If you could distill the essence of the American social proposition and national ethos, you might reduce it to this: “opportunity.” The American Dream is not a hand-out; it’s the opportunity to obtain wealth and all of its’ signifiers, especially the home and the fence. Our national legend has it that this opportunity is meted out more-or-less meritocratically, that in a nation without royal tyranny, we mostly rise and fall on the basis of worth ethic, intelligence and character. This isn’t always so but true misfortune and denial of opportunity is usually a limited and personal tragedy, a rare cancer, an exception that proves the rule of American Exceptionalism.
One project that is complicating that narrative–that national insistence that as Americans we live the lives we have earned and that we are all part of the healthy middle class–has arisen as part of Occupy Wall Street: WeAreThe99Percent, a Tumblr which is giving voice and face to the 99% of Americans who are not ultra-wealthy. The stories they tell are not merely affecting but critical. Yes, critical, because whether you are Tea Party Patriot, a fiscally conservative Democrat or a Revolutionary Marxist, there is a need to bear witness, to hear each other and engage in a shared reality rather than a combative rhetoric. I do not know whether the stories below are true but they certainly ring true and they speak of home and how economically ordinary people are experiencing home in a post-prosperity America.
I’ll be revisiting this.
again, all via http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Very moving. Thanks for sharing. Does this mean you support the Occupy movement?
Thanks, opal. That is a hard question to answer because the movement is in its infancy and really hard to define. I don’t support ‘the movement’ in terms of its stated goals (and lack thereof) or disruptive tactics thus far. I am not an anarchist nor a Communist nor a Socialist. I am not anti-corporate and I have no interest in villifying the 1% even though I fundamentally believe they stand on the shoulders of all of us underneath. So there is a lot taking place around the Occupy movement that does not appeal to me.
However, I am fiercely pro-people, pro-dignity and pro-fairness. And though I am a progressive, I think it is time that all people, on all ends of the political spectrum, see each others’ pain as real and genuine even if we disagree with each others’ political beliefs, that we understand that much of the current sociopolitical hysteria is that people are terrified that the richest nation in the history of humanity has either lost the ability or the will to ensure everyone have the opportunity to achieve a stable home, reliable transportation, a world-class education and a bit of disposable income. We need to be moved. Maybe if we heard each other out and stopped caricaturing each other, we could build some commonalities.
Moving stories.
I think our gravy train is off its rails.