The American Dream Is Dead

As a Romanian born in the mid-80s, during Nicolae Ceausescu’s communist regime, my biggest dream, for most of my life, was to move to the US – or at least have the honor of visiting the country.

America was, for me – as it was for so many people from all corners of the world—the land of plenty. The country where dreams came true. The home of innovation and progress. The place where you only had to dream it, and it would happen.

It was only natural to feel this way; everyone my age shared that feeling.

In a place where you woke up at 4 AM just to reserve a spot in a never-ending line for a couple of bottles of milk, it couldn’t be otherwise. And if you were lucky enough to get milk before it ran out (it was never enough for everybody), you then had to join another line – one to get your rationed bread.

In communist Romania, I was around five years old when I would wait for 30 minutes in line, squished between tens of other people, with my bread card carefully in hand. If I lost that card, we lost our bread for the month. My family’s ration was a loaf and a half, cut in front of us. It was barely enough.

At home, we would slice that bread, spread butter over it, sometimes add a bit of onion, sometimes a bit of Vegeta (a seasoning mix smuggled from Serbia), but most of the time just a bit of salt.

We would sit in front of the TV to watch the daily episode of Dallas. Later, we saw Santa Barbara, and as democracy replaced the communist regime, more and more US TV shows and movies became part of our lives. And they were BIG in Romania, believe it or not.

I don’t remember much from the TV series – apart from being madly in love with Pamela, like most boys back then – but I remember the wealth. The luxury. The expensive clothes. The whiskey that was always on hand. The feasts. The perfection.

The perfection of the US. The American Dream.

There were few people in Romania and probably even fewer in Eastern Europe in general, who didn’t have the American Dream. As kids, we played make-believe, based on the glimpses we saw on TV, imagining what life in the US must be like.

But today, for me – and I know I’m not alone – the American Dream is dead.

A Disillusionment Years in the Making

This didn’t happen overnight. Still, I won’t sugarcoat it: the recent US election results were the final drop that pushed me to write this “rant” that people probably won’t read.

People today no longer read, no longer care, no longer have an attention span, and are even less inclined to listen to the unpopular opinion.

I’m writing this with a mixture of disappointment, rage, genuine shock, and a sprinkle of nostalgia.

The American Dream is long gone – and today marks the final nail in its coffin.

Hatred and Negativity on the Rise

Donald Trump’s victory today has nothing to do with him as a person. It has nothing to do with his beliefs (I even wonder if he truly believes everything he says).

Trump’s victory today simply marks in history the confirmation of the elephant in the room: hatred and negativity are taking over the world.

While I generally tend to stay away from politics – not only because I’m no analyst, but because I know people who have beliefs opposite to yours will never validate any of your reasoning – I did dip my toes into these waters in the past.

When Trump first became the president of the United States, back in 2016, I half-jokingly wrote this article inviting US citizens to immigrate to Romania. I also started spamming social media b with Accept’s Fall of the Empire simply because it fit so well.

Of course, the empire didn’t fall.

Looking from the outside, things didn’t change much. Sure, the country became a bit crumpled, but then a worldwide pandemic hit, wars erupted, and the world as a whole became precarious – and crumpled as well.

Yet, America was still doing well – better than most, actually. And this is the funny part – America didn’t need to be made great again. Because it was always great.

Ironically, the slogan “Make America Great Again” now feels like a bad omen, as though the more it’s repeated, the more it reflects a true need for change.

The End of an Era

Will Donald Trump’s new reign destroy the US? Most likely not. Is he the reason I believe the American Dream is dead? Not entirely.

But he chose to be the face that represents this new wave of hatred that more and more people worldwide, not just in the US, are embracing.

People who have never known true hardship, who are used to always getting their way, who are told they’re never wrong. People who never knew what a true lack of freedom means and never understood this:

Hatred breeds hatred and violence and horrible things.

Just like in communist Romania – and the transitionary period afterwards – it’s the loudest who is right, not the one who comes with facts, backed up by data and science.

And this is usually extremely dangerous. Because loud doesn’t mean right. And being wrong – even a bit – can have terrible consequences.

A society that’s becoming more and more shallow

Another problem is that we, the people, have become shallow. Social media manipulates us easily; we are comforted by 15-second videos we binge-watch like hypnotized fools, spoon-fed mental junk, and convinced there’s no nuance in the world. It’s black or white. My way or the highway.

