New Project: Chapter 9
On a hot summer night in 1982, I got a taste of my future. On stage, Jimmy Cliff strummed his guitar wearing a yellow tee-shirt, green pants, and a multicolored headband. A dense crowd packed the small arena. In front of me, a woman undulated to the reggae beat, bare midriff glistening and long, brown hair swinging. Pot smoke curled toward the ceiling and bodies pressed against me, trapping me in place. A man edged his way through the crowd, intent on the woman. His eyes didn’t waver from her naked flesh. Finally, his hands encircled her waist and he thrust his hips against her butt. She stiffened, glanced behind her and, for a moment, horror crossed her face. Then, she grinned, tossed her hair, and turned her attention back to the stage. They danced together, bodies tight, for the duration of the song. When it ended, the man turned and disappeared. I couldn’t see where he’d gone.
At fourteen, I didn’t understand what I’d witnessed. I hated the man, burned him into my memory – all scraggly hair and unkempt mustache hanging loose over yellow teeth. I hated her, too – body slick with sweat under a crocheted halter top, curve of hips above low slung jeans, ass swaying like a finger beckoning. He wanted. She gave. He got.
I glanced at my mom, who stood next to me. Her expression registered no complaint. I took that to mean the event was harmless, but it stayed with me. So did the song.
You can get it if you really want
But you must try, try and try, try and try
You’ll succeed at last…
This is the problem with the American Dream. We are guaranteed the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Inherent in those rights is the ability to rise beyond our station and be equal under the law, but over the years equality has become less important than liberty. In fact, our system is designed to ensure equality never happens. In her book, Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality, Danielle Allen says, “Equality has always been the more frail twin, but it has now become particularly vulnerable.” She goes on to say, “Matters have gone so far, in fact, that we have even failed to notice the disappearance of the idea of equality from our interpretations of the Declaration [of Independence].”
The promise of our forefathers has been twisted into a fairy tale: you can get it if you really want, but you must try. Should you fail – at marriage, in business, as artists or lovers, daughters or mothers – it’s your fault because you didn’t try hard enough.
Today, neoliberal capitalism has honed the fairytale, added new monsters, and promised greater glory than the Declaration ever did. The Free Dictionary defines neoliberalism as: A political theory of the late 1900s holding that personal liberty is maximized by limiting government interference in the operation of free markets. It favors free trade, privatization, minimal government intervention in business, reduced public expenditures on social services, etc.
In a nutshell, uninhibited capitalism is how to actually achieve the American Dream.
It’s a lie, of course. Uninhibited capitalism fosters unbridled greed, radical abuse of power, and governments on bended knees. The free market has replaced traditional aristocracy with corporate kings, but the endgame is similar. The feudal system is rising again, even as the allure of neoliberalism blinds us to its reality. Feudalism is entrenched in our collective memory. Its order makes a sick sense that we permit because neoliberalism promises us a way out or, rather, a way into the new aristocracy. We, too, can get rich if the government will just get out of our way and do its intended job of policing the ne’er-do-wells that threaten our very liberty. Wealth, power, and happiness are ours if we work hard, play the game, and understand the rules. Our actions determine what we get and what we get determines our worth.
You can get it if you really want – the husband, the promotion, the raise, the house and two-car garage, the child, the dishwasher, and sweet young dog. Neoliberalism promises that skills and experience are less important than attitude. Nobody’s gonna give you a goddamn thing. You got take it, baby. As Seth Godin says, we’re in a connection economy and you have to choose yourself if you want to get ahead.
Except the system is rigged. The ne’er-do-wells, those people, are always at our backs trying to take away our liberties and prevent us from getting what we want. For conservatives, those people are women, minorities, the poor, the intellectuals, and LGBT communities. For liberals, those people are the rednecks, ignorant illiterates, corporate tycoons, and faith-based communities. At war with each other via Facebook barbs and Twitter bombs, the lower and middle classes are lost. The country is a tinderbox.
Religious freedom. Reproductive freedom. Freedom to marry. Freedom to go to the bathroom unmolested. Freedom to carry a gun. Freedom to not get shot. What I want destroys what you want. If I get it (whatever it is) you lose it. In order for me to get it, someone’s got to give it. If they do, I’m worthy. If they don’t I’m not good enough. The situation is no-win.
Neo-liberalism depends on the population valuing liberty over equality for its existence because equality requires liberty, empathy, and economic independence. As long as people are valued according to what they can get, they will be controlled by those with the power to give. So what if we shift it? What if we take that power for ourselves? What if we endow ourselves with privilege taken with the attitude that forged our constitution? What if, instead focusing on what we get, we focus on what we give?
The system that oppresses us is also the system capable of liberating us. The tenets of our Declaration and Constitution are a bedrock for equality if we are willing to accept the responsibility equality demands. Every time we focus on what we get, we give someone or something power over us. If I want more romance in my marriage and expect my husband to give it to me, I give him power over me and my marriage. If I want to get more business, get that raise, get into that exhibit, or get that job, I give my power to the people who can make it happen. Often, they don’t want that power. Often they don’t know what to do with it. Often, they’d give it to us but don’t know how. Regardless, power over is dangerous. If we want equality, we must empower ourselves.
