American Dreams
A European reflection on a lifelong connection to the United States
AMERICAN DREAMS 🇺🇸
When I was eight, America was a magical place. It was unreachable and unreal. My father had been there in '71 and brought a small booklet with photos of Disneyland; I still remember each photo.
At 20, I traveled by bus from NYC to California and loved every minute of it. After two months, I returned by bus and reluctantly picked up my studies again in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Throughout my thirties and forties, I frequently revisited the States for work on the East Coast or exploring New England, the American West, and beyond.
At 48, I lived in New Haven, Connecticut, as a World Fellow at Yale University.
By 58, I had spent years in Canada, acquiring a broader North American perspective.
Today, as the United States decides its future, I wonder where the country lost track of its intended path. Despite my extensive experiences living, working, and traveling there, I can't explain how it got so extreme.
Much of the dream has faded. Studies reveal that the chances of achieving the classic American dream are now far higher in Europe than in the US. Daily, I witness the hatred, calls for violence, and families fracturing due to polarization in American society. I see the toxic exchanges on classic social media; it's why you increasingly find me here in this anger-free environment of Substack.
At 59, I am on my beloved island to read, write, and reflect. Far from this tranquility, America votes today for joy or anger, wisdom or impulsivity, respect or misogyny, and the preservation or demise of democracy.
My eight-year-old's Disney-inspired vision of America never truly existed. However, the America I discovered during that transformative summer of 1986 was authentic. The friendships I've forged across the US since then, the awe-inspiring landscapes, and the unique culture all remain real.
I would regret losing this version of America—the one I've come to know intimately over the past four decades. I write this as evening descends on my European island; I anticipate waking at night to check the news.
I fervently hope that wisdom prevails.
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Some paid subscribers are not on Substack notes. Therefore, I shared this long note as a newsletter so that everyone would receive it (perhaps you would prefer me to say that I shared this short newsletter as a long note).
Hoping America will one day again be magical
Your picture of the Tetons in Wyoming is amazingly well composed and brings back many memories. Thank you.
Folks who have never traveled beyond their immediate confines, or even into an adjoining state or country, will never understand the true meaning of possibilities, like seeing the Tetons in summer or in all four seasons.
I had hundreds of conversations with people in Southern California during the 60 years I lived there who have never been to Yosemite National Park, the Anzio Borrego state park to see the incredible spring bloom of billions of tiny flowers, driven up Hwy 395 to see the Eastern Sierras and the highest peak in the continental US, Mt. Whitney, that is only a few miles from the lowest point in the continental US in Death Valley. All of these places are less than 300 miles from Los Angeles.
Most of those people could not even imagine taking trips to see these places. They are too busy surviving the high cost of being fleeced by corporate America and oligarchs in every aspect of their lives and have no perspective how, or even if, there are other possibilities because that’s how life has been for them and their families for generations. Boiling frogs starting with cold water is similar. They don’t appreciate they’re being cooked until it’s too late to escape.
Then, your comparison of the achieving “The American Dream” in America as opposed to the relatively better prospects in Europe or elsewhere is even more stunning. Americans are more like plow horses than they or popular dogma allows them to see or believe. The job of a plow horse is to pull a plow to eat, have a house, raise children, own a car, etc., on repeat every day. Critical thinking is not part of a plow horse’s job description, nor is travel unless it’s job related.
The proof for my observations is and has been playing out in the 2024 election cycle. Freedom is touted as one side’s goal, but freedom from or about what? Not having to make voting, medical or healthcare choices because those decisions have been or will be made for them? Freedom to elect candidates owned by corporate America and the oligarchs through billions of campaign dollars? Freedom from laws specifically engineered to take away the individual person’s constitutional rights under the Constitution and grant them to corporate America and the oligarchs. Or, merely thinking critically about their plow horse circumstances and contemplating emigration to places where those freedoms are rights and corporate exploitation isn’t allowed.
Your possibility comparisons are poignant and spot on. Again, thank you. I’m hopeful that the younger cohorts of Americans can crawl out of the cooking pot in time to see them and act before being turned into mindless plow horses. If Trump is elected, their odds of escape will diminish exponentially.