Taking a Stand for the American Dream
October 22, 2009 by Will Marre
Since starting the American Dream Project I have been an active proponent of the strong values of our founders establishing a society that promoted the greatest happiness for its citizens. This is happiness based on integrating the values of self-reliance and a shared civic concern for the common good. As a nation we seem scared. Our jobs have disappeared, our education and health care systems are broken and we owe nearly a trillion dollars to China. Meanwhile we swim in a torrent of special interests that use the language “personal independence,” “maximum material success” and “sacredness of property rights” to marginalize the values of social responsibility, sustainable consumption and the sacredness of human rights. It is frustrating that when we attempt to solve our problems using wisdom, creativity and higher values the debate degrades to a war of special interests trying to rig the future to their benefit. The only counterbalance to their self-aggrandizement is citizen resolve to reach for new solutions. Solutions that honor all our legitimate values but ensure fairness to all.
This is difficult.
That’s because we believe that what we know is reality. But reality is a tricky beast. The problem is that reality has at least two dimensions. The facts of a situation represent the content of reality while the meaning of those facts is the context. Our sense of meaning is driven by our values. And for our values to be useful in making decisions they must be held in hierarchy. Simply put, some values are more important than other values. Values tell us what to do with facts. That’s why it’s so important not to let others define our values or confuse us as to what’s most important. Because, if we let them, they will create a closed bubble for us. And in the bubble of their emotional logic their conclusions will make total sense. Soon we’ll be interpreting all facts through the false reasoning of the bubble like clones in a frightened world. This is not just a theory. People who call President Obama a Nazi or a socialist and people who label conservatives as hillbillies and hate-mongers make the same error. They are trying to recruit followers through fear. This is very dangerous. It’s what happened when Hitler hypnotized Germany.
When the courageous Christian pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was struggling to find ways to rid his beloved Germany of Hitler, he wrote a series of essays that point out the folly of being seduced by those who appeal to our fear and pride, and pointed out that followers become spellbound by slogans and repeated assertions that gradually become “facts” to morally passive followers. As simplistic slogans are spread by an over-active media, a moral flu has the power to inflict a whole society. When our prejudices are enthroned in a twisted emotional logic that our self-interest is the premier virtue, facts and evidence that contradict our opinions are simply disbelieved and dismissed. As a successful business owner recently said to me, “I know what I believe is true, so why should I listen to anything that would make me question my convictions?” Why, indeed.
What Bonhoeffer, who was executed by Nazis three weeks before Hitler’s suicide in 1945, pleads for is for us to “take a stand.” His call is to stand for love. He called on Christians to save Jews because the great work of moral humans is to bring relief to all who suffer. He challenges us to consider “the outcasts, the suspects, the powerless, the oppressed…with new eyes of generosity, humanity, justice and mercy”.
In my view the greatest act of humanity is to relieve today’s suffering and build self-reliance so that all people can lift themselves to a decent, hope-filled life. My work with the Grameen Foundation, who empower the poorest of the world’s poor to lift themselves by providing access to microloans so they can become self-sustaining entrepreneurs, convinces me that the vast majority of humanity has the will, talent and ingenuity to live a responsible life. They just need the tools to get started.
To return to the beginning, I am saddened that demagogues in our nation can rally millions with fear-based messages with the primal message, “Every man for himself.” I also worry that public spending that weakens our self-reliance and creates institutional dependencies is old failure path. The people I most respect are those who hold strong beliefs, recognize that evil is real, exercise timeless values and continue to have an open mind. Above all, they refuse to be driven by fear, pride or intolerance.
For me there is a higher center that calls for civic engagement in the common good, the restraint of greed, and the promotion of self-reliance. It is time to take a stand. A time to stand for our highest values. This is not time for fear and divisiveness. It’s time for creative idealism and a fiercely open mind. These issues are great questions of our day. (For a view on my suggestion on healthcare that attempts to blend personal responsibility with citizen lead social responsibility, see my other posts: Outraged at the Politics of Healthcare and Will Marre’s Radical Solution to Health Care.)
