For your next post, I'd like you to reflect on the American Dream as an ideology--as a set of assumptions about American opportunity and capitalism as YOU encountered them growing up. In other words, I'd like you to reflect on how you were socialized into whatever social class you felt a part of (or dissented from) in growing up. What level of success seemed possible to you, or is expected from you? Do you believe in the American Dream today, or do you see it as a myth, a false promise? What was expected from you as far as work ethic, independence, educational level? Were you expected to exceed the position of your parents? Did your parents have any "downclass" fears--anxieties about "keeping up," or lapsing into a lower class, perhaps by marriage, or through badly chosen friends? My mom's downclass fears came out in the form of grammar policing--people who could not speak "correctly" were seen as sort of slovenly and careless--a class to be avoided! How else did class, class identity, or class anxieties figure in your upbringing? Write a healthy paragraph or two with some analysis.If you would rather not discuss your own family in this public forum, then comment on the American Dream instead...is it still with us? Is there anything particularly "American" about it? Is it a myth? etc.
