power+reflection

"The American dream" can be defined in a number of ways but inhabitants most frequently define it in terms of power: whether that is in the form of fame, wealth, or the American idea of "success," which involves strictly economics. This type of success or achievment of a dream is looked up to by society and desired by the multitude. Positive goals are converted and lives are dedicated to this desire- as shown by the schedules of Benjamin Franklin and F. Scott Fitzgerald's character of Jay Gatsby- as it becomes more appealing through wider publication. Meaningless slogans such as those on the T-shirts are popularly worn with very few questions of their purposes, demonstrating that such desires have become a norm, or possibily //the// norm when all subcategories of personal power are considered. Such power and complete dedication to it is insignificant in terms of anything other than wealth, or superiority, which are insignificant themselves to any means of a genuine life.

"What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do." Bob Dylan

"The goal of man and society should be human independence: a concern not with the image of popularity but with finding a meaning in life that is personally authentic." Tom Hayden, //The Port Huron Statement,// 1962.

commonality