So what do you think? Am I missing the point? What do you believe are the answers to our challenges?
No WIll, you are not missing the point. You hit it in the X ring. I am disgusted with the same demagogues. The answer to our challenges is a simple one. Let me give you my stock answer. . .
In my opinion We the People need to remind our elected representatives of any party that they are empowered by us, only with the authority we’ve given them to represent, Us. From municipal, to State to the halls of Congress special interest rules. Not my interest, not yours.
Don’t whine, don’t complain, don’t shout.
Talk to your neighbors. We all have them. Talk to your family, your friends, your co-workers. You will be surprised who agrees with you….
Then ACT together. Write, email, and call your elected representatives. Tell them you are concerned. Tell them you are worried. Tell them you do not like what is going on. Tell them you are un-happy with, THEM.
Then VOTE.
You have the final word in the matter.
Dear Will,
So what is it that you are saying, because I am one of the personal independence that you talk about? I am not rich but I finally own my life, my life doesn’t own me except for being extorted from by being taxed to death so that second-handers (middlemen and women) can re-distribute what they think is their share to the glorified welfare which is the government from top to bottom and anyone receiving any kind of subsidy no matter if they live in the ghetto or in a penthouse (all of which are showing failing statistics as far as their personal products)! I resent that you group personal independence, with maximum material success into the same context; personal independence doesn’t mean maximum material success! As far as property rights and privacy these are sacred and are the fundamental foundation of this Country!
The problem is not that individuals can own private property; the problem is that the local governments and zoning regulations are designed to hoard the tax increment dollars, and constipate the ability of individuals to redevelop their own property in favor of waiting for neighborhoods to fall far enough into decay so that they can make inside deals with big developers and use emanate-domain to steal what isn’t theirs. I could write all day about how local, state and federal government have farmed the decay of our neighborhoods and infrastructure. Even 20/20 did a segment of poor development of our infrastructure and neighborhoods.
I don’t know if you just have your head to far into the clouds or what; but you need to assign responsibility to those who have caused the log jam and quit blaming individuals who chose to succeed as individuals and don’t want to be bothered by the glorified welfare system that needs to feed off of the individuals who actually produce something tangible and want to be able to manage what they have built without having the appreciating portion of their fortunes being targeted for re-distribution to those who do nothing but pass the buck around and back and forth!
My family arrived here in 1897 and everyone of us has worked - as dishwashers, hod-carriers, ditch-diggers and later as gaffers and machinists and office workers….and every man has been in combat in America’s never ending series of wars…..which we later apologise for and re-build the countries that attack us!
Every morning when I looked out of my window I saw the Corning Glass Works dump trucks across the street dumping their waste…and you can dig down 3-feet and still see that stuff….and I started part-time work when I was 14.
I was drafted into Viet Nam at 18…and proved to be adept at the war game and stayed three-years because I had never known such freedom (the freedom of discipline) or earned so much money.
When my hitch was over I took a test, wrote an essay, had an interview and was accepted at Cornell University …and the US Government “gave” me $75 per month but only while classes were in session and then taxed that “combat benefit”.
I have arisen every morning at 0530 (or earlier) and bathed my body (often with only cold water available) and put on clean clothes so as not to offend anyone’s sense of smell. And I have arrived at work on time unless held-up by a road accident or act of god.
Not once in my entire life has any single person (parent, priest or professor - the Big Three Liars) given me anything I have not earned - sometimes twice over!
I have paid my taxes faithfully and fully - including school taxes, and you can walk into any store and speak to any clerk and you can see what I received for my generous support of free public education…not much!
I have never been investigated, charged or convicted of any crime - and in fact have held a Top Secret clearance most of my adult life.
I have only lied to the ladies by telling them how beautiful they make their party-frocks look - but never lied to a lawfully appointed supervisor, banker or traffic cop or judge.
SO…. tell me…..why you and Obama think I am such “big, bad, over-priveleged white-man”?
If you have so many people so in need of so much tell them to follow my example - rise early, bathe, work hard at whatever you can find. I even had a job as a dishwasher while I was also a one-striper in the USAF earning $76 per month plus room and board.
