While
it may be difficult to craft an inclusive and accurate definition of
what it means to be American, we can get closer to an understanding by
looking at our cultural mythology. The concept at its center is the
American Dream. Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary,
published in 1984, defines the American Dream as “an American ideal of
social equality and especially material success.” Basically, that
means that we all have an equal chance at wealth and, in turn, the goods
that can be purchased with it. The
implication is not only that we should all want this, but that we
should want it so badly that we dream of it. The
danger in this long and fitful dream is that there is no end, no limit
to it. We have a dream of
consuming and wanting more, but no understanding of what would be enough
or at what point we should stop. I
read somewhere that if everyone on the planet started to live as we do
in the U.S., it would take five earth-like planets to sustain us. © Salahub 2003 |