Project help request -What is the "American Dream"

[BurningGirl]

No, I'm not trying to start another debate about the theme. If you want to comment on that there are about 600 other places online to do it.

What I want to know is this: What word or phrase or image represents the the American Dream to you? Or what have you been told it is - or should be? Feel free to list several.

Bonus points for responses from folks born in other countries and people that hate this theme. Yours is a perspective I don't have and I think it will be very illuminating with what I'm trying to do.

Some examples of my own:

Model good looks and body
House with white picket fence
Perfect house wives
Nice cars/SUV's
Happy immigrants at Ellis Island
Proud soldiers and their families

Thanks in advance for your help!

[theCryptofishist]

I'm old enough to remember the old commercial: Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and Chevrolet. All of those things I'm middling to indifferent towards.

[oneeyeddick]

Ya hit the nail on the head with what
automatically comes to my mind with your
examples, with the exception of you forgot
the dog in the yard with the picket fence.
But being a Seattlite, isn't the dream here to
have a nice townhouse, a BMW, an office Job with a
Starbuck's next door, and someone to ride in your car
with you so that you can use the transit lane 24/7 ??

Imagery is what it it all about.
What you are fed, what you watch and hear, what you
see and want. Your desires. Achieving that which you
want by just desiring it so bad that it comes to you
so naturally that you feel that you deserved it in the
first place. Maybe I'm confusing myself with what
I percieve others trying to achieve all around me,
but it seems like the masses are so much like
squirrels fighting for peanuts sometimes. I got mine.
Now watch me bask in my glory. I AM living the dream.
I am doing EXACTLY what I wanted to do, EXACTLY the way it
should be done, and I shall hold NO regrets. I am the dream.
Freedom, simply stated. And fucking proud of it.
That's the dream to me........ Now try to be like me.

[Simon of the Playa]

American Haiku.



Japanese Tourist
renting white cadillac,
NO! Maine is not a small Detour!

[Zhust]

Unattainability: what was and what will be is way better than what is right now.

The past is full of happy people all getting along and the future promises boundless prosperity. Pay no attention to right now because it represents the destruction of the past and the construction of the future.

[theCryptofishist]

There's got to be a way to work in the mortgage crisis...

[Rocket75377]

The American Dream is just that- a dream.

It's a psychedelic trip perpetrated by your own mind.

[Ugly Dougly]

Vanilla ice cream
Melting slowly in the sun
Eat it while you can!

[Zulegoona]

In the attempt to bring back the gilded age of Moneyed American aristocracy the dreams are sold repackaged and sold again.

If you work and are virtuous you will succeed

If you work hard and are talented you will succeed

If you work hard and network well you will succeed

you work hard if it wasn’t for taxes you would succeed

you work hard, it’s not the guy above you keeping you down it’s the guy under you pulling you down

you work hard, and deserve the good things in life, we’ll give you credit for that

You work hard, buy more things, pay your bills and the rich succeed but that’s ok because a rising tide lifts all boats

the rich succeed , and you work hard,........

but hey you could win the lottery then you’d be rich,..... and when you do you won’t want taxes to diminish your success.

[Zulegoona]

Gees sorry to cause a lull in the thread usually I think of the American dream as a hope life will be better , guess I had hard morning,.....

On with the dream

[Simon of the Playa]

allright, call me selfish, but right now we are experiencing a fucking ice storm where i live, and my current american dream is to move somewhere with a nice, dry heat, and where we steal our water from the mexicans.....

i hear arizona has good shopping...

[oneeyeddick]

Arizona is nice and warm, but Nevada has casinos and whores.
You do the math.

[Teo del Fuego]

instant culture
Disney Man
painted nails, sculpted hands

[erri2000]

Dump Miner

[scootert]

Some good things, in no particular order:
Freedom
Affluence
Diversity
Pioneer Spirit
Innovation
Tolerance
Rock and Roll
Highways (good for enabling commerce, growth, personal travel)
Resources
Television

And some not so good...
Arrogance
Ignorance
Intolerance (we can be both tolerant and intolerant at once)
Carbon Emissions

[Simon of the Playa]

one eyed dick wrote...
"Arizona is nice and warm, but Nevada has casinos and whores.
You do the math."

wow.....when you put it that way it is a no-brainer...

throw in a whole lotta cheap whisky and some gun play, and you got a deal....

bumper stickers from Northern Nevada
........................................................

