Where Has the Great American Dream Gone?

I guess after the Depression and  WW11 there really was a pretty universal dream in the US. People dreamed of peace and prosperity. For a great many people this meant a job, a house, a car, and kids. There were a few niggling problems such as apartheid, no ERA, them there things. Lots of people flooded the colleges on the GI Bill. A lot of people got their dream.

But the dream that came before that and continued for many was that this was a country where, if you worked hard and played by the rules, you could make it and even make it big.

I have been asking young people what their dream is and getting vague answers.  Some have specific answers, "I want to be an actress." "I am going to be a teacher." But I often hear very vague mutterings, with lots of uncertainty. "I might want to be in a city, but maybe I'd be OK in a small town." "I want to get a job, but no one is hiring." I get a tremendous response of uncertainty. And a lot of fear of articulating their dream. Maybe it feels like it would be bad luck to say what they want. Maybe there is the good old fear of failure. But all the self-help books say you have to know and know specifically what you want -  visualize it - before you can realize it.

Other books have said that if you say you 'want' something, your subconscious hears the word "want' with the definition of "lack' and continues to provide that lack. I think it is a little unsettling that my subconscious would use a different vocabulary from my conscious mind. Is that weird?

I was wondering whether all the media to which we are exposed might let us see too much of the underside of life. When you watch movies about bored people in the suburbs or watch 100 replays of Columbine High School, it might get harder to dream of heaven being a suburban home. When you see sports heroes like Lance Armstrong spill his story about doping to Oprah, it gets harder to want his piece of the pie.

But, truly, dear reader, maybe this is all projection. (nod to Dr. Freud). I don't know what I want next in my life. I have many choices and some limitations. (I don't think at age 69 I will be climbing Everest and I'm afraid of heights) I like my little comforts. I need to have people around as well as a certain degree of quiet time. I love the country and the ocean, and towns and cities. I don't know yet what I will choose as a career. Mutter. Mutter.