The documentary, The End of Suburbia, paints an interestingly grim view of a coming world without oil in much the same way that Hal Lindsey and Tim LaHaye predict the theological eschaton: The end times are here, and only a fool or a cretin would seek to disbelieve what is plainly written. And much like LaHaye and Lindsey, the prophesied end of the world has been happening fairly continually since the late 1960’s until now, with the actual start date being pushed back incrementally.
There are a number of extremely valid points to be dealt with in the context of the film, amidst what is otherwise an oddly smug pronouncement of doom. Specifically, the sustainability of the American lifestyle is in question for a number of other reasons, beyond the loss of cheap and easily available energy sources. How this is dealt with in coming generations is a question of resource management, global awareness, and the realization of what is truly necessary for a First World existence. Entwined with this is an examination of how the American Dream got us to this point in the first place and how it will have to be modified in the accordant future.
The concept of the American Dream is a heavily laden cultural symbol that is recognizable on a global scale. In one form or another, it represents the potential opportunity of any individual willing to work and sacrifice themselves to be able to achieve some otherwise impossible measure of success. The specifics of what the American Dream promises are fluid and mutable, depending on the time period and the individual in question, but it remains a vibrant and strangely universal constant. Other cultures still see a version of the “city on a hill” ideal that the country was founded upon, and it allows them a different path from what their culture might otherwise have afforded them.
In some ways, it’s the perception of the casteless nature of the American society that draws people to this ideal. In Japan, for example, a person with no experience must work at entry level positions, no matter the level of their skill or education, until such point as they have put in the requisite time needed to move on to the prestigious levels. The same person, coming to the States, would be able to prove their worth in ways other than simply paying their dues in the lower positions. While not a guaranteed result, there remains the potential to be able to vault over the scut work, and to many this represents a form of the American Dream. To a Korean, it would be the ability to live free of a rigidly enforced scholastic hierarchy that exists from the lower levels of elementary school and extends throughout their lives. While not the archetype of the American Dream, it still exemplifies valid perspectives on the idea.
The United States exists on a world stage dominated by other nations whose cultural identities stretch back hundreds or thousands of years. It moves in circles where the landmass of its allies could be easily incorporated into mere fractions of its own, divided into discrete states of greater size than entire other countries. These are necessary factors to consider with any contemplation of the mindset of the nation as a whole. Raised as we were with the ability to seek the land beyond the horizon and know that it is part of our own, we have found ourselves with a wholly alien outlook with respect to how the rest of the world functions. There is always more land to be found or used. Any of us are able to achieve greater potential, largely by trying to do so. Our only limits are the ones that we set upon ourselves.
And to paraphrase Fight Club, we’re starting to realize that this isn’t true. The endless possibilities that were promised us through our years of public school enculturation are only as easily availed as the circumstances of our births allow us. In comparison to much of the world, we are afforded greater than average potential and possibilities simply by drawing breath in the reality of the United States. Certain specifics of survival and continued existence are mostly taken for granted by an abundant majority of the population. But there still exist subtle and rigidly enforced barriers of class and wealth that are strictly unlikely to be overcome, no matter what our reach may indicate.
In an oddly inverse way, some of this understanding may be directly tied to such things as the previously mentioned theological and sustainability eschatons that have been shouted from the rooftops for the last four or five decades. Two generations of Americans being subjected to the doomsaying prophets of the Cold War and its aftermath have likely wrought a serious amount of havoc upon the collective psyche of the American Dream, bringing about a culture that actively seeks its own end, if only for the relief that it would provide. If nothing else, the end of the world would shut up all of the smug men who make such a living making such prognostications.
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