WAKING UP FROM THE AMERICAN DREAM

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Americans were “inspired” by the promise of a better life. A wife, a house, two cars, and children to whom it would all be passed down were the “inspiration” which compelled common men to spend long hours toiling in fields, shops, factories and other places, enduring hardships and pain, in hope of fulfilling a better life for themselves and their family. Their “perspiration” in pursuit of what would later become known as “the American dream” is what propelled America into a great industrial empire that by the early 20th century had become the envy of the world. It was American “inspiration” and “perspiration” which produced numerous technological marvels which continue to impact the world to this day. We saw the development of the automobile, the assembly line, the first silent movie, the radio, which gave way to the television, the telegraph which gave way to the telephone, and eventually the Internet.

During the 20th century, we were told and taught that America was the land of “opportunity.” We were promised that we could be dirt poor, possess nothing but the clothes on our back and a dogged determination to work hard, and nothing would be impossible. Many foreigners bought into the promise of the “dream” and applied for citizenship. Others drown on makeshift rafts, risked firing ranges and various means of torture in an effort to reach our shores, seek refuge and escape the clutches of totalitarian, authoritarian, and communist rule in pursuit of “the American dream.”

As the 20th century wore on, there were many warning signs along the way which should have awakened the people to the reality that something was amiss with their republic. Long forgotten was the veiled warning of Benjamin Franklin when, on that fateful day in September of 1787, at the door of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, he told the anxious Mrs. Powel that we’ve given you “a republic, if you can keep it.”

The 21st century began with a bang. An orchestrated act of “terrorism” turned the world into a den of bogeymen. Suddenly, we were given a dire warning: a myriad of Mohammads, camel-riding cave dwellers with flight manuals and box cutters in tote, a bearded CIA asset named Bin Laden, whose family just happened to be business partners with the White House executive — all purportedly “wanted us dead.” We were told we were in a new war for our “freedom,” but that we would have to relinquish that freedom to remain safe. Again, Americans ignored the words of Franklin when he admonished that “they that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” We were groped, scanned, databased, profiled, and surveilled. But Americans didn’t worry. They flew their communist Chinese-made American flags, sported their slave-labor-manufactured bumper stickers full of crying eagles and patriotic slogans, and opted to leave the job of “government” to psychotic professionals. They punched the clock, worked their overtime, and pressed harder in their pursuit of that euphoric and rapturous imagination known to them as “the American dream.”

To say that the rate at which the federal mob is inflating the money supply, stealing our labor, and swelling the national debt is “alarming” would be the understatement of the age. Couple that with the ever-increasing unemployment lines, and the hundreds of thousands of newly homeless, and you have finally managed to concoct the perfect recipe to capture the attention of the some most hardened deniers of the conspiracy to take down America.

Hence, we see the dazed, emotionless appearances on the faces of the teaming masses, wiping the sleep from their bleary eyes, attempting to reconcile the long-cherished promise of “the American Dream” with their dire reality — unemployment, poverty, crime, gang violence, drug cartels, pending social unrest and rampant anti-social behavior, disappearing borders, government surveillance and databasing, identity theft, and massive taxation and inflation.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. America was supposed to be the vibrant example of freedom and prosperity — the example of how liberty and a free market could pave the way to the impossible, an impossible known as “the American dream.” We are living the history of our country’s demise.

The night has been long and costly to you, America. The warmth and comfort with which you have long slept, is finally over. While many tried to warn you of the dangers that lie ahead, you chose to turn away, refusing to heed the warnings. The comfort of your slumber and the pursuit of “the dream” prevailed as constitutionalists cried, grieved, and tried to attract your attention. Many warned you of betrayal, lost freedoms, and the bankruptcies that lie ahead. Still, you steadfastly refused to listen. Your head firmly implanted upon your pillow of apathetic complacency, you slept. How often you rolled your eyes, made fun, laughed, ridiculed, and called them unflattering names! They were the despised “conspiracy theorists,” the rejected “kooks” and “nutcases” of your tidy and blissfully-ignorant world. Do you still feel the mirth of your mockery?

Pinch yourself. Splash some water upon your face. Put on some strong coffee to brew, while it is still within your grasp to afford. Bundle up, against the cold, bitter blast that threatens your senses as you are blinded by the glaring daylight of reality. It’s morning in America, and you’ve finally awakened — the end of “the American dream.” Welcome to the “camp” of the patriots.