The American Dream is the ‘soul of еру American politics.’ The notion stems from the Declaration of Independence, the text of which says that all people are equal and have an unalienable rights granted to everyone. The right to life, the right to liberty and the right to pursuit of happiness are among them. The striving for happiness is the American dream (Kamp, 2009).
The spirit of the American Dream is the belief that every person, if he/she works hard, this person would be able to achieve the well-being, which he/she deserves, because he/she has all the possibilities. By implication, it is actually the sum of the American values – the belief in the individual liberty, free enterprise and equality before the law, which certainly leads to the desired result.
There is no the exact definition of the American dream. That why many American writers give their own meaning of the American dream in their works. I will try to consider the term ‘American dream’ through the prism of the Declaration of Independence and David Simon's essay ‘There are Now Two Americas.’
On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence of the United States of America. The Declaration of Independence not only explained the reasons which led the Americans to the separation from the mother country. It was the first document in the history, which proclaimed the principle of the sovereignty as the basis of the government. Declaration provided the people with the right to revolt and overthrows a despotic government, proclaimed the basic ideas of democracy – the equality of people, their ‘unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’ (The U. S. Declaration of Independence).
The US Declaration of Independence in its text creates the strong principles and values, the pursuit of which and their implementation became the American dream. Declaration declared the right of everyone to the realization of the American dream. Besides, the Declaration refers to the creation of public bodies whose main task is to ensure that everyone's right to the pursuit of happiness will not be broken (Kamp, 2009).
The Declaration does not say that everyone has the right of happiness. It states for the right to pursue for the happiness. In other words, it only provides a secured by the state possibility of an individual to want to be happy and to do something that will eventually make him/her happy (Kamp, 2009).This is the American dream. Yes, it is exactly a dream. The dream is a certain feeling of wanting of something concrete, for which the person is ready to act in order to achieve the Dream. The Declaration secured this aim (the happiness) and gave the right to act in order to achieve this aim.
In 1776, the Declaration introduced the right of Americans to the American Dream. Meanwhile, what about the real achievement of this dream in our time and what are the future prospects of the achieving of it? These are the questions raised by the famous American writer and journalist David Simon in his speech in Sydney.
In his speech, Simon harshly criticized the US reality, referring to the deleterious effects of the capitalism, which is not able to meet the needs of the whole society. The cure for this ‘a horror show’ Simon name the harmonic connection between capitalism and socialism (Simon, 2013).
After analyzing the performance of Simon it is possible to say that he is right. Capitalism is the main economic system of the USA. It has a number of advantages and negative factors, the manifestation of which is investigated in detail by Simon (Simon, 2013).
The main thing of capitalism is the profit and money. The profit and money substituted the concept of the happiness. In other words, the more money a person has, the more he is happy and vice versa. The market relations have become the main instrument of the profit. So, if you want to be happy and have a lot of money, you should go and work or sell (Kamp, 2009).
However, whether or not this is the American dream? - May be. Here is an example. In order to increase the profits a businessman, using the illegal schemes, evades taxes. As the result, the profits increased, a businessman is happy and the American dream is achieved. However, the state received less in taxes and because of that would cut funding for boarding schools, which caused the fact that the orphans become to be less happy. What is about the American dream of orphans? An entrepreneur did not think about it (Cullen, 2003).
In the view of the foregoing, it is clear that the American dream under capitalism is selfish and does not lead to anything good. Simon is talking about the fact that it is necessary to achieve the American dream, but we must not forget about the same American dreams of our neighbors, colleagues or other members of society. The presence of such social relationships is caused by socialism, when one thinks not only about his own happiness, but also understands the necessity of the existence of the public happiness (Simon, 2013).
Summing up the above mentioned, we can say that every American is granted with the right to achieve the American dream. However, it is not worth to be selfish, and even more to achieve the own dream impeding another person.
Works Cited
Cullen, Jim. The American dream : a short history of an idea that shaped a nation. Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Dehli Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi São Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.
Kamp, David. Rethinking the American Dream. Vanity Fair, 2009. Avaliable at http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2009/04/american-dream200904.
Simon, David. There are now two Americas. My country is a horror show. The Guardian. Retrieved 15 December 2013.
The U. S. Declaration of Independence, 1776. Print.
