A land of opportunity they say, hope is not necessarily a bad thing. In America; however, we've made hope into a drug which pollutes the minds of it's citizens. We've taken something we need just like water, air, or food, and we've commercialized it like a Happy Meal. We simply can't believe in a normal life. In a land littered with American Idols, Paris Hilton, Jon Benet Ramsie, and childhood mantras that suggest in a land of opportunity eventually all your dreams do come true. How can anyone possibly ever argue America isn't great?
I imagine I will quickly get a response in anger to bringing up this taboo subject. After all there must be some sort of protective mechanism similar to withdrawal that keeps a drug addict on his/her fix. I think that should be a warning sign there, that "our" hope, our idea of what we can achieve, at least here in America is wrong.
But.... "You can achieve anything if you try hard enough...."
...Look, I could try till the day I die to sing like Celine Dion, but it isn't going to happen.
Besides we don't grow up with rational hopes and dreams. We want to be astronauts, heroes, rock-stars, or actors. The majority of us didn't say we want to excel at the McDonald's managerial program and one day be able to afford a car. I know of adults who are 50 years old that are so delusioned by the American dream that they think they're just one lotto ticket away from all their dreams, or that their kids/grand-kids are so talented they'll be able to live the life they didn't, succeed in unimaginable ways, and they'll reap the benefits. Why are we so blinded by people like Madoff despite obvious evidence to the contrary? Why? We love rich people. We believe we will be one someday.
But let's be honest... "Hope" outside of America, in many countries, is about hoping to have food for the next meal, or one day not being in a war zone, hope is wishing that you'll survive past the age of 25 or getting a basic education. We've turned hope into some bastard form of itself where we're spending so much time hoping, and dreaming we forget about living.
Isn't that a definition of a drug? When it interferes with life. When you sit in that cubicle just "hoping" your life is going to change, too scared to simple just be that person you are, you keep telling yourself "One day my boss will recognize how great a person I am and give me a promotion", someday this, someday that. Maybe I'll get 'discovered' on karaoke night at the Chinese restaurant, maybe on vacation in Hollywood a big executive-type person will discover me. Seriously, where the heck do we come up with this crap?
Why would they want to drug us with our dreams? Because personal initiative is deterred in the country. You can't have everyone succeed. The system we have here in America requires the majority of people to be in a drug induced coma, mindlessly buying into a system where a few succeed.
The irony of it is, most of us will never see our dreams because of our system. We will die, as slaves to the few who do. That's America, that's capitalism, that's your life. Just say no to drugs.
