Reawakening the Dream

Submitted by Lindsay
Melbourne Australia!

He hath awakened from the dream of life -
‘Tis he, who lost in stormy visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable strife
And in mad trance, strike with our spirit’s knife
Invulnerable nothings.
              - Shelley, Adonis, 1821

(2/2021) There are some wonderful countries in the world, but America is unique. Since recorded history, first written by Columbus, it was known as a land that was exciting and almost unbelievable. No country ever before had such abundant natural resources, such agreeable weather, and was as fertile. It had been settled thousands of years before Columbus, but that journal started a revolution.

The Pilgrim fathers were far from the first Europeans to arrive, but neither the Dutch or the French had consolidated their place in the promised land, so It was the English, with much more experience of colonisation, who won the day.

The Book of Numbers described it exactly: It was a land of milk and honey. The word took wings, the wonder seeped into the poor, impoverished dwellings of Europe, and it became the dream of millions. Immigrants arrived from all over the world, bringing all the culture and values of their native land. There were so many opportunities that whatever your idea of happiness was, there were ways of pursuing it.

Expansion went west, the great adventure began; the South became the home of agriculture, conservatism was born, industry grew to unprecedented levels. The poor were poor no longer, the races mixed while retaining their own identity, and for the great majority life was far easier than it had been before.

Heroism was born, the wild west became fable, and entertainment entered to beguile the masses. The horror of slavery was smoke-screened away, the history of the native peoples removed from the books, and the wonder of freedom from the old restrictions put smiles on everyone’s faces.

People with leisure time needed pastimes, so arts and crafts flourished, writing, science, and entertainments thrived. Then two amazing new products arrived. The first was radio, but the second one, with far greater impact, was movies. Around 1900 the discovery of how to project moving images onto a screen began to allow silent films to be shown, but once sound was added the growth went from fast to breakneck.

Migrants had arrived with dreams. Dreams of better times, of enough food, of safety work and adventure. They were not disappointed. The movie industry took notice and gave them what they wanted. Adventure first, then, as the ladies of the country wanted something different, they did romance and family.

This proved to be more enduring, so the dream of a loving husband, a wonderful family, and happiness became the staple. Manufacturers loved it too, and invested heavily in advertising on the big screen. Movies were cloned, then television arrived. Romance that had screen time for three hours or so, then was gone, morphed into weekly shows of an hour; these were then serialised, so that things like ‘Days of our Lives,’ The Brady Bunch’ and so on were the fare that was waited for each week. No church had such pulling power, and the range increased to cater for most tastes.

And this, my friends, became the American Dream.

A dream with compulsive power, a fix without the terrible dangers, one that became more important than study, reading, hobbies or activity. A dinner time diversion, a topic of discussion among friends and neighbours, proof that their forebears had got it right. One that they did not want to give up, a need that was often an obsession. Proof against the worries of reality, a barrier to understanding, a director of likes and dislikes, of what was true and what was false.

But, like all dreams, reality intruded. Jobs were lost, wages went down, and the powerful were seen as they really were. Who was to blame for this terrible thing? Why, the government, of course. Those bloodsucking morons in Washington. They had elected a Democrat, and things got a bit better for some, but his replacement was going to be a member of the rich snobs, part of a hierarchy that insulted them and called them worthless.

The Republicans, who many had voted for because they had promised they would make things better, had proved to be liars.

Then, by some miraculous means, someone different appeared. Someone they knew from ‘The Apprentice’ and things like that. He was rude, crude, carefree, stuck it to the Dems, tweeted all the time, made outrageous statements, and promised to Make America Great Again. (This was an idea he borrowed from some of his idols in the Mob, whose leaders of the 80’s he idolised.)

That was all they needed. ‘Great’ was the thing they missed. Great TV shows, great opportunities, and more respect. Another chance having a decent job, of receiving a living wage, of having decent schools for the kids. For a while it looked as though he was doing very well, partly because his tax cuts gave industry an enormous shove, and unemployment began to fall. Enormous plants, such as the Blue Scope steel plant near Chicago were built - and even today they cannot make enough product to meet demand. Things like this were hailed as extraordinary, and gained him an enormous loyal base which still persists, especially among hose who have always voted Republican..

He had also appealed to the good old white boys from the south. His idea of building a wall to keep out Mexicans appealed to them. He would make the white race the top dogs again. They loved their guns, they loved their feelings of superiority. So when he was on the verge of having to quit, they did what they knew best: Went to war on his behalf. He had showed them his right wing values, and they were going to show their loyalty.

But what is the value of a life? What is the value of YOUR life? These were questions that were ignored, and were the question so many began to ask. He had virtually ignored the pandemic, but that was unforgivable. The death toll is still growing, and the result of that will be far worse than anything ever before.

America will be locked into grieving for decades, and the horror of it will persist in the memory of all Americans for a very long time. The Great Dream became nightmare territory.

Joe and company are faced with one hell of a job to make it bearable, but with both houses, he should get most of his urgent reforms through.

Realists don’t dream, they think and act. All the free people of the world will do their best to see he is successful. That is in everyone’s interests.