"I Love(squared)Lock."

"Imlay Falls, Yeah, we're still here"

"Winnemucca WannaFuckya!"

"Elko, at least we're not Battle Mountain"

and my favorite...."YOU are in a State of Denio"

[oneeyeddick]

Thats great !
I lived in Elko for too many years, but it is soooo true.
Battle Mountain is a Blink.
But they have a McDonalds, at least.

[thisisthatwhichis]

BIGGER BOOBIES!!!!! (Bar)..... Ahhhhh, yes, we are going with the "American Dream"..............

Do I get extra points for that?.... ya know, boobies, and all..... er, nevermind.....

[mdmf007]

I have spent too many of my days in Carlin, Elko, BM, Winnemucca, Orovada, McDermitt, Lovelock, Wells, argggggggg.

The desert burns well, and nobody cares - I say let it burn, the feds say put it out.

[MistDance]

Al Gore is a perfect example of the American Dream.
And the Worst -

Thump you fist for a public cause - In public.
At home - Consume 10x the american average and justify it by your station in life.

Win a prize - Flash a smile - Mean nothing more than the next days news flash.

In American, we can be anything we want. Human is usually not the likely dream.

My dream is to be loved for who I am, accepted as what I am, cherrished for being me.
Not everyone will.
Few do.
No one, not even me, can accomplish every dream for a mood may strike and then it changes.
Its a Human dream.
Americans will just put a political tag on it, then a price on it, then a priority on it and then a Headline on it. By the time it hits the market - its old and done, needing plastic surgery and a fresh approach.

I love America!
Honestly.
This is my home, my culture and my family - for good or bad.. the intentions are usually noble but the methods suck.

[hippie_nz]

Needless consumption

2.3 Children

A house thats way to fucking big :)

[Rolan Headon]

Material gameshow mania...too much of everything is not nearly enough, more everything! "Entertain me!" our battle cry, pass the warm gun, the purpose of life IS to increase its speed (Ghandi was a loser), congenital trespassers unite! Injecting white sugar, plastic Jesus, asphalt nation, trite makes right, perpetual instant gratification, God Bless America and nobody else, MF'ers (Me Firsters) and VIFs (Very Important Fucks) lead the way!
And believe it or not, this hope junkie, FBI file probably lost long ago, who if waterboarded will admit TV is better than reality, still holds the dream, flaming in the desert night ...what country are we talking about again?

[Rat Bastard]

The "Have a Coke and a smile" jingle... I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony....
July 4th 1976
Comunism is evil
Then comes "In god we trust"
Mexican Olympic fence hurdling team
Lewis and Clark expedition
The model T
Open a 7/11 on TIF land, sell it to your brother before the TIF deal runs out, have him sell it back to you when his TIF runs out.
IRS
Freedom of religion, as long as it's not one of those ones that the Christian right doesn't understand.
Anyone can start a business
Mickey Mouse
Super Power
Fuck the world, America is always right.
And the ultimate American dream... "Homeless" people at expresway exit ramps ending their day by changing into clean clothes, hopping into their brand new car and driving home to the family. Seen it, and damn it makes me want to do it. They make more then I do. (Which ain't much)

[Ugly Dougly]

A small, cheaply made house in the middle of the plain, painted brightly, but tastefully. Maybe yellow with white trim.

A white picket fence of course, this is the symbol that we all know and love. Astroturf and the sacred pink flamingos.

Approach the windows and peer inside. You'll hear a non-stop story of a dysfunctional family, from ennui to abuse.

Then one night it all goes up in flames to the cheering of the crowd.

[Ugly Dougly]

Free beer tomorrow.

[Finnegan]

Vanilla ice cream
Melting slowly in the sun
Eat it while you can!

Nice!

Indians coughing;
Brand new diseases for you.
Man! Fast destiny!