If Hunter Thompson attempted to write his ode to the search for the American Dream today, it would look very, very different. The fable would have to chronicle an ever eroding landscape changing forever the definition of what the dream was all about.
The American Dream has become a different beast in today's world. It's becoming more and more obvious that our hold on being the dominant society in the world community is facing or has already fallen by the wayside. Our inability to maintain a culture focused on innovation has led to an almost inevitable shift to more of a service oriented society. We have become the biggest consumer on the face of the planet. We are consuming more natural resources and foreign made products than any other nation in the world. The two phenomena have contributed to our fall in the standings within the world community.
The actions of the leaders of this country in the past decade has also positioned us as being one of the more hated cultures in the world. Instead of accepting this notion and analyzing the causes, the administrations have adopted a "We're America, we don't care, we don't have to" attitude. This has only resulted in more resentment and more destabilization in the world community. It has also led to America becoming less safe as terrorism has continues to evolve and become more international.
The classic American Dream consisted of a home, a good job (subjective) a close-knit nuclear family coupled with all the other characteristics such as:
- Feeling safe
- Access to medical care when needed
- Access to spiritual services
- Opportunity to work hard, and make progress along the social stratus
All of this has become under attack or has already fallen prey to social pressures.
Our safety was a big deal and one of the primary campaign topics in both the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. It was perceived that the democrats were not the best party to assert our safety concerns. within the world community. Subsequently, we have ticked off all of our marginal allies and even some of the allies that have been closer to us historically. in this manner, we not only suffered the worse terrorist attack on our nation but, squandered the event when all of the world's sympathies were with us. We have failed to find and hold the parties responsible for these actions accountable. We have instead been distracted. We've sent billions of dollars and resources to to combat nations that were perceived to be threats based on the most ridiculous of notions (a pre-emptive strike on a perceived threat that was never substantiated).
We have always responded to calamities on foreign soil that were caused by natural causes. We've responded to casualites of tsunamis, earthquakes, and volcanoes in recent times. We have not been able to respond in the same fashion and with the same effectiveness to calamity when it's occurred on our own soil and affected our own citizens (Katrina's devastation in New Orleans). We can't even seem to collaborate on universal health care for own people.
The recent recession has brought to a head the fact that a lot of the jobs that have traditionally been supported within this country have been leaving and leaving at an alarming rate. Since the focus in this country is treating corporation as almost having the same rights as citizens (when it behooves the corporation), we have allowed them to seek out cheaper labor in other nations while our own citizens have suffered contributing to the growing schism between the classes within this country.
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