American Dream: Radio Reflections

HERE the first in an NPR series on the American Dream.

The American Dream is an implicit contract that says if you play by the rules, you'll move ahead. It's a faith that is almost unique to this country, says Michael Dimock of the Pew Research Center.
"When Germans or French are asked the same questions about whether it's within all of our power to get ahead, or whether our success is really determined by forces outside our control, most German and French respondents say, 'No, success is really beyond our control,' " Dimock says.

This bit identifies something we may have underplayed in our class' focus on perpetual dis-satisfaction: the expectation and confidence that satisfaction (success or happiness) is obtainable, more precisely that these are within our personal control.

Current discussion, including the linked story, suggests that this confidence is on the decline.  That observation raises related questions: what is the basis of the confidence and its loss?  How possible has it been for the average American or for most Americans to get ahead in past decades?  And how much of that was in individual's control?

Now I also wonder about the effect of declining confidence on our willingness to be generous to others?  Is it the case that when individuals feel that the deck is stacked against us that we become less willing to give others help?  If so is that because we figure that there is only so much good luck available and we want to keep ours for ourselves?  I recall reading about this notion of limited luck in an anthropological article about fishing cultures, more specifically about pre-modern, peasant Norwegian fisherfolk.

semester's end

The 2010-12 cohort of American Conversations has come to its conclusion.   Students have gone on to their summer's activities.  Some are anticipating study abroad next year.  Others will be back on campus.  The formal program's completion does not signal an end to conversation or reflection upon perennial issues.

I may continue to make posts here on related topics, but only now and then rather than on a regular basis.

on first drafts

This from Patricia Hampl's essay "Memory and Imagination," in which she writes specifically about memoir so the point might need a bit of  adjustment for other genres.  Nonetheless, I offer it at a time in the semester when many students might benefit from the encouragement she gives.

"For me, writing a first draft is a little like meeting someone for the first time.  I come away with a wary acquaintanceship, but the real friendship (if any) and genuine intimacy--that's all down the road

"A careful first draft is a failed first draft.  That may be why there are so many inaccuracies in the piano lesson memoir...

"The real trouble: the piece hasn't yet found its subject; it isn't yet about what it want to be about.  Note: what IT wants, not what I want.  The difference has to do with the relation a memoir -- any writer, in fact -- has to unconscious or half-known intentions and impulses in composition."

The advise, the encouragement?  Well, it is to get something on the paper so that you can think about it and learn from it.  The first draft may not even be worth cleaning up; it may require a new start; but it will have done its work of helping you to find out what there is to be said.

NPR TED talks on Happiness: choice and action

THREE TALKS about happiness:

Barry Schwartz: Does Having Options Make Us Happier?   
Only some of the time, but raising expectations can also contribute to dissatisfaction and having too many options may be paralyzing.   But, my students assert that this is NOT true for them.  At least most of them did and one agreed that when the analysis is applied to buying jeans (the example Schwartz gave from his own experience), she experiences something like paralysis and would prefer not to undertake the task.  Another confessed to something similar when selecting a movie on Netflix.  Others suggested that Schwartz may be accurate for people of his generation, but not for theirs.  They have always had so many choices, so they are not paralyzed or rendered dissatisfied.  In the midst of the exchange, I wondered if the parallel between jeans, or shampoo, or coffees and big ideals is valid.  That is to suggest that dissatisfaction with consumer goods may be debilitating, but dissatisfaction with with the nation's current reality relative to is highest ideals can (indeed should) motivate action.  

Kathyrn Schulz: Why Should We Embrace Regret?  Schulz uses the example of the tattoo she got when she was 29 to explore the value of regret which is not precisely the opposite of happiness.  Rather she suggests that regret can be a reminder that we can do better.  Her remarks are of interest in conversation with our discussion in class about ways to understand Americans' failure to bring our best ideals to reality.  The assertion that honest recognition of that failure can be the basis of renewed effort resonates with her suggestions about the value of regret for individuals.

 

Malcolm Gladwell: What Does Spaghetti Sauce Have To Do With Happiness?   The shift from expectation of universals to recognition of varying preferences for such things as the viscosity of tomato sauce and the taste of mustard and the roast of coffee.  Has this given us more pleasure?  Can insights drawn from research on food preferences be used to promote conflict resolution?

 

Taking a moment for beaming with pride

about the two retrospective panels we've had so far.  Each of the twelve students have returned to a previous reading and offered an interpretation that takes account of our four semesters of work together.  With only five minutes to speak they have had to be concise in expressing their insights; and they have been.  Also impressive: the coherence among them!  Evidently they have been in the same conversation over these months.  They have taken note of a cyclical movement between emphasis on individualism and revival of concern for community.  They have noticed that even linear developments often have periods of regression.  They have commented upon parallels between the experience of distinct groups.  They have observed the interaction of large scale social and political movements with the personal lives of individuals.  They have pointed to the important distinction between seeking commonality and being forced to conform.  Important, rich insights and knowledge that hints at the value of this program.