American Dream is gone
About the American Dream
By David Zephaniah
When you look at America today, everything is seemingly fine. The rhythm of life goes on and people are busy on their way to work, school, running errands and playing with their dogs…
To a casual observer, without thinking about it, it would all seem fine and dandy in the United States. A casual observer sees a technologically and socially developed country that is rich, democratic and is the envy of many nations. Because of this envy, many people from countless poor countries are dreaming of living here.
However the casual observer is wrong!
In this article, I will point out that regardless to what it seems, the American Dream is dying. We have lost some important values and principles that are the core of happiness and satisfaction.
About Holidays in America
I have been in America for over 20 years, and I have seen a steady decline of respect for holidays by countless greedy corporations. Whether it’s Easter, Christmas, New Year’s Day or any other important holiday, most of the companies are open for business as usual. On every holiday, millions of people go out dining in restaurants, instead of having fun cooking with the family, without thinking that many millions of people, who serve them on holidays, can’t spend time with THEIR families.
In this seemingly democratic and free country people become true worshippers of MONEY. Money has become their true God. Nobody says anything. Nobody complains.
Let me tell you folks: no amount of money in the world could replace time you could be spending with your children, family, spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, etc. You can’t shortcut life itself.
About political correctness in America
Political correctness is lying!
In America, we let lawyers and laws take over the common sense and sink into false self-indulgence. Being truthful in our lives is the single most important asset that we have. That is the asset that we take with us to the next world, when we die.
Human spirit and soul are designed to take criticism and the truth because it is the only way we learn the right from wrong. Let me give you an example: let’s say that you have an obese co-worker or friend. By not telling them what you really think of their condition you are committing two sins. One is that you are lying and not telling what you really think. Two is that by lying to this person, you are NOT ALLOWING THEM TO BECOME AWARE TO THEIR CONDITION; therefore you are helping them in their weakness to destroy themselves even further (that is one of the reasons for obesity). If no one criticizes us, how shall we ever know the truth about our conduct? We should be able to criticize, as well as accept criticism!
Let ducks be ducks. If we keep on lying, we will sink to the bottom that we can never get out from.
You always have to be truthful. You just need to find a way to present the truth tactfully and at the right time and place!
As far as the vacations go, United States is way behind most of other developed countries. We have few major problems in this department:
· We have the shortest vacation times offered here than in other developed countries. Actually, in most states, employers don’t even have to offer you a paid vacation.
· Many employers make you feel bad when you want to take a vacation, and expect you to take your work with you on vacation.
· Many people lead such pointless lives that they don’t even take a vacation for years.
Those facts are astonishing. Let’s go back to a basic question: Why do I work? Is it just to “survive” or is it to have a quality and meaningful life? In my opinion, if your life is constantly being at work, you don’t have a meaningful life at all.
Your job is TO LIVE YOUR LIFE with your loved ones and with YOU. This is the secret for happiness.
About families in America
Since I moved to America, I have not seen REAL friends.
However, forgetting friendship for a moment, people don’t spend time with their families at all. I have met countless people that haven’t seen their own mother, father, brother and sister for years. I have seen people make excuses NOT to spend time with their families. Many of them don’t even want to go home after work and show up to work on their day off, instead of spending quality time with their children, spouse, etc.
I see that people spend more time and energy on dogs, than they do on their family members!
That is why so many people die lonely in retirement homes! And that’s the reason for many bitter divorces.
If you invest time and energy in your family and friends, you will find true happiness and satisfaction. You will have good relationships and good kids. Hanging around with fake friends like co-workers is not the way to live your life. Don’t take family and friends for granted. Life is about “GIVE and TAKE”.
Patriotism is dying in America
I want to tell you folks that what makes every country great is patriotism. If you don’t believe me, go visit Israel, Switzerland, Germany, etc. In those countries, people are proud to be citizens of their country and don’t think only about their immediate selfish needs. Their feeling of patriotism translates into actions, such as:
· · Buying domestic products, because they are proud to support the economy.
· · They keep their surroundings, in towns and communities, clean and organized and are very proactive about it.
· · They are willing to give up some of their comforts, for a greater good, when it comes to foot up the bill for the important programs.
· · They band together to fight crime and problems in their communities because they see the community as their HOME. Therefore, they have a very low crime rate.
About 10 years ago, when price of the gas started going up, my brother from Israel had asked: why don’t Americans get together and buy less gas for a few days to pressure the oil companies? I laughed in a sad way and told him that this country is not the same America it used to be. I told him that a neighbor doesn’t know and care about his neighbor anymore. This fact made him very sad.
In order to be successful, we HAVE to be patriotic and not selfish.
I believe that I listed the most important aspects of the lost American Dream. We owe it to our children to correct this downward road to a pointless unhappy life.
We have a fundamental ability to work on improving our standing in this life and achieving a true dream of happiness and satisfaction.
I ask each of you to become proactive. Start insisting on taking time off for holidays, in order to spend time with your families and friends. Take a day or two off every week to do the same. You might make a little less money, but the benefits will be priceless!
Be patriotic and proud of your surroundings. Take care of your country and people around you. Doing so will greatly improve your surrounding and, therefore, your life, as well.
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