America has had this sense of more ever since the 1950's when our industrial companies were pushed into overdrive to create more stuff. Mostly from oil, but still more stuff. We explored into the (short) reaches of space. We built more buildings than we ever needed. We filled in a lot of the areas usually called wilderness. (Now we call them "urban sprawl".) We now produce more food than we can adequately eat, though many citizens are trying to disprove that.
And yet we seem to have lost a sense of self, that inner emotion that swells one's self with elation. Maybe somewhere in our thoughts we think, or know, that we are not what we want to be. To partly explain what I mean, lets take reality shows as an example. On one end we watch rich people party, do their make-up, argue passionately, argue angrily, and get into fights over the most little things. With consumerism there is a sense that having money is supposed to elevate you above the problems that plague you. Now we are shown that those problems will never leave you, that money will only change you into something worse.
Then the other end shows people without much money doing crazy stunts, pranks, and other activities some would call infantile. These reality shows are driving home the point that the lives of the underprivileged are too slow or not satisfying enough, that crazy stunts are the only solution to their lives.
Note this is what I'm getting from these shows. But here is what I want to ask from this activity: where is the good from being underprivileged or from being wealthy? I'm not sure I'm seeing the "poor" being portrayed well or accurately. And I'm sure there are wealthy people out there who are working hard and using their free time for more austere activities.
Where are our hopes and dreams in these shows? Where are those poor who think about getting themselves out of the poverty they are in? Where are the rich who think about the country's future and not just about their bottom line? Where are the shows that focus on these people who actually think about the future?
Where are they? These people might be drowned out by the media blitz that reality TV drowns out daily. There might actually be shows about how to change the future for everyone but I have yet to see a commercial for this type of show.
I want every American to feel that the future is going to be awesome, but we as a society have to stop looking at each other's faults and look to the good in every single person.
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