Tell your needy to stop smoking and drinking and spend that money buying their (too many) children real meals - not McDonalds crap!
Tell them to study nights at the free public library instead of “hanging at the mall” bothering other people.
America’s first Affirmative Action President has emboldened all the lazy, neer-do-wells to beleive YOUR propaganda - that they are “entitled” to the good life. Well not on MY PLANET…Root hog - or die!
I do my duty not out of fear of retribution…but simply because I said I would…. and that is the only road to self-respect I know!
To promote self reliance does not mean we need to abandon our compassion. Rather, that it should inform the way that we help people in need. The most successful anti poverty program in world history is micro finance which loans mostly women small amounts of money to invest in own home businesses in the developing world. These are usually illiterate women who live on less than a dollar a day. Within months they frequently raise their income by two to three times and often begin to employ others. These poor borrowers are asked to make 16 personal decisions based on Discipline, Unity, Courage and Hard Work. They promise to keep their houses clean, grow vegetables, educate their children, invest in their businesses, and not cheat others or commit any injustice. Clearly, we can do much more to compassionately help the poor and disadvantaged to lift themselves from suffering, most often thrust upon them by the terrible circumstances of their birth.
What concerns me is that the values of independence are being hijacked by voices who claim that people suffer because they deserve it. Most often this is simply not true. But what people need to end their suffering are tools like education, opportunity, mentoring and accountability. When Country’s make welfare there primary response to helping the poor, the poor are disempowered. Instead, when people who are suffering directly receive the tools to end their suffering by making themselves self reliant - they do. We know this because their are 150 million poor people borrowing money through micro finance institutions and paying it back at a 98% rate.
Every system of morality is based on the belief that survival of the fittest cannot be the basis of civilization. We have a social responsibility to help others lift themselves to self reliance and self respect. We cannot ignore that responsibility because corrupt or misguided governments have made the problems worse, instead of making them better. Real Love is still the most powerful motive for good and Real Love insists on Real solutions. Solutions that strike at the cause of suffering.
Mmmmm…I have just read three very different comments regarding Will’s heartfelt message….and I agree with parts of all three…since you are telling your life histories in order to strengthen your point, then here is mine.
I am a 46 year old single mother…I have been divorced for 14 years, and in those 14 years I chose to not remarry, because unlike most women who will marry some well- to- do man in order to be able to have security, I have chose to be honest about my affections, and I have worked and supported my son instead. I too grew up poor, my dad was in construction and it was hard for him to support three kids…so, I began to work at 13, and I have worked ever since. Up until March of this year I worked two jobs to make ends meet. In March I was let go after working 9 years for the same company, because my sales the previous month did not reach my sales goal…they replaced me with someone who makes half of my salary. I am now unemployed. After 6 months I cannot find a job, because employers want someone who is bilingual (I live in the central valley of California) For me to get a job, I have to learn spanish…while my neighbors who don’t speak english have jobs….So, now I am faced with going back to school…I think though if I have to go back to school and pay for it, I might as well go back and learn another trade, one where I am not required to speak Spanish to work…but all that costs money, money for which I do not have. Just two years ago, I finally paid off my student loan, and the thought of having to pay off another $12,000 while I do not have any income coming in besides unemployment, is scary….so, what am I saying here? I too have worked hard my whole life, but I don’t know what I would have done without unemployment insurance. Yeah, there are plenty of people who scam the Government, rich and poor alike. But there are also plenty of people like me, who have done the right thing their whole lives, paid taxes, worked long hours, and sacrificed being with their families, to put food on the table and a roof over their kid’s heads….and we still struggle, there is never enough to go around. I am offend by those who think because the Government subsidizes my income with unemployment insurance, that I am taking advantage of someone….If the economy wasn’t in the hole it is now, I would still be working…and still struggling….the only difference would be that I was employed. My unemployment check is even taxed!! I did not create this mess, but people like me, who do the right thing are the ones paying for it. I agree, someone needs to be held accountable for the misuse and abuse of the tax payer’s dollar–I don’t think it is anyone who is reading Will’s article….