I’m a fan of Chris Arnade’s newsletter, but the latest post about the (stalled) American Dream just didn’t sit right with me. He travels through the rural US (Wheeling WV, Belmont OH, Bristol TN) and, surprise surprise, finds only disillusioned people who think the Dream is dead. His takeaway is that:
We have an ugly, selfish, winner-take-all culture — devoid of community, meaning, and the majestic — and almost all our policy is built around the notion that individual liberty, with the most stuff at the cheapest price, is the ultimate good.
The article reads like a travelogue of a man shocked, just completely shocked, to find so much snow and little if any sunlight on his July trip to Antarctica. Now I can’t speak to the collective American “we” for I am a mere green card holder — and a recent one at that — but this has not been my experience living in the US these past dozen and some years. I can think of many (large, populous) parts of the the country where the most stuff at the cheapest price has not been deemed the ultimate good, where there is still a sense of community, and where things still can be majestic.
The cheapest-price mentality is a consequence of being poor, not its cause. If it still prevailed everywhere, how could we explain the rise of the farmers' market, of the local bookstore, of Etsy? If none of those had a presence in places that Arnade had visited, well, maybe it’s because they are not compatible with poverty whereas the Dollar General and other discount store chains are. And to be clear — there is nothing wrong with cheap-as-affordable (in contrast to cheep-as-poor-quality): Costco is, unironically, up there with the Internet and 1970s Hollywood as one of the non-material Wonders of the Modern World.
There is also community for those willing to look. Just yesterday I accompanied our rising second-grader to a playdate-slash-class reunion held at a community garden cared for and maintained by 20-some year-old volunteers who donate all the produce. In a few weeks the parents and the kids will meet up to for a neighborhood cleanup. At the tween’s middle school we’ve collected money so that all the classmate can go to the annual field trip, and we’ll be doing the same this year. Our ANC meetings are well-attended, if occasionally contentious, and I consider myself an introvert living in one of the less communal neighborhoods in the city.
I also can’t wrap my head around the accusation that the United States are no longer aiming for the majestic. The new World War I memorial seems like it will be majestic. On the other end of the spectrum, the Sphere certainly is. So is the Olympic medal count. And the most majestic of all is America’s awe-inspiring natural beauty, which it still protects more than most other countries.
But these things aren’t everywhere — you need to travel around to get to the place that’s the right fit for you. Most people Arnade encountered were wizened old souls with not much spirit left in the tank. This is the tradeoff: other places he recently visited, whether in Europe or Africa, were gentler to the people who stayed — because they are the majority! But that is not the American Dream, which promises a safe and comfortable life for those of hard work and determination. Next time Arnade is in the area, may I suggest he visit Pittsburgh and talk to anyone who’s left Wheeling, West Virginia? It is telling that the only person Arnade spoke to who still believed in the Dream was a recent transplant to the area, going from a horrible situation to a slightly less bad one. I can only hope she will continue the journey.