On the Road to the American Dream
Never was the American Dream more potent or more seductive than in Mid-Century America.
The USA stood united and confident at the apex of global power and consumer abundance, racing boldly and confidently into the future.
Moving forward at ever increasing speed was what Americans expected from their country, their cars, their consumer goods and their economy.
This buoyant optimism stands in sharp contrast to the current gloom and downsizing we are living today.
Americas soaring can do confidence had always promised us a sugar-frosted future filled with abundance and economic prosperity. However that buoyant bubble of optimism has gone bust.
American Dreams New and Improved
Along with our jobs, savings, retirement funds and our split level homes, the American Dream has gone into foreclosure.
At the same time our schools are getting a failing grade, our infrastructure is crumbling and our healthcare system seems to be in septic shock.
Angry demonstrators are attacking banks and corporations, opposing oil and gas drilling, the distrust of government in general and politicians in particular run rampant on all sides.
While contemporary pundits vie with one another offering where the 21st century is headed, I take a look back at our collective past, a time not too long ago, when our trust in the government, technology, big business and science as positive forces that will help us move forward to achieve the American Dream, were at their zenith.
© Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Sally Edelstein and Envisioning The American Dream with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
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The American Dream was the big dream for millions of Europeans too… It is said, that there now are more Americans with Swedish ancestry in the US, than Swedes in Sweden…
The relevant reading, is that “The Air-Conditioned Nightmare” Henry Miller 1945, “Peyton Place” Grace Metalious. 1956, “What Makes Sammy Run?” Budd Schulberg 1941, “The Deer Park” Norman Mailer 1955. “Babbitt” Sinclair Lewis. 1922, – and?
In contrast, world faous ‘Donald Duck* is the perpetual looser with no steady job, and the country songs Sixteen Tons” by Merle Travis, and Tennessee Ernie Ford and Frankie Laine was more of a nightmare. It is said that Erniie Ford got and FBI dossier for suspected subversive activity… More fun is “Harper Valley PTA” by Tom T. Hall that recorded by Jeannie C. Riley in 1968 sold over six million copies…
P.S: “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business” (1985) by Neil Postman…
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The American Dream is only dead for those too lazy to get up and work.
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Notice in the second pic with the tagline “No One Is Safe!” how white everyone is. In this America there were no blacks, Asians or Hispanics. Pretty sure there would also be no Jews or gays, either. The American Dream was not very inclusive, even back then. Makes you wonder what kind of shaky foundation this dream was built on.
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For those who lived in the shadow of the American Dream, it would take decades for the light of tolerance and inclusion to shine on them.
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