American Dream
— An Inspired Vision
By Clay Hipp
Thomas Paine, Mark Helprin, and the America that could still be
New England Scenery, Thomas Cole, American — 1839
Not having the talent and ability to find words, and needing words, I look to others for the wisdom I seek. I hope that you find it worthy and perhaps inspiring.
In his work called "Common Sense," Thomas Paine used words that painted his picture of the reasons for the Revolution:
"Men who look upon themselves born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are frequently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions."
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer."
"The more men have to lose, the less willing are they to venture."
What must we do to re-capture the essence of the revolutionary Dream?
What should we be made of, and who should lead us? What vision of ourselves must we adopt to be willing to "venture" — to answer, perhaps, Paine's urgent plea for creating and nurturing a new nation founded in "Liberty and Justice" for all?
In a brilliant novel, Mark Helprin, one of our finest crafters of fiction, tells a compelling story that just might illustrate our way — or has our reality become even stranger than fiction?
Please consider reading Helprin's novel during the election cycle. To pique your curiosity, the plot:
A Prince of Wales does not live up to the standards of the royal family and is sent into exile to redeem himself. He and his mate are parachuted into New Jersey. They have only the clothes on their backs and little money, of which they are robbed. They must forge their way. For a while they are street people, then passengers on a freight train. They work at odd jobs all across the continent. They have come to love their adopted country. Towards the end of their exile, the former prince has the opportunity to comment on his "American" experience.
Here is a portion of what he said:
"How many would-be presidents and presidents-to-be have stood on this figurative spot and begun their speeches with meaningless and formulaic salutations? I am not familiar with such salutations, and even were I, I would not start in with anything but something like a love song to this country….
I believe from knowing each one, that your presidents of late have, unbelievably, failed to know, and to consider the interests of the country and its people as a whole. Surely, this can lead only to disaster. They may know policy and politics but these, even to someone educated in them, are in the last analysis not much more than a game. Thus, the politicians have transformed the life of a nation into a game they play continuously for their own edification. But games are man-made abstractions, as weak as water, with none of the fullness, beauty, and consequence of life.
Life is not a game, nations are not to be gamed, and people are not to be addressed outside their moral complexities. You may ask what this means. It means that if I were to run for the highest office or the lowest, I would not try to find out what you want and then strain to offer it to you. That is what they do, and well.
If only the satisfaction of want could satisfy, then satisfaction would come upon the fulfillment of the first request. But it never does. It merely leads to other needs that lead yet again to others, for in the satisfaction of one desire lies the creation of another. Even were the lies you are told by dishonest men actually true, and if you did truly want what you want, the minute you had it your happiness would depart. This I know because I have had every material and privilege in the world.
The model of a president has been of a man who comes to you like a salesman and promises things. I think the model of a president should be a man who comes to you and says, "This is what I have seen, this is what I believe, this is how I live, and this is what I love." Surely you would know a man better for this than you would know a man possessed of a list crowded with numbers and littered with prostituted oaths.
When confronted with the creature from whom these words spill like jellyfish vomited from the mouths of whales, my reaction has always been that, though I would like to be prosperous, this is not what I am. What about the little courage that I have, the 'honour' for which I strive, my attempts at faithfulness? These are what you should address. Why do you not see them? Why do you not sense the heart of your own country? Why do you reflexively pull away from deep waters whenever inadvertently you glide over them?
…
I have read your Declaration and Constitution… I came to see these are lucid and perfect documents and if you return to them as faithfully as they have served you since the beginning, they will not fail you.
You have neglected them and are unclear about the duties of a citizen and what comes by right. You seem to have forgotten the ancient battles in which you prevailed, and, more importantly, those that you merely survived. You seem to have forgotten that your original principles in a land that was carpeted with virgin stands of trees, and the principles by which you have lived — immaterial and bright, ever-enduring — grew up just as strong and fresh. Return to them. They are waiting for you, as reserves of honor as vast as the stands of trees that once spread without end.
In your beginnings you looked down upon such a spectacle….
Everything I believe about America has its origins in a small farmhouse and on the green of a New England village. Everything I believe about America has its origins in places like that and in the landscape itself."
(Mark Helprin in Freddy and Fredericka.)
Offered for your contemplation and, perhaps, action.
[If you are so moved, please share it with others that you trust and care for.]