Has the American Dream Changed?
April 3, 2008 Random Thoughts 2 Random Comments
First of all I should probably admit that when it comes to political stuff I lean more to the conservative side than to anything else. So just yesterday I was driving home from work and was listening to Glenn Beck on the radio and I heard something that really got me thinking. He was playing a clip from John McCain on David Letterman the other night where McCain was talking about the idea that a lot of people are about to lose their homes. He was suggesting over and over that they were losing the American Dream.
WHAT?!
I have to fully agree with Beck on this one, but since when was owning a home the American Dream? You mean to say that all of this ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’ stuff comes down to owning a house? I don’t think so!
When I think of the American Dream, I think of being able to do my own thing and make a living if I want to. It means that I have the right and privilege to start my own business and either make it or fail. It means that I have the freedom to try to do what I want to do to provide for my family. Not just own a house!
It’s really sad to me that the American Dream has been degraded to this. In the movie Far and Away the American Dream was to own some land. But not to put a house on it! It was to own some land that you could call your own and then do what you wanted to with it!
To stay on the political topic, I also think it’s sad that so many believe that the American Dream means entitlement. Like as an American I am entitled to get all this free stuff from the government or some junk like that. I don’t want that! I just want the freedom to be able to make it on my own, not get handouts.
So anyway, I think I’ll rarely get political on this blog, but what I heard yesterday really got me thinking. Please believe that the American Dream is more than having a house!
