Yes. We are. The American Dream is that which one starts off with poor material conditions and works their way up to being financially stable. Sometimes this involves concepts of a nuclear family and a suburban lifestyle. The biggest marker of success, though, will always be money. The state of our society is purely based off of the general population following the path to the American Dream. Whether or not it is an actual realistic life plan is another question. We push this idea of working hard to earn a respectable living onto our masses, knowing good and well that there are more things holding the working class back from monetary success than how “hard” they work for the system.
In our workplaces, we are forced into a never ending competition of who can earn more money. The ideal job, from an economic stance, would be a CEO. This is a lonesome career, as achieving this would mean beating every one of your coworkers for the position. In non-ideal jobs, such as retail, workers compete for sales, sometimes even having to outperform their coworkers in order to keep their job. The structure of capitalism is inherently one of individual success. The success of one person means the suffering of another. When someone gets a high paying job, their success means someone else’s failure to get that job. We are forced to compete amongst ourselves in order to be allowed to eat and have shelter. We are bread, due to our current system, to focus on individual earnings than their surrounding community. And we wonder why we have an issue with empathy in this country...
Weekly Summary:
Commented on Kathryn’s post (10/1)
Commented on Patrick’s post (10/1)
This Essay (10/1)
It's our old "national disease," though now we just call it our way of life:
ReplyDelete“The moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess SUCCESS. That - with the squalid cash interpretation put on the word 'success' - is our national disease." Wm James to H.G. Wells, 1906
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