Hope, Dreams, Destiny

"The defining narrative that Americans have told themselves about themselves for a long time is: anything can happen here, anything is possible," Giridharadas says. "That narrative in America today is in decline. I think it'll come back, but we're not in a good moment for that narrative."
Meanwhile, in India, the idea that you shape your own destiny is gaining traction. "Walking around India, watching TV in India, you feel that India is possessed by a narrative of hope right now and America is not," Giridharadas says.

This from an NPR story about Giridharadas' new book. 

So often westerners think of India as a place of destiny and fate in which one's life is pre-determined by birth and cosmic forces.  This contrasts with Americans belief that in our nation we can each dream of a different life and achieve it no matter what the circumstances of our birth.  If there is destiny, then it is the American destiny to prevail.  Echoes now of the Manifest Destiny for the nation as well as the prospects for individuals.

Here Giridharahas finds that hopeful attitude among Indians even as the American dream seems to be on the decline.

With this in mind, I'm reminded of Stout's Blessed are the Organized.  (See earlier post for link.)  He too is concerned, perhaps even alarmed, about the decline of a specific aspect of American life: democratic participation.  And, at the same time, he offers some hopeful examples of citizens who are successfully engaged in efforts to restore it.