Corruptions of the American Dream: Wealth, Power and Fame
Joseph Yumang, Saint Mary’s College Of California
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There are many people who fervently believe that the American Dream is endangered because of the United States’ current dilemmas. America continues to struggle with a stagnant economy, massive job losses and thousands of home foreclosures that have caused people to question the validity of “the Dream.” An April 27, 2009 Time article entitled “The New Frugality,” cites that 57% of those interviewed in an online survey believed that the American Dream will be harder to achieve in next decade.[i] These survey results lead to asking the question: Why are so many citizens pessimistic about their ability to live out “the Dream?” They live in a country that offers personal liberties such as freedom of speech, religion, press and assembly unmatched by any other nation.
In his book Epic of America, author John Truslow Adams defines “the Dream” as, “the social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others…” (317). Adams’s statement suggests that these individual freedoms allow Americans to achieve personal success in their lives. In the context of this chapter, success is a person’s ability to define their own goals and achievements. Advertising, the power elite and the media, however, have diluted people’s ideas about success, making them believe that wealth, power and fame are the only paths to the American Dream. As a result of their corruption, these entities have successfully clouded people’s minds to the point where they measure prosperity, contentment and personal fulfillment based on these superficial benchmarks.
