You’d think that would be a big part of it. But most of us are afraid, or too cynical, to embrace that possibility. (I’m one of them.) And no wonder - there is a lot of lip service paid to following your bliss, but it is not part of our ethic. It just isn’t.
Cracked's editor: World events driven by our laughably huge underestimation of effort for everything
That, and there’s a fair amount of work that needs doing, but isn’t particularly fulfilling. I don’t find cleaning the cat box fulfilling, and I don’t think that’s because I’m cynical (though I am cynical, so maybe that is it). But the cat box still needs to be cleaned, regardless of whether someone finds fulfillment in doing it or not.
If you really wuv on those kittehz, I suppose the task could conceivably rank as high as “not too bad, considering.”
Late 70s to early-80s America. We were too busy memorizing “A Dream Deferred” and skipping world history chapers to practice transcendental meditation for that sort of Yankee Doodle claptrap, man.
Really? You’ve never heard of the myth? Huh, around here we call it:
The American Dream
Right. But people will remember and glorify the one in a thousand that does, and use him as an example to the others. “He did it, why can’t everyone?”
Among educators and from the media, I’ve never heard it referred to in anything but disparaging terms, no. ETA: Among others, I’ve never heard it referred to, period. It seems to be a phrase whose only purpose is to negate what it purportedly describes.
I think it’s true that being really good at anything takes much more effort, especially sustained effort, than people appreciate, especially when they are young.
Part of growing up for most of us is realizing that we don’t have the exceptional talent to be a star performer, and finding a field of endeavor that will allow us to make a living despite being average. Or close to it.
The notion of what constitutes an acceptable level of material success has always interested me. I tend to come in at the low end of the scale apparently, but then I’ve never been very well socialized.
What I perceive from watching the people I work with is a financial situation that is truly difficult (low starting pay, lots of college debt), but is made much worse by an unrealistic set of expectations about what a college degree will get you.
The things that most new hires struggle with the most seem to be the car and the living situation. To a person, every new hire goes out and buys a new car. Dealing with unreliable transportation is very difficult, and we all have to get to work on time every day. However, they don’t just buy transportation, they buy a life style. They usually buy a car or truck that is at least $25K.
The same reasoning seems to apply with housing. I lived for years on the cheaper east side of town. The housing is older there. Some of the neighborhoods aren’t quite as nice. But the crime rate is not bad outside of one or two well known areas. A new hire was complaining about the high cost of housing near our employer. I offered that there were a lot of inexpensive houses on the east side of the city. The reply: “Oh, I could never live there.” No reason why.
Most people I know are caught up in trying to support a lifestyle they can barely afford, and young people in particular seem to be particularly prone to believing what they see on TV. Not so much the overt stuff. More the background expectations.
(It would be an interesting exercise to see if there is any correlation between the desire to project a well-to-do life style with the desire to not be a prey animal)
Walt
The question of whether desire for social status has an evolutionary explanation is an interesting one.
People who have a lot of power and influence usually also have many material posessions. People associate money and nice things with status. It is interesting since some people seem to think that just getting the things will lead to the status instead of the other way around.
Kind of like a cargo cult.
I’m going to have to join Koxinga in calling bullshit on the idea that this myth is believed by any significant amount of people. I’ve only ever heard it referred to as a myth.
(Well, ok, I’ve heard it used surprisingly often to describe someone’s life before they were murdered, on those true crime shows. “With a great new job, beautiful wife, and a newborn daughter, Roger thought he was living the American Dream. But things were about to take a horrifying turn. Within a week, his mutilated corpse would be found by the side of County Road 256.” But this is clearly using the myth as a contrast to the reality. In other words, it supports the idea that the myth of the American Dream should not be believed, even if it implies that someone deluded themselves into thinking it was real for them.)
I don’t think anyone really believes that hard work guarantees success, or that reward is always proportional to effort. I would agree that many people have unrealistic expectations, though.
That is absolutely the bullshit preached by the political right. Anyone who is poor is poor because of his own lack of effort. Anyone who is rich is rich because he earned it it.
I dunno. I’m sure there are plenty of non-rich right-wingers who blame their economic woes on Obama’s economic policies, instead of their own lack of hard work or education.
And how many of those people think that, say, Bill Clinton (or Al Gore) deserves all his money because he earned it honestly?
I think there’s a big difference between thinking, “I’m successful because I work hard” and “every successful person worked hard to get there; every hard worker will be successful”. Lots of people believe the first, but I don’t know anyone who believes the second.
I don’t know, I think the article hit on some real truth.
You’re always hearing platitudes about how the important thing is choosing to do something. That deciding what you want to do is the big obstacle. As this article points out, that mindset is ridiculous.
Deciding what you want is usually one of these easiest steps in the process of obtaining some goal. Actually doing the work that is required to obtain that goal is where the real effort is.
You see people saying something like “I want to own my own my house” or “I want to have my own business” or “I want to get a college degree” or “I want to write a novel” or “I want to meet my soulmate” and then act as if the mere declaration of this desire is a significant step in achieving it. And as the article pointed out, the media is a big part in convincing people of this fallacy - it shows people making dramatic stands like these and then achieving their goal before the end of the movie.
No doubt, but I’d dispute that this mindset is called “the American Dream.” Any member of the generation that lived through Depression would call this humbug for what it is. I sure didn’t get much encouragement to be my own special snowflake from my people my parents & grandparents ages. They’re the ones who fretted if I watched TV while I was doing my homework and practically went into a panic at the suggestion I was incurring credit card debt.
One thing I always say is “work smarter, not harder”. It’s not hard to understand, but people often forget this, so caught up in working harder that they are.
. . . According to you, hardly a neutral observer of what “the political right” says about anything.
IMHO, the American Dream means that those who work hard are putting themselves in a position where they are more likely to reap rewards. It may not happen, even with hard work. But it sure as hell won’t happen if you just sit on your ass and grouse about how the American Dream is bullshit.
And you have to remember that whatever mythology is there (genuinely part of the American story from at least the 19th century onward), it’s probably set up in contrast to class-centric societies where it really doesn’t matter how hard anyone works if they don’t have the correct family background.
There’s no guarantee that an intelligent, hard working black kid born in a far-flung island province to a mixed-marriage couple (one of them not even a citizen) will one day become the leader of the nation–but unlike some places it’s not unthinkable.
Heck, even someone with Bill Clinton’s family background could never practically attain so much as a Cabinet position in the UK or France, I’m guessing.
I don’t think the supposed myths of meritocracy or hard work or opportunity or have that much to do with it. I think the self-esteem myth, which nobody has mentioned yet, is mostly responsible. Just thinking or saying you’re wonderful isn’t going to get you anywhere. Neither is being praised for lousy work like a child being praised for his/her crude crayon drawing. True self-esteem arises from accomplishment and demonstrated ability.
There are no guarantees, of course. Ecclesiastes was absolutely right: “…the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong[sup]1[/sup], neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
- to which Damon Runyon added, “not always, but that’s the way to bet.”