Day 5-6: Teeth Like God's Shoeshine

Our generation has had the most comfortable upbringing of any group anywhere at anytime in the past 10,000 or so years* the Earth has existed. Chances are you're part of this generation, which means you have enough of everything you need - food, water, security, sleep, porn. You probably have too much of these things.

* * *

To do something great, you have to aim to do something great. Jordan wasn't born with that jump shot. Steinbeck didn't stumble upon East of Eden. You make the choice to put the work in for the chance at a delayed reward.

You think ambition is ugly, and yeah, it often is, but you have to realize how beautiful it is too. After all, you are a human being. You always aim higher. You have to. You should. 

* * *

You think the American Dream is a sham. You think you can't make it in this country as easily as you used to. Maybe you're right. Maybe opportunity is disappearing in quantity and declining in quantity. Or maybe you're spoiled. Maybe wealth and status and prestige are finite qualities that are all used up. Maybe  this is where ambition meets economics.

You think the United States is in decline. You think jobs should be plentiful and unions should be strong and our boys should be landing on the moon and constructing new interstates and Dick Clark should be on TV. You want to take home a decent day's wages for a decent day's work.

But what is a decent day's work? Fixing sewers? Picking up roadkill? Microwaving McChickens? Writing press releases? Wasting away in middle management? 

* * *

The good news is that you can still have half the American Dream. You can bring home the bacon or you can bring home your soul, but your upbringing dictates that you can't have both. Because as much as you want to meet those higher needs of love and esteem and self-actualization, you have to survive first. And to survive you need money, and to get money you must help run the magnificent capitalistic machine. 

Your dad wasn't as comfortable as you were. He grew up with nothing, but he made it, through some hard work and some good bullshitting. He doesn't love what he does. That never mattered. What mattered was that he still got somewhere. That he gave you that awesome childhood full of chicken nuggets and cable TV he could never have. That he fulfilled his ambition of getting comfortable. That, as a consequence, you were quite comfortable too.

* * *

You won't be satisfied that easily. You need more than you really need. Something more than money (though, of course, you need that too). 

You realize your dad had all of your big hopes and dreams. You realize he wanted to enjoy his work. And when you grow up, you realize that having a job is more important than having a career. That self-esteem is impossible without shelter, that you can't care about morality if you don't have any money. 

You know the job pool is shrinking. What you didn't realize was how much further your expectations shrink it, the dreams the cogs of the capitalism give up, the fantasies you'll have to give up too. 

Maybe it's just part of growing up. Maybe selling out is necessary for survival. Maybe just because things are doesn't mean they should be.

* * *

So: what to do? 

Maybe you should lower your expectations. Maybe you should get used to manual labor. Maybe the 75-year-old woman scanning your Wal-Mart purchases shouldn't make you sad. Maybe that will be you in all those years. 

You should probably get used to the new economics of America. You should probably worry that your goddamned ambitions might well go unfulfilled.