Why We Should Abandon the Standard American Dream

For the past 60 years or so, Americans have been painfully expressing their belief that the American Dream has been fading away or has already disappeared. The Dream has continually been said to be in peril or extinct, a casualty of social, economic, and political forces that have made it difficult or impossible for the working class or middle class to get ahead. Action had to be taken, and taken quickly, this narrative has dictated, lest our great nation lose what made it special and unique from all others.

The Origin and Misinterpretation of the American Dream

Not typically mentioned in this story is the fact that the American Dream isn’t real and never has been. According to James Truslow Adams, who coined the term in his 1931 book The Epic of America, the American Dream was “a better, richer, and happier life for all our citizens of every rank which is the greatest contribution we have as yet made to the thought and welfare of the world.” Nowhere did Adams, a notable historian of his day, mention social status, homeownership, or any other externally defined marker of success in his definition of the American Dream.

Therein has lied the problem. Too many of us have over the years have interpreted Adams’s brilliant idea as a kind of inalienable right to which each and every American deserves. Given this twisting or perversion of a magnificent idea rooted in Enlightenment thinking, we should not be surprised that many Americans have felt disappointed that their dreams have not materialized. It’s long overdue that we stop bemoaning the absence of something that never really existed and instead adopt a set of values that are true to Adams’s words but grounded in reality.

Pursuing the True Meaning of the American Dream

Happily, so to speak, more of us are doing just that. There appears to be an accelerating movement led by Generation Z to finally reject the notion that the American Dream is a birthright. Rather than blame the government, the wealthy, a political party, or some other powerful institution or group for taking away our perceived entitlement to the good life, more of us are proactively constructing our own, personalized version of the American Dream that reflects Adams’s original vision. Instead of being endangered and in need of rescue, in other words, the American Dream is alive and well if one understands its true meaning.

Here are a few ways some of us are doing that:

• Tossing the Script: The “script,” which we learn early in life and is reinforced by institutions of power, advocates getting good grades in school, to get into a good college, to get a good job that pays well, which, in turn, will lead to success and happiness. (The script also promotes marriage, family, and a mortgage, all things believed to lead to social stability.) This cookie-cutter recipe has proved not to be a good one for many of us to realize personal fulfillment; even those who have beaten the odds by becoming wealthy often report that having more money hasn’t measurably increased their level of happiness.
• Burning Down the House: The desire for the single-family house is the biggest flaw in the standard interpretation of the American Dream. While it was easy for a (white) person to buy a home in the 1950s, that was a historical anomaly unlikely to ever be repeated. Since then, however, the American Dream has persisted to be heavily associated, if not equated, with homeownership, something Adams did not propose. The current housing crisis has further diminished the possibility of a large number of us owning a home, which is a good reason why more of us are tearing down the proverbial white picket fence and seeking alternative ways of living that better reflect the social and economic realities of today.
• Living in the Now: Present-centered therapy and Buddhist-inspired mindfulness have been shown to reduce anxiety and increase happiness. The standard American Dream is fundamentally aspirational and built on hope, a powerful yet ultimately unsatisfying mindset. Rather than ponder the utopian possibilities of tomorrow (or dwell on revisionist memories of yesterday), a better American Dream is predicated on the realities of today, as it is the here and now that really matters. While setting goals remains important, single-tasking is conducive to mental and physical health, a much-needed thing in our stressful times.
• Repairing the World: As society became less civic-oriented and more about the self in the latter half of the 20th century, the American Dream came to be a largely me-first, narcissistic pursuit. Adams specified that the Dream was “for all our citizens,” however, implying that there is a communitarian component to it. Those who understand that happiness is more likely to result from enabling the well-being of others are applying the concept of “tikkun olam”—the Judaic responsibility to “repair the world” or improve society in some way—and, in the process, realizing their own American Dream.

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