Page 66 - Šolsko polje, XXVIII, 2017, no. 3-4: Education and the American Dream, ed. Mitja Sardoč
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šolsko polje, letnik xxviii, številka 3–4
ery) where an individual’s livelihood is completely dependent on wages or
a salary, in order to survive. Here, of course, we get into the Marxist defi-
nition of wage labor, and as a Marxist humanist, I could elaborate forev-
er on this concept.
Has the idea of the American Dream evolved?
Yes, the idea of the American Dream has evolved—for instance today
Americans appear to be willing to sacrifice their personal privacy to the
National Security Agency for security against terrorists. They are much
more suspicious of their neighbors, and carry profound racialized resent-
ment—especially against immigrants outside of Europe—especially those
from Latin America. And thousands of Americans today are dying each
year because they cannot afford health insurance, and for them the Amer-
ican Dream is the American Nightmare. For them the United States rep-
resents a vile menagerie of the most egregious vices and crimes against the
poor. Since the end of World War II, the term American Dream has been
viewed as an objectively real—and to a large extent it was in the 1960s
and 1970s objectively obtainable for a large segment of Americans, includ-
ing factory workers. Factory workers in, say, industries with strong union
backing, could often afford a modest summer cottage by a lake.
In the realm of global politics the concept of The American Dream
was used to enforce rigor in the way that it challenged, by military force if
necessary, the ideologies of other countries who refused to cooperate with
the American Empire, countries, for instance, that were socialist or com-
munist.
I don’t think that the ‘standard’ interpretation of the American
Dream is relevant today. The entire concept of “American” is, first of all,
problematic. The term “American” also includes the countries of South
America, or Latin America and also Canada. But the term “American
Dream” is meant to confer a special status on the U.S., a term that was giv-
en political ballast during the period of economic growth in the United
States after World War II until the 1970s, and which anyone with a fine-
tuned understanding of the people’s history of the United States recog-
nizes as a fraudulent today, as a will o’ the wisp fantasy of the bourgeoisie.
Contrast the idea of the American Dream with Evo Morales’s commen-
tary on the notion of “buen vivir” (or in the Quechua language as sumac
kawsay or “living well.”). The notion of buen vivir—which I learned about
years ago when I was working with the Chavistas in Venezuela—is linked
to the Andean cosmovisión of the Quechua peoples and basically means
living in harmony with others and the environment, the community, and
64
ery) where an individual’s livelihood is completely dependent on wages or
a salary, in order to survive. Here, of course, we get into the Marxist defi-
nition of wage labor, and as a Marxist humanist, I could elaborate forev-
er on this concept.
Has the idea of the American Dream evolved?
Yes, the idea of the American Dream has evolved—for instance today
Americans appear to be willing to sacrifice their personal privacy to the
National Security Agency for security against terrorists. They are much
more suspicious of their neighbors, and carry profound racialized resent-
ment—especially against immigrants outside of Europe—especially those
from Latin America. And thousands of Americans today are dying each
year because they cannot afford health insurance, and for them the Amer-
ican Dream is the American Nightmare. For them the United States rep-
resents a vile menagerie of the most egregious vices and crimes against the
poor. Since the end of World War II, the term American Dream has been
viewed as an objectively real—and to a large extent it was in the 1960s
and 1970s objectively obtainable for a large segment of Americans, includ-
ing factory workers. Factory workers in, say, industries with strong union
backing, could often afford a modest summer cottage by a lake.
In the realm of global politics the concept of The American Dream
was used to enforce rigor in the way that it challenged, by military force if
necessary, the ideologies of other countries who refused to cooperate with
the American Empire, countries, for instance, that were socialist or com-
munist.
I don’t think that the ‘standard’ interpretation of the American
Dream is relevant today. The entire concept of “American” is, first of all,
problematic. The term “American” also includes the countries of South
America, or Latin America and also Canada. But the term “American
Dream” is meant to confer a special status on the U.S., a term that was giv-
en political ballast during the period of economic growth in the United
States after World War II until the 1970s, and which anyone with a fine-
tuned understanding of the people’s history of the United States recog-
nizes as a fraudulent today, as a will o’ the wisp fantasy of the bourgeoisie.
Contrast the idea of the American Dream with Evo Morales’s commen-
tary on the notion of “buen vivir” (or in the Quechua language as sumac
kawsay or “living well.”). The notion of buen vivir—which I learned about
years ago when I was working with the Chavistas in Venezuela—is linked
to the Andean cosmovisión of the Quechua peoples and basically means
living in harmony with others and the environment, the community, and
64
