The American Dream

 

What is The American Dream? Where can it be found? Is it in the Porno-Pop Culture of  Fame? Does it reside in the Shimmering-Limelight-Illusions of Hollywood? Or is it entrenched in East Coast Wealth passed down from Generation to Generation? Is it in the Get-Rich-Quick California kinda dreamin' ? From all the land grabbin' to The Gold Rush to Silicon Valley? Is The American Dream captive of all those bouncing balls in the Powerball Lottery machine? Is it in our hopes for the Next Generation of Americans? Funny that American Dreaming seems always to be on the surface, but the thing about it that isn't so funny is The Native Americans had a dream too, and we extinguished that one. Replacing living, as one with Mother Nature, with some kind of Sadomasochistic Rape & Bondage Theme, a movable feast of fetishes, power, and greed. A dream turned into a nightmare, for these days we have begun to realize we gotta start dreamin' like the dream we extinguished, or the livability of Mother Earth is doomed, and we, along with it. Funny? Not so funny? What they call Global Warming has made even The Hippies of The '60s seem on the right track. The American Dream has to turn from the exterior world of things, which we have surely abused, into the interior world of values, which we have sorely neglected.

 

Now the deal is dreaming is an interior kinda thing and sets up how we relate to reality. Our dreams make sense of the way we live and tell us about the world we live in. Dreams tell us who we are. MLK saw that The American Dream in this kinda way, and his was a dream of interior values. The American Dream of acceptance and equality.

 

The American Empire is crumbling 'like matchsticks into one another' to quote Dylan, who as the Poet Laureate of The '60s was not kind to The American Dream. He got inside her and tap danced around, as Dylan always said, he was just a song and dance man. The only revolution is a Revolution of Consciousness and The Psychedelic '60s pointed to the fact that everything is alive, connected, whole, and sacred. Living is being. The moment timeless. Such dreaming can take us ever deeper into The River of Life. 

 

So are we as Americans going to continue to let The Dogs of Capitalism, psychopathic international corporations, define The American Dream for us? Dumb us down and market her as a shallow whore of consumption ? Will we continue to let the religious dogmas that gave birth to Manifest Destiny, and dominion over all, continue to blind us to the fact that everything is alive and deserves it's place under the sun? Will we forever dream so shallowly? Fitfully? Tossing to and fro? Well? The Smart Boys in Las Vegas always put their money on The Capitalists when they place their bets. The Hippie Way is such a long shot you can always get good odds on that one. Me? I think The American Empire is gonna fall because we were dreaming the wrong dream. We did have a chance in The '60s to start dreaming a different dream, a dream of interior realities, but the intrinsic value of what the young were saying to their elders in those days was ignored, and only met with control, disdain. Thought always trumps love in this World of Illusions, a realm where Maya readily grows and flourishes. It's like this world is supposed to be fucked up. What can go wrong will go wrong. Murphy's Law.

 

So what do you want from this life? What's going to fulfill you? How do you see The American Dream? How do you see things? What do you dream of? It's all about the individual you know. Societies are only as strong as the character of their citizens.

 

There are two links posted below, one is a Wikipedia link to The American Dream, the other a talk given by Krishnamurti. Are we gonna end up like Willy Lohman saying: "I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been."? Are we gonna jump in The Red Shark with our lawyer and head to Vegas from The Polo Lounge, ignoring all the bats along the way, searching for The American Dream? Are we gonna be as accepting as Huckleberry Finn? As loving as MLK? What's it gonna be?

 

 I believe that Americans these days see The American Dream as an interior kinda thing, spiritual values over materialistic accumulation, so to speak, but you rarely get that from the media. Like old Norman Rockwell up there painting his portrait it's a question of how we see things? How do we see ourselves? America needs to take a good look in that mirror. We need to see ourselves as we actually are, because The American Dream may be dead and buried upon the grounds of Robert E Lee's old home, resting by The Potomac River. Arlington National Cemetery. We have to dig her up and breathe new life into her.

 

We need a new American Mythology. One that's alive in the moment. Not the one entombed in the plastic of Disneyland. 

 

 

 

Hey! Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me,

I'm not sleepy and there is no place I'm going to.

Hey! Mr. Tambourine man, play a song for me,

in the jingle jangle morning I'll come following you.

 

Then take me disappearin' though the smoke rings of my mind,

Down the foggy ruins of time, far past the frozen leaves,

The haunted frightened trees, out to the windy beach,

Far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow,

Yes to dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free,

Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands,

With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves,

Let me forget about today until tomorrow. 

 

Bob Dylan

 

 

 

 How can we dream

 The American Dream

 unless

 American Mythology

 wakes up?

 

 

 

Mother Earth

has set

the clock

ticking.

 

 

 

 

The Great American Spiritual Desert 

 

         "Las Vegas is the savage heart of The American Dream." Dr Hunter S Thompson

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Dream#History

From February 6th through the 9th 2013 on Kinfonet....The Krishnamurti Quote of The Day.....gives account of the 5th Public Talk given in Ommen, Holland on the 12th of August, 1938. Just hit.....'next quote'.....and over 4 days you get the entire talk. 

    http://www.kinfonet.org/krishnamurti/quotes/desire-cannot-exist-by-itself-it-must-always-be-in
 

~~~~~America's Big Problem~~~~~

Kinfonet Quote of the Day: Why do you cling to the ideal of freedom when you are in a prison?

If You Were An American Indian What Would Your Name Be?

HALF RIGHT, founder and sole member of The Nobody Tribal Nation, out standing in his field

"Yeah, go ask Half Right and we'll figure out which half he got right." I can hear it now, and as this is a 'mea culpa' of sorts, it is funny how we 'miss the mark' on some very basic stuff~~~or~~~as Dylan put it (from Blood On The Tracks): "Images, Big Ideas, and Distorted Facts." Hell~~~all thought is limited~~~just some thoughts are more limited than others~~~or~~~as my friend Charley used to say to me all the time: "Thinkin' thinkin' the same Stupid Thoughts." When I was young I thought that technology had the inside track on Truth~~~the early days of TV and all that imagery and attributed meaning~~~probably the way kids now days view Facebook and Twitter and all the rest of it~~~but? The description is not the described. The word is not the thing. Imagery is like sunlight flashing off the watertop~~~a very shallow affair. Thought is just an abstraction. Oh I learned how we live here in The Great American Spiritual desert~~~how we judge one another~~~think ourselves different~~~how we see ourselves as better than the rest~~~but there are more similarities than differences among All of Us~~~All Human Beings~~~past, and present. This world that we live in is A World of Illusion~~~Maya~~~and it's impermanent too. My culture schooled me in illusion. And what is The Truth? About This Life? Life is All In This Moment~~~eternity ever flowing in The Now~~~and it's up to each of us to Live In The Here and Now. That is where All Life Is~~~the past and future are just fictions of thought. Be Here Now. Awaken In The Timeless Moment~~~for all is One~~~connected, whole, alive, sacred~~~and One. Listen to The Spirit with All Your Heart~~~and the funny thing is, like me~~~you'll still only be Half Right. But if we all truly lived so transparently together~~~we might get it more than Half Right :)