currency, industry, community. These where then the American Dream. Through these the first instants of pop culture, individuality outside of the aristocratic class, and rebellion were founded.
Soon, invention, capitalism, and government of freedom came. Make no mistake, mistakes were made. Like the growing pains of a young adult, these revolutionaries were forming.
Domestic war breaks. Our faith in our nation was tested. The laws of humanity were contemplated. And blood was shed.
Resolution and back to revolution, our nation grew stronger, nimbler, and broader. A new wave of economies was formed around the consumer, around improving the everyday life of citizens. Norms were formed, culture became prominent, and delegation became rooted in our beliefs.
First in flight, first in science, first in war, first in roadways, first in mass transportation, first. First to crash in light of opportunity. A national epidemic of debt arose from our fascination with self, with our fascination in consumerism, with our attitude of invincibility.
A couple of fumbles and we had lost our Dream, we were back to the primal state of survival, but sustain is what we did. We had built this “ego of meaning”. An ego built by bricks, far more powerful than that of lineage. At this point we were too big to fail. Without a promise of a future, we were stagnant, riding the waves of our past, nostalgic in operation, lazy.
War breaks Europe, Pearl Harbor hits. And America is given supernatural existential meaning. Our industries and economies turned from one too many. For the first time in history, our population broke past the barrier of the 50% and became a whole. Women became empowered, people of color became empowered; the aggregate differences, created by an influx of prosperity and unified success, were mitigated. It was our great equalizer. We won again, not because of the self, but because of this intoxicating idea of America.
Our success fueled a rebirth of what we call the American Dream today. A world where the Martin Luther Kings of the world could storm the National Mall. A world where Elvis could win the hearts of the American Youth. A world where we could say “We Are Going to Go to The Moon” and do it. And for better or for worse, a world where our culture could become reflexive of the flaws in humanity. It was the first time in recent history that a nation was an ecosystem.
