Page 65 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
P. 65
p. mclaren ■ from a city on the hill to the dungheap of history
that a failure to achieve the American Dream must be considered a per-
sonal failure linked to lack of will, laziness and a weakness of character.
After World War II, during times of high economic growth, it became ob-
jectively possible for large numbers of Americans to achieve a certain lev-
el of comfort and financial security—to secure The American Dream—
an achievement which is no longer possible for a majority of Americans.
On a ‘standard’ interpretation, the American Dream constitutes
a symbol of progress and has been synonymous with hope in general.
Do you think its emancipatory potential and progressive idealism
are still relevant today?
In 1931, James Truslow Adams wrote “life should be better and richer
and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or
achievement” regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. That was
an idea that was not necessarily an American invention, but it nevertheless
became the guiding ethos of the country. In the 1950s and 60s the U.S. it
was possible for large segments of the US population to achieve a signifi-
cant degree of freedom and prosperity that made the United States, as the
cliché goes, “the envy of the world”. The concept of the American Dream
enshrined in the Declaration of Independence—that “all men are created
equal” with the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” was ap-
pealing to immigrants who came to the United States from countries that
had been ravaged by famine, war, political dictatorships, etc. The words in-
scribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty reads: “Give me your tired, your
poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” The U.S. is a land
of immigrants (more precisely settler colonialists who massacred the in-
digenous peoples and dragged Africans to the divine City Upon a Hill in
chains) and there was fierce competition among ethnic groups for access
to the American Dream. Some, more than others, would face extremely
harsh barriers, such as virulent forms of racism, including beatings, tor-
ture and lynchings. The American Dream was built on the foundations of
violence, the brutal genocide of First Nations peoples, the brutality of the
“middle passage” and the slave economy in the slave-owning states of the
Confederacy, the anti-union purges, the persecution of suspected commu-
nists during the McCarthy era, the Jim Crow laws in which white pol-
iticians mandated the segregation of public schools, public places such
as neighborhood swimming pools, churches, public transportation, re-
strooms, restaurants, hotels, and drinking fountains.
And some would say that today, we still have a type of slave economy
(much less brutal than the treatment of African Americans during slav-
63
that a failure to achieve the American Dream must be considered a per-
sonal failure linked to lack of will, laziness and a weakness of character.
After World War II, during times of high economic growth, it became ob-
jectively possible for large numbers of Americans to achieve a certain lev-
el of comfort and financial security—to secure The American Dream—
an achievement which is no longer possible for a majority of Americans.
On a ‘standard’ interpretation, the American Dream constitutes
a symbol of progress and has been synonymous with hope in general.
Do you think its emancipatory potential and progressive idealism
are still relevant today?
In 1931, James Truslow Adams wrote “life should be better and richer
and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or
achievement” regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. That was
an idea that was not necessarily an American invention, but it nevertheless
became the guiding ethos of the country. In the 1950s and 60s the U.S. it
was possible for large segments of the US population to achieve a signifi-
cant degree of freedom and prosperity that made the United States, as the
cliché goes, “the envy of the world”. The concept of the American Dream
enshrined in the Declaration of Independence—that “all men are created
equal” with the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” was ap-
pealing to immigrants who came to the United States from countries that
had been ravaged by famine, war, political dictatorships, etc. The words in-
scribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty reads: “Give me your tired, your
poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” The U.S. is a land
of immigrants (more precisely settler colonialists who massacred the in-
digenous peoples and dragged Africans to the divine City Upon a Hill in
chains) and there was fierce competition among ethnic groups for access
to the American Dream. Some, more than others, would face extremely
harsh barriers, such as virulent forms of racism, including beatings, tor-
ture and lynchings. The American Dream was built on the foundations of
violence, the brutal genocide of First Nations peoples, the brutality of the
“middle passage” and the slave economy in the slave-owning states of the
Confederacy, the anti-union purges, the persecution of suspected commu-
nists during the McCarthy era, the Jim Crow laws in which white pol-
iticians mandated the segregation of public schools, public places such
as neighborhood swimming pools, churches, public transportation, re-
strooms, restaurants, hotels, and drinking fountains.
And some would say that today, we still have a type of slave economy
(much less brutal than the treatment of African Americans during slav-
63
