The American Dream

[vinnym86]

Simple, yet as complicated as brain surgery; what is it?

What do you believe is the american dream, and don't give a bs "2 kids, a house, a car, and a 50K income" i wanna know what you really believe is the american dream, what you think america as a whole believes is the american dream.

I am actually going to do a 6 pg term paper on this, and i was just curious what you AFers think on this topic. I'm not gonna use any ideas from here, i've already got the paper well documented; i'm using works from the late Hunter S. Thompson as my main focus (those of you who know of his work aside from popular culture from Fear and Loathing know where i'm getting at).

aright, shoot!

edit: it'd be interesting for users outside U.S. to give input, too, what they believe we think the american dream is, or what they believe their own country's people's dream of a normal life is.

[thrasher]

As a whole, the American dream is largely the same as it was during the cold war: Move to the suburbs, heavy emphasis on family life, economic prosperity through capitalist consumerism, a ruling middle class, all those things that go along with cultural hegemony and liberal consensus. Oh yeah, can't forget to mention American exceptionalism/superiority and the belief that we should spread our superior socioeconomic system around the world.

[Oz]

vinnym86, you are asking all the right questions. Keep looking for your answers. I don't think you have enough life experience to answer them yet, but if you keep looking for the answers you will find them.

Watch Fear and Loathing again in a couple of years, all the things you've experienced in the mean time will give it a nice new spin.

Have you ever been on an acid trip? Anyone who hasn't can't fully appreciate that movie.

[vinnym86]

Originally Posted by Oz

vinnym86, you are asking all the right questions. Keep looking for your answers. I don't think you have enough life experience to answer them yet, but if you keep looking for the answers you will find them.

Watch Fear and Loathing again in a couple of years, all the things you've experienced in the mean time will give it a nice new spin.

Have you ever been on an acid trip? Anyone who hasn't can't fully appreciate that movie.

yes i have, twice, actually. its true, the movie shines light on questions and provokes new thoughts each time i watch it (over some time). I am currently reading Kingdom of Fear and find the thought process of HST and why he hinks the way he thinks, and how he thinks, are something that is yet a mystery to me, slowly unravelling as i find real life situations to apply them to. I've had a mushroom trip as well most recently and it has put a completely different view on my own life as i trudged through the intraspective phase. not quite as thought provoking about the world as acid had, but rather about who i am as a person. maybe it was my mind, maybe it was the defference b/w the two substances, w/e. i hope to enlighten myself with new meaning that i find in HST's works, he was truly a genius. "Too wierd to live, too rare to die."

on the topic o my paper, i did pretty terribly, as i used sources from only HST and John Stienbeck and contrasted views of the american dream. The thing was to be a "doumented essay" following an MLA documented format and style of writing. oh well, i got a point across. screw the grade.

[elementskater15]

To me,the american dream is to live a life based around the values important to you. Don't wan't money? Don't waste time maaking it. Don't want kids? Agein, don't waste your time. What I mean is that you prosper in your own way, in your own dream.

[MonsterBengt]

Originally Posted by elementskater15

To me,the american dream is to live a life based around the values important to you. Don't wan't money? Don't waste time maaking it. Don't want kids? Agein, don't waste your time. What I mean is that you prosper in your own way, in your own dream.

I dont see why its even called the American Dream

[elementskater15]

Good point, I guess my version it a universal good life dream.

[G-man422]

The "American Dream" is different for everyone, but its prolly going to have something to do w/ a life thats worry free.

[vinnym86]

author John Steinbeck depicts The American Dream as shared commonly by most of the populous because he writes about it during and after the Great Depression, about how most americans were trying to make a living just to get food, and the dream was to be employed and have a decent income. Other novelists depict dreams of grandeuer, because Americans have always dreamt the big life. It is even carried over to today, as a majority of the poplation is riveted to the lives of hollywood stars and the glamorous lives of musical artists, its easy to see how much of america dreams of having more than what they already have. Its true some individuals, myself included, have grossly contrasting views of what the american dream is, but maybe it is The American Dream because it is the dream of much of the populous, and not of an individual. Even Hunter S. Thompson described the gamblers of Las Vegas as Americans trapped in conformity still humping the american dream, still caught like flies to the bright flashing lights o the slot machines with a picture in their mind of that one big winner.

[Old Guard]

Whatever it is, it certainly isn't the European Daydream

[Toksin]

This isn't about Europe.

Unfortunately, the general image of the American dream seems to be consume everything to make your own lives better, and damn anyone else if they get in the way.

[Gohan Ryu]

Originally Posted by Toksin

This isn't about Europe.

Unfortunately, the general image of the American dream seems to be consume everything to make your own lives better, and damn anyone else if they get in the way.

Being the only superpower left on the planet (for the time being, anyway), we're entitled.

[Toksin]

Originally Posted by Gohan Ryu

Being the only superpower left on the planet (for the time being, anyway), we're entitled.

Your trolling-fu is weak. I won't bite.

[Ralliart 3000gt]

American dream = Bigger is better.

[sv650s]

the basic american dream from the 50's was live in a house in the suburbs with a white picket fence, a golden retriever, 2 happy kids, a cadillac and a wife that would spread her legs when you snap your fingers. but now things are different.....some people just wanna be rich, some wanna be famous, some wanna just have the ladies (or men), some wanted to just be happy, be succesful..........basically there is no american dream, america is a land of opportunities, so if there is just one thing everybdy wants then what are all the choices for?