The Kitchen Sink: LIMITING THE AMERICAN DREAM

The argument that people only work for rewards is a popular one with several of my friends, two of whom are millionaires. They explain to me that, if you take away the rewards (by which they mean monetary rewards), people won't work. Wealthy, middle income, or poor, they define and limit the American Dream to capitalistic ideals and that limited edition has become the political religion of our times. But I think that belief in capitalism as the one and only motivator and guide says more about those particular friends and folks like them than about the human spirit in general and actually short-changes their own humanity.

These friends have bought the simplistic myth of capitalism as a raison d'etre - I work, therefore I am. This misunderstanding or simplistic focus leads many of them to labor long and arduously at jobs they don't enjoy, and more of them fail than succeed. Hence the1%, the10%, and the 89% we see today.

By defining the American Dream as a narrow, a-moral economic system, they are liable to miss out on the true riches of the broader American Dream and the lifestyle it offers.  A good many of us define the American Dream more broadly and deeply as the freedom to be yourself and exercise your gifts for the good of yourself and your community - which includes the planet on which that community rests and by which it is supported.

I observe many other reasons that people work that have everything to do with the broader American Dream and much less to do with capitalism. To name a few, we work as an outlet for creative energy - for the joy of productive occupation and the enjoyment of its outcome - as a means to provide for basic needs and care for loved ones - as a matter of pride - from a desire to help less fortunate others - as a means of self-expression - to share our reflections in writings and teachings - to participate in the health and evolution of the species - to be the first to discover something or do something new - to care for the planet - as a way to structure our time and participate in the rhythms of the day and the human tribe - some or all of the above. It's what we do as a restless, curious, thinking species. Capitalism is, for these folks only the context in which they work, support their basic needs, and achieve their other goals. Capitalism is not the pursuit of happiness itself.

As Kahlil Gibran says in the chapter of The Prophet, entitled On Work "You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth. For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite." Sadly, a good bit of our work these days has little connection to “the soul of the earth.” He aptly describes not so much the results of idleness but the results of our adherence to capitalistic values vis-à-vis the planet
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If one works only for rewards, then those rewards often do become the main means of ego reassurance and self-fulfillment. Since capitalism’s rewards have gone beyond the tangible assets of safety, shelter and enough food to eat and share to the purely symbolic, presently imaginary worth of dollars and cents, once one starts gathering more money than one needs, one is easily seduced by competitive gathering of money and finally by greed itself. For this reason does the Bible warn us, "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”(1 Timothy, 6:10 - King James Version, Cambridge Edition)  Thus, many capitalists call themselves Christians because of their church affiliation while ignoring most of Jesus’ teachings and acts - most of which they would label “Socialism” in lesser beings.

 I submit that we are once again seeing this Biblical warning play out, as the human magnanimity of our American culture continues to decline due to the prevalence of this short-sighted, purely capitalistic interpretation of the American Dream.
 

Limiting The American Dream by Abby Freeborn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.For Permission to use please contact randmxcentric@gmail.com