I was shocked watching a rally somewhere in the US where a speaker was berating immigrants from South America. He smugly stated they were “multiplying like crazy” after asking, “Do we have any Latinos in the crowd?” to which many people cheered. And then he said: “See, I told you – there’s so many of them!” (You can watch the video on Youtube here).

It was mind-blowing to see people applauding, laughing, and celebrating this ugliness.

It was even more surprising to see that those applauding and celebrating were the very people he was actually trash-talking. Incredible!

The Dangers of Extremism and Uniformity

Hate speech and hate-mongering, even when used without truly bad intentions and just to gain attention, are dangerous. Any type of message that encourages people to interfere with the safety – be it physical or mental – of others is dangerous.

Anything taken to the extreme – whether it’s absolute freedom or complete control – is dangerous.

It seems we are getting back to hatred, extreme nationalism, and a desire to stifle freedom and suppress true values, just to maintain a misguided sense of happiness among the masses. Or, better said, to make the masses believe that this makes them happy.

Do you know what happens when you keep the masses at the same level, though? Corruption, poverty, lack of progress and even regress, unhappiness, an even higher discrepancy between the classes (even though in theory there are none), unrest, and revolution.

Those who have never stood in line for hours to get their daily ration of food, those who have never been denied a job because they criticized the government, those who weren’t denied to leave the city because their parents criticized the ruling party, those who haven’t had to bribe a doctor for medical care, those who never had to consider stealing as the only way of getting something they actually deserve, those who never had to wonder if simply saying something innocent would get them arrested – maybe singing a song from an “unfriendly” country or mentioning a historical figure not approved by the government… these are the ones who should NEVER claim that these “old ways” are better.

As long as a society cannot accept nuance, it’s doomed to fail. Or worse, it will reduce people to barely human beings whose only purpose is to exist, follow orders, and find no joy in life.

Soon, they too will dream of other places, other countries, where things might be better, where they might find their own “American Dream.”

But for now, the real, the true, the first, the one and only American dream is dead.

No place in this world is perfect, of course. And not everybody is welcome everywhere.

But when you are an adult who grew up with one major dream – that of setting foot in a specific country – and now you wouldn’t even consider it, and especially when you’re not the only one in that situation, you know that an era has ended.

Hard work is no longer enough to make your dream become reality. Economic inequality and rising costs of living combined with a lower quality of life and unfair wages make it impossible for most to afford a decent quality of life, let alone “live the dream.”

Immigrants and other minority communities no longer have the promise of equality and opportunity often feels hollow. Instead, they now face discrimination and an overall political climate that tries to find them as the cause of everything that’s wrong in the country.

In a world where we’re always connected, we are more are more isolated and alone than ever. The rise of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, all filled with disinformation, fake values, and superficial problems make manipulation easier. They also create smaller groups of people that amplify divisive ideas and reduce the likelihood of open-minded, meaningful dialogue.

Even more so, the political discourse now is no longer about the values of unity and opportunity that the American Dream symbolizes – although some claim that that’s exactly the message they’re sending. Instead, the discourse has moved from constructive debates to extremism, hatred and close-mindedness.

As a result, the American Dream is dead. For me and those who remember when the U.S. seemed a beacon of possibility, hope, and opportunity, today’s America, with its growing societal divides and struggles, feels like a shadow of that idealized dream.

And it’s just now that we can honestly, wholeheartedly say that it’s time to make America great again.

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If you made it this far, and especially if you read my entire rant-turned-analysis, thank you. I know I’m just a voice in the void, a nobody from Romania who will never change the world. Maybe I’m not even supposed to – maybe I am wrong and they are right.

But I felt I had to take advantage of this seemingly simple thing that I didn’t always have: the freedom to say what I think, the freedom to say that love and acceptance beat hatred and nationalism.

There are so many beautiful things we should focus our energy on, so much progress to be made, so much of this world to repair, rebuild, and make better than ever. Instead, we’re poking sticks at each other in pointless wars, we’re hating our neighbors and we refuse to grow and get better…

If you agree (or even if you don’t), please share this article with the rest of the world and leave your thoughts down below. But please, keep it civil!