The American Dream Team
The American Dream has been a very persistent and relevant topic in our class. It's considered something that is actively changing, a reflection of our values, or something that has been increasingly hard to attain. Not yet have we came across a text that discusses how there's two versions of the American Dream: a materialistic and moralistic one. His claim that these two different ideas of the American Dream exist is interesting to analyze.
He defines the materialistic American Dream as something that values the tangible aspect of success including wealth, status, and power. He claims that this form of the American Dream encourages things like manipulation and exploitation. I agree with this claim when I think of large businesses such as Apple and Walmart that exploit labor overseas in order to reach high sales. A lot of people don't know how heavily outsourced the productions of Iphones are in countries that are considered third world or struggling to reach a 1st world status. When money is all that one cares about, many aspects of humanity are neglected in order to reach that material goal. In Noam Chomsky's Requiem for the American Dream, Chomsky talks about how managerial directors only aim for the short-term profits which negatively affects the rest of the economy because long-term success of the company and consequentially the economy is not considered. This is relevant to the materialistic American Dream because it emphasizes surface-level success and does not look into it from a deeper perspective.
The moralistic dream is defined as something that must, "naturally involve the values of tolerance, charity, compassion, and true regard for the dignity and worth of each and every individual". This type of American Dream describes something that aims for things other than conventional forms of success as mentioned earlier. It emphasizes the value of equality and inspires people to cooperate and "benefit those who are less fortunate than others" which are things that I appreciate. Interestingly, Fisher describes the backlash of supporting a moralistic American Dream, the change and level of reform that it supports does not make people feel good about themselves.
It is interesting that he ultimately claims that these two theories must exist at the same time because at the end of the day the American Dream is aiming to achieve whatever your perception of success is. So if its more moralistic or materialistic, than that should not be a problem because everybody has their own right to be their own individual. It becomes a problem when these two ideals rival against each other. So the American Dream should be perceived in whatever fashion one pleases, as long as they coexist peacefully.
He defines the materialistic American Dream as something that values the tangible aspect of success including wealth, status, and power. He claims that this form of the American Dream encourages things like manipulation and exploitation. I agree with this claim when I think of large businesses such as Apple and Walmart that exploit labor overseas in order to reach high sales. A lot of people don't know how heavily outsourced the productions of Iphones are in countries that are considered third world or struggling to reach a 1st world status. When money is all that one cares about, many aspects of humanity are neglected in order to reach that material goal. In Noam Chomsky's Requiem for the American Dream, Chomsky talks about how managerial directors only aim for the short-term profits which negatively affects the rest of the economy because long-term success of the company and consequentially the economy is not considered. This is relevant to the materialistic American Dream because it emphasizes surface-level success and does not look into it from a deeper perspective.
The moralistic dream is defined as something that must, "naturally involve the values of tolerance, charity, compassion, and true regard for the dignity and worth of each and every individual". This type of American Dream describes something that aims for things other than conventional forms of success as mentioned earlier. It emphasizes the value of equality and inspires people to cooperate and "benefit those who are less fortunate than others" which are things that I appreciate. Interestingly, Fisher describes the backlash of supporting a moralistic American Dream, the change and level of reform that it supports does not make people feel good about themselves.
It is interesting that he ultimately claims that these two theories must exist at the same time because at the end of the day the American Dream is aiming to achieve whatever your perception of success is. So if its more moralistic or materialistic, than that should not be a problem because everybody has their own right to be their own individual. It becomes a problem when these two ideals rival against each other. So the American Dream should be perceived in whatever fashion one pleases, as long as they coexist peacefully.
Comments
Post a Comment