Forum Post: The American Dream...not my dream.

The American Dream...not my dream.

Mike Hanna

If your cramped-crippled in a cubicle reading this with one finger on the boss key so your boss won't catch you taking just a little slice outta' life for yourself, in an attempt to break apart the monotony of this everyday 9 to 5 repetition you signed on for to have a five minute smile break, then your wrong; breaks are for smokers and happiness is only for the free.

Right now you ain't either.

When you were asked as a child what you wanted to be when you grew up, what was your answer? An athlete, movie star or astronaut? Maybe a veterinarian or even the president of the United States? Now that your old, what have you become?

Everyone somewhere deep inside of themselves has an idea of where they want to be in the future, while reflecting on how they wish they could change what choices they made in the past. Rationalizing their 'now' with the distorted logic which tells them that what their doing right 'now' is nothing more then just another one of the many 'means to an end' necessary in life to hopefully prosper before death, and by 'paying you dues' their proving Kant's 'greater good' philosophy as one worth applying towards just about anything you don't understand; There's a sucker born every minute.

"The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of a few."

It makes sense up until to the point the sucker levels up and finds out he is the majority...who's been helping the few.

Col. Kurtz tried applying that same philosophy to the Vietcong and ended up in Cambodia surrounded by severed heads on a stick and Dennis Hopper rambling through LSD; you applied it and became an actor yourself in the; 'Office Space' reality show; how are those TPS reports coming?

Kant's a C--T! At least Hobbes had Calvin to stand guard while he took Susi up to the treehouse. All you got is Lumberg fucking your girl, 'oooooh-Kay'.

Maybe that's too deep, how about Niche?

I'm sure whenever times are really tough the sans-serf italic font of the old clique you'll always remember nailed on your school counselors mustard splattered wall, from the time you once rebelled and had to be set straight...back in line, comes to mind and really reigns true by telling you that 'whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger' helping you by giving you the strength again to get through yet another day...so you can do it all over again tomorrow.

That clique only works for people who've really touched the void and will, if followed correctly, use it as a foundation to help them build a completely new life because the one they had didn't work out...unfortunately conformity to society doesn't fall under that category and your path has already been paved. All there is left for you to do is walk the straight line of drool behind the person in front of you to your eventual demise...off a cliff just like the lemming you are dragging your knuckles all the way down.

Did the end justify the means?

People live beautifully in their dreams; hence the American one.

The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work.

Your watching on Facebook.

James Truslow Adams defined the American Dream as "Life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement regardless of social class or circumstances of birth." Eliminating the social class comment, figuratively not literally. His interpretation sounds strangely familiar to another more famous saying. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs”. Karl Marx; Author of the Communist Manifesto. But considering we can't eliminate an entire class of people, Communism wouldn't work and as Americans we wouldn't stand for a bread-line or in one for that matter, we prefer ours to fall under the welfare category. So I'll just call this what it really is; fascism.

The reason it was labeled a dream is because nobody would follow an ideology that's based on a lie. Strategically placed mottos have been quietly implanted throughout our sub-conscious mind which act as the scaffolding and support to a ridiculous and unreachable goal that simply doesn't exist. 'Follow your dreams' 'If you dream it, it will come true' and any other saying that incorporates life in REM. Honestly, you'd have better luck smoking DMT and putting that pineal gland to work.

How about reality? I live in that.

The reality of being awarded an achievement medal in your game of life's sub-quest towards normality is no different then what a recovering addict is told to do in rehab; 'Give up your free will and let God do the rest'. In your case replace God with America and recovery with slavery because, really, that's exactly what you are; A slave to another man's ideal life for you. There's nothing like sitting hunched over, calm, empty-eyed, controlled and accounted for, looking through Windows displaying beautiful rolling grassy hills and endless blue skies...designed by Microsoft.

"Swiiiiiing Looooow Sweeeeeet Chariot."

No you say!

With the advances in technology now making picking cotton obsolete, what kind of work do you think the black community would be doing if Lincoln never had set them free?

Exactly what your doing now...only with style.

Try to remember how bad you wanted to be that professional athlete than Google the person who took your job; Kobe Bryant, Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodregiuez.

And don't say 'it's because their black' because ones Puerto Rican and that's just a white lie to make poor suburbia feel rich by masking the real truth with good ol' trusty American ignorance.

How about the reason the only good athletes are black is because maybe they took that Nicheian belief that gives you so much false hope everyday and turned it into their reality, 'ebonizing' it for all on their way up.

"Whateva' don't kill ya'', only make ya' ass stronger." Sorry to take you out of your blissful state for that five seconds.

Your reward for achieving the American Dream is someone else's manufactured version of happiness...not my happiness. We're brought up to believe happiness is earned rather than learned or bought as opposed to given and this couldn't be the furthest thing from the truth.

Which would make it what?

It is a marketing campaign by our government and geared towards any of us who want more in life but need a belief on what that may be. White picket fences ring a bell? How about cable TV and a stable, well paying job to top it off? But what happens when you have all of those things?

The dream is yours! Than what do you do?

Your choices are now theirs; extremely limited, predictable and looped on repeat by design. For the remainder of your life down to the first real adventure you've had in years going six feet under to the casket drop. If this was my dream I'd never sleep again.

So lets wake up together.

---

It's winter in America and I don't like the cold, it blows!

How about we wake up on a beach in Thailand instead? Our winter is their summer, sound good?

Great! Bring a book cause Thai-Air doesn't have Sky-mall, we leave tomorrow.

You can't leave tomorrow? Why?

You'll lose your job, house, car, TV, wife and life you say!

Damn, that sucks! Guess I'll see ya' come summer. Lemme' know who won X-factor, I fuckin' love that show! I'm gonna' try to swim to the same island Leo did in the beach!

Now unless you like be stuck in the cold for half a year watching a British asshole judge nonsense...open your eyes.

I'm able to do what I want because it sure beats having someone else tell me what to do. If I needed structured discipline I'd go back in the Army, at least there they give you a gun. All you got from IBM was a 401k to use at the one time in your life when you just wanna' retire from it all and spend your days watching TV, opposed to what your doing now.

Practicing?

Justify your life by telling me all about the two weeks vacation time your boss has graciously given you every year to do with what you want and I'll ask you how long winter is. Oh that's it, your waiting until you retire. Guess what people say about the old white guy trolling the streets of Bangkok? Good luck with all that! The time to live is when your young and the eternity to rest is when your old. How did that get flipped?

Today is tomorrow's history. How do you want it to read? Only porn stars get nostalgic about work. So why not stack up the many moments your gonna' have between commercial breaks for reflection into some juicy images. This is the only chance you'll have to do this. Off the top of my head I'd recommend a sunset off the pacific coast highway, the first time another person said they loved you, a moment of true clarity or enlightenment and ever single time you really smiled. Because life, if truly lived can be boiled down to no more or less then only these four things. All at the cost of nothing but the desire to set an alarm and wake up from the dream your in to the life you have and the things that really matter in it; beauty, love, truth and happiness.

Or you can keep dragging your knuckles in that long life-line of people who share another popular ethos..."Ain't life a bitch..."

Majeston@gmail.com