Is The American Dream Dead?

People love to debate the meaning of the American Dream.  Can it be described?  Can it be obtained?  A masterful article by David Kamp appeared in the April 2009 issue of Vanity Fair.  Kamp says that while American opportunities remained strong through the 20th Century, our aspirations changed.   

Most people don’t understand what the American Dream is supposed to be.  After all, this is the land of confusion as Phil Collins sang. Without a concrete knowledge of what Americans should be or have, too many seekers overstepped the bounds of economic reality. 

Kamp explains how for years most Americans sought a better life.  Their dreams were often realized during the lives of their children.  Successive generations continued to build on that foundation but simply maintaining the prosperity gave way to cravings for more.  Those escalating aspirations coincided with extensions of easy credit that allowed regular folks to get more stuff.  Bigger is better right?

If the American Dream means maintaining prosperity, then we are fine.  The problem is that many people believe the goal is to have a better life than those who came before us.  The tipping point came and went over the past 20 years and now we are stuck with the consequences.

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Films like The Godfather (#17) and the Pursuit of Happyness (#18) offer insight into two types of American searches.  In the former, the Corleones epitomize the rarest prominence, albeit through criminal means, available to immigrants of the 20th Century.  In the latter, Will Smith portrays an unlikely struggle as a desperate father grinding every gear to escape the lower class lifestyle.  Countless other films over the past few decades lead us on similar journeys in search of wealth or fame or prominence.  These individualistic goals represent the break from an idealized American Dream that connected personal fulfillment with the benefit to others.

The dream disintegrated rapidly.  The predominant ideal of the 1930s, thriftiness, gave way in the post-war era (1945-1960), an age of prosperity where colleges were filled with middle class entrants and garages were attached to homes to accomodate a second car.  Far from the simpler violation of expecting a better life than one’s parents, most young people today grow up with an expectancy to strike it rich by becoming famous. 

Chuck, Fletch, and Quantum Leap?

As the great Dr. Sam Beckett would say: “Oh boy.”

If you aren’t familiar with Sam Beckett, you have never watched a popular show from the 90s called Quantum Leap. Why bring it up now? Because Leap star Scott Bakula is appearing tonight on that sweetest of current TV shows–Chuck.

But that’s not all.

Also joining the show’s cast tonight is comedic legend Chevy Chase, star of one of the funniest pure comedies of all time: Fletch.

This episode sounds like a radio station with the best of the 80s, 90s, and today. Chase will play some maniacal bad guy and Bakula shows up as Chuck’s long lost father.

The combo is strange since I just learned that author Gregory MacDonald, creator of Fletch, wrote 9 books in the brilliant character’s series. How did I miss this for the past thirty years? Can’t wait to read the next seven, but there’s more to this story.