“The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.” ~ James Truslow Adams
James Truslow Adams is often credited with the creation of the phrase “The American Dream.”
A term I’ve come to hate in many ways because today it seems to represent a generation of people who care more about money, success, cars, and health than they do the people around them.
As I read this quote by Adams, though, I understand it. What he writes about doesn’t seem the same to me as what I perceive as the “American dream” these days.
His American dream I think has been lost somewhere in the hubbub of needing to have a “perfect job,” a “perfect girl,” etc. The American dream shouldn’t be about toiling to acquire things for ourselves, but to pursue things that make us more valuable to the rest of the world. To be a nation that blesses other nations.
It seems there is an American dream I can get behind, but it’s not the one I normally hear about.