killing the American Dream?

You know, sometimes I think that even though the loud-mouthed conservative population in America may lead us to believe that our nation is one of people full of faith, we've become quite a faithless nation.

"No survey data can reveal the hurts inflicted by our wasteful, immoral wars foisted upon us by deceitful leaders exploiting our anxieties and gullibility. That only 2 percent may place them among our biggest national worries at the moment is a sign of sublimation rather than their discounting. As for the loss of faith in our institutions -- private and public -- from financial kleptomania and the compromised actions of government, it has become free floating. A constant presence that aggravates every fear and uncertainty." (Brenner)

Maybe we've finally killed the "American Dream." That whole highschool-career-family, white picket fence thing was all well and good for the conservative, high-moral Americans of the 1940s and '50s. I know the dissent of the 1960s was rooted and began in the '50s, but generally speaking, I think Americans had faith in the paradigm of delayed gratification by which they existed: get a job, pay your dues, and reap your consumerist suburbia dream reward later.

But now, in a post-9/11, mid-recession, Wikileak'd "information age," that paradigm is changed. I don't have any statistics to back this up, but I'm pretty sure that today's 18-35 year olds no longer have faith in the promise of delayed gratification -- in the promise of the American Dream. We like fast food, smart phones, and the internet: we like NOW. Boomer parents have given their children everything, including a sense of entitlement. But I'm beginning to think that our desire for instant gratification may not be solely the result of us being spoiled silly.

Maybe we want what we want right now because we don't have faith that the future holds anything for us. Maybe we feel like we deserve everything we can get out of life this minute because we can't trust our flawed institutions and chaotic world, and we can't believe that the best is yet to come. Maybe we've realized that our parents were disillusioned and the American Dream doesn't exist. Maybe we're finally killing it. Or maybe we really are just spoiled, spoon-fed brats.

Regardless, I think we need to accept that the old model is in need of an upgrade. I think the dominant ideology is slowly beginning to gravitate away from the old idea of the American Dream, and I think this is a good thing. Perhaps popular culture has taken to cultivating a sense of nostalgia for the 1950s because it's realizing that the old paradigm no longer applies. Yet, in the same way I think no one really knows what will formally succeed postmodernism, I can't say I really have any idea where post-American Dream social thought will go. But I'm pretty eager to see it happen.