American Dream

Recently, people were asked, “What is the American Dream? Was their still an American Dream?“

Most people said that if you work hard, you get rewarded.  Others said that it was about having a job — any job.  Some said it was not being homeless.  The answers to the question had a pretty low threshold.  As a child, I was taught to believe that America was the land of opportunity, where dreams could come true.  But the notion that America is the land of dreams doesn’t make sense.

We’re told to think that we need outer freedom in order to have inner freedom.  That’s backwards;  inner freedom produces outer freedom.

The American Dream (or the human dream) needs serious redefining. The entire dream mentality is covered with win-lose mental vomit.  Those who have succeeded in fulfilling their dreams in the past came to hold an elitist mentality.  They felt that their accomplishment took them out of the illusion.  They got an exemption from reaping the shit that their own beliefs had sown.  They convinced us that they could pass that exemption on to their children.  And they became quite accomplished at projecting their beliefs on to others since their power caused people to believe any old thing they said.

Thus wealth, fame, or royalty carried with it an unspoken exemption from the ordinary problems of life.  It buys false power, but it doesn’t buy true freedom, peace, or joy.  The only love they get is false love and blind worship.  Lady Di did us the favor of exposing the illusion that marrying a prince is happily ever after.  Sorry Cinderella — the physical prince isn’t the answer.

False Freedom

Within the illusion, everyone feels powerless; what we think we want is to be heard and to have our rules followed even if they are selfish and harm others.  We want our religion to be the one.  We want our country to be the biggest and best.  We want everyone to say, “You are the ONE.”

But that’s not freedom.  Even the most powerful in the illusion are always aware that they could fall like Humpty Dumpty at any moment.  Elitism only has the power that others give it.  Strip away those worshippers, fans, and faithful followers; and they lose it all in the blink of an eye.

That’s why it often looks like there’s an elite conspiracy.  The winners want to keep their beliefs in power because that’s all the power they have.  They fear exposure more than anything else in the world.  Exposure is death to the false self.  We’re their worst enemy when we see clearly that the emperor has no clothes.

Real freedom happens when you let go of the illusion.  As you stop feeding it, it loses power.  At first it loses power over you; but then you help others; and it loses power over them.  Eventually, it loses power over lots of people; and then what happens?

Look at who loses if the guy sitting on top of the elite’s power pyramid loses the very illusion that holds him or her up.  They fall on thine ass.  Their lack of real power is exposed.  The elite have all the beliefs that you and I have.  They just top their manure with Haagen-Dazs.  As long as we give their “Your Special” beliefs power, they win.  When we stop, they lose everything that made them special.  And it might be the best thing that ever happened to them.

The reason we often resist giving up our beliefs that “they’re special” is because we’ve not yet let go of the hope that we might one day be special.  We must realize that we don’t want elite specialness because it has no true value.  Then it’s easy to let go.

Level Confusion

When one is an elitist, they view themselves above the trash heap of the world.  As we let go, something different happens.

Our level confusion comes undone.  At first, the illusion seems oppressive and huge.  But if we keep realizing it isn’t true, we see through the illusion.  We aren’t impressed by or afraid of false selves in power.   Our mind sees causes; and we heal the causes, not the effects.  We come into contact with those we can help, and we don’t come into contact with those we can’t help.  Life does the sorting, not our mind.

The elite no longer look powerful, strong, or brave; they look lost and powerless.  Men that used to look big and scary, look small and weak.  You can see who they’ve chosen to be.  It’s sad because you know they’re not that stupid mask, and you want to rip it off and love them.  But often, they’re afraid of losing their mask — it’s all they’ve got; and you look like an enemy if you expose them.  But if you don’t expose them, they’ll never get real freedom, joy, or love.

They aren’t evil at the core; they just don’t feel the emotions that their own thoughts are creating until you stop accepting them.  When you stand in your True Self, their false self is defeated.  They become (holy shit — I’m going to use the N word)  NORMAL.

We start by letting go of our beliefs (the ones they convinced us were true), and we become our True Selves — the place where we’re all equal and valuable.  When there is enough real people in the world, the pyramid of power will cave in and life will be fair again, borders will fall, and love will reign.

As people let go of the illusion, they get creative.  They aren’t trying to solve problems; they’re innovating something new.  They gather others of like mind or talent, and they make dreams come true.  That’s the human dream — to express our gifts and talents, to share them with the world, and to contribute in a way that’s win-win for everyone.  And that can happen anywhere — not just in America.