For some people, the American Dream may be a comfortable house with a white picket fence, a couple kids, a pet dog, and a barbecue with friends in the back yard on a warm summer evening. For others, fulfillment of the dream could mean creating a successful business and making a million dollars.
And, for many people throughout our history, especially those who have lived under drastically different forms of government, the American Dream has simply been the ability to live in a country where they are free to talk about whatever they wish without being afraid that government thugs are going to burst through the door at any moment and haul them away to a concentration camp or threaten their family.
In its highest expression, the American Dream is an ideal wherein each and every individual human being is offered the opportunity to reach his or her greatest potential. And its basis is embodied in what has become the most famous line of the founding document of the United States of America in the words:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Thomas Jefferson
Declaration of Independence
The American Ideal is based upon certain principles regarding the nature of humanity in what we often call the Human Spirit, and how those principles relate to the building of an ideal society: The universal brotherhood of mankind is at the heart of the American Ideal. The concept that “all men are created equal” is the fount from which our entire claim to individual human rights flows. It is the foundation of the very concept of Natural Law that is so clearly stated in our Declaration of Independence and which is the basis upon which our Constitution is founded, with its recognition that the powers of government are derived from “we the people,” and that all powers not specifically delegated by the people to the government reside with the people themselves. In recognizing this foundational principle, it is important to recognize all among mankind as brothers and sisters universally, without regard to race, creed, sex, and other tribalistic identifiers because, at a fundamental level, this principle is based upon what it means to be human and not merely upon the happenstance of one’s birth.
The principle of the search for truth and exchange of ideas among people derives directly from the principle of our universal brotherhood. Our most fundamental and sacred protected right as stated in our Constitution is the right to Free Speech. This is vitally so because , as members of humanity, our basic nature is as individual thinking, feeling human beings with our own individual ideas, sensibilities, and capacities, and freedom of communication among individuals is essential not only to our own individual self-expression, but to our collective ability to structure our civilization.
In a truly free and open society, all manner of science, philosophy, literature, and religion as well as the study of economics and social structures, are open to study, analysis, and criticism. Blind adherence to authority for authority’s sake should be shunned in favor of critical thinking on the part of each individual human being. And, while we must recognize that not all ideas have equal merit and some ideas are certainly better and more valid than others, it is through the open exchange of those ideas among rational minds that they can best be sorted out,
And so, with these principles in mind, the American Ideal has a fundamental purpose:
To promote the growth, development and expression of the vast potential latent within each and every individual Human Spirit as well as among all of us collectively in our society.
Humanity, meaning both each of us individually and also all of us together collectively in the societies that we build, is a work in progress. Learning, development, and evolution is part of our nature and our long history. And, while we obviously have vestigial and primal brutal, animalistic attributes in our souls, as major events of the twentieth century made abundantly clear, humanity also has a huge capacity for love and compassion, wisdom and understanding, courage and strength. And, throughout our history, we have occasionally made huge constructive leaps in our technology, our understanding of the universe in which we live, and in our civilizations. It is the purpose of what we call here the American Ideal to maximize the development and expression of this constructive potential among members of mankind.
And so, there is, in this context, a proper use and application of the motto Novus Ordo Seclorum (New Order of the Ages) on the Great Seal of the United States of America, and that is to contrast the American experiment with the Old Order of authoritarianism of previous ages. We must remember, and continue to remind ourselves if necessary, that the general order of society in the past has often been that power has often flowed from the top down in an authoritarian hierarchy from those in charge, from king or emperor to his subjects, and that to challenge this old authoritarian order is the main stated purpose of the founding of our country.
There have been republics in past ages. There have been democracies in past ages. There have been times of great learning and accomplishment. But seldom, if ever before in the history of the world, have the founding documents of a nation so clearly provided specifically for the development of the potential latent within the individual Human Spirit and attempted so distinctly to provide safeguards against the old authoritarian order.
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.”
Martin Luther King
August 28, 1963
So, is the United States of America an “ideal” country?
Has the “American Dream” been fulfilled?
The answer is obvious: People are imperfect and the ideals that America claims as its foundation are far from being completely fulfilled. Our society has serious problems. Many of the freedoms that we would like to take for granted are too often overrun by excessively authoritarian and insensitive members of our government; all kinds of bigotry still exist in many corners of our society; and there are vast inequities in power in a society that is supposed to have a government that is “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
But does this mean that the ideal is not really part of our foundation? … that the vision is not real? … that the American Dream is dead or, perhaps, as some people claim, that it never really existed?
No, it does not.
When naysayers deny the reality and relevance of the American Dream, they in effect deny the vision of those people such as Dr. Martin Luther King who base their aspirations upon such ideals.
By their nature, ideals exist independently of physical reality. Ideals are important even if they are not completely fulfilled. In fact, they are especially important when they seem to be far above the norm of society. They give us something to aspire toward. They serve as a model of what we should become even if we are in the midst of struggles on an entirely different level.
And, in the long run, ideals can be fulfilled. With the right effort, bit by bit, they can be fulfilled in society at large, even though the road toward that fulfilment may seem long and arduous. But, above all, the thing that is most important for each of us to realize is that each of us individually, through our own efforts, can become, in our own way, a piece of the fulfillment of the ideals of freedom, courage, love, and personal achievement in our own lives.
With the above principles in mind, this site is intended to be a reflection of them:
We will promote successful achievement and realization of the full potential of the Human Spirit. We will tell stories about life in general, of both individuals and collective efforts in our country and throughout the world. We will highlight triumphs, and, occasionally, failures and hopefully provide some inspiration for others on their life’s journeys. Where we can, we will provide perspectives on how to be a success. We will talk about the great parts of our great nation. But we will also highlight things that need to be improved and, hopefully, discuss solutions to those problems.
We will look at the philosophy that underlies various people’s and groups’ perspective on life. Because philosophy is important. Everyone has one, whether they know it or not. The philosophy of a person or group is that underlying set of ideas that provides their perspective on how they deal with life, how they see and interact with other people, and what they do or try to accomplish in the world. To that end, we will discuss social issues, economics, politics, international relations, science, and even religion. And we will do it with an eye toward attempting to find those principles and practices that can best advance the success of each member of our society.
And, perhaps most importantly, we will endeavor as best we can to do what we do here within the context of that all-important principle of the inherent value of each and every individual Human Spirit, with his or her unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In this age of divisiveness what is needed is rational dialogue. In coming to actual solutions to our problems and in creating and maintaining an orderly society, we need to understand each other’s perspectives, even if we disagree. We need to recognize that everyone’s life story is different. Our value as human beings and the equality of rights does not come from bland sameness. Each one of us has different abilities and comes from different situations with different privileges and different struggles. And it is within the recognition of those differences that we need to work in order to build working relationships that are required in the maintenance of our society and to promote the success of each of its individual members.
In other words, we will do what we can here in our corner of the internet to promote the ideals and the realization of the aspirations of the American Dream.