Episode Transcript
[00:00:11] What's worthwhile to consume, consider, believe, say and do towards peace of mind, vitality of body, and joy of spirit. I'm Ramsey Zimmerman. Here's some more healthy living, motivation and discussion.
[00:00:32] Hey there, it's Ramsay here. There's a really great organization that I follow called Braver Angels. They are all about encouraging people to talk to each other, especially when those people don't agree with each other. Braver Angels host debates online where people don't seek to win, but instead to listen, understand, consider, and to express themselves.
[00:00:54] Their latest debate is about the American Dream. Question is is the American Dream dead or is it alive and well?
[00:01:02] Well, I've got some thoughts on that.
[00:01:07] The phrase the American Dream was coined by James Truslow Adams in his 1931 book the Epic of America. He described it as a dream of a social order in which every man and woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position. Over the years, it basically came to mean that if you worked hard, got an education, and played by the rules, you could move up in the world, get a good job, get married, buy a house, have a family, and live the good life. Just saying that out loud now feels quaint. Work hard or work smart in education.
[00:01:52] College is crazy expensive and trade school is.
[00:01:56] What's trade school? Play by the rules. What rules? Which rules? Whose rules?
[00:02:03] Move up in the world? That sounds like a value judgment about where someone is now. Get a good job. What, with no experience or references?
[00:02:12] Maybe an unpaid internship first. Get married. Have a family. You mean like kids?
[00:02:18] That's making a lot of assumptions about people and their gender and sexuality and whether or not they want to reproduce and bring more people into this world where kids are already starving. And what am I even going on about?
[00:02:35] Like I mentioned, Braver Angels likes to host discussions between people who don't agree. Which is good, because I think people don't agree on a lot of what I was just talking about, let alone the idea of what the good life would look like.
[00:02:50] So maybe let's go there next. Here's what I think the good life might look like. Clearly it would look different for different people, but I'm going to believe it has some things in common. In the good life, we are all connected with people we love and who love us. We know and understand and accept each other, even though we don't agree with each other on everything that is family. In the Good life, we are healthy and joyful. We eat real food and breathe fresh air, get enough sunlight and exercise and sleep. We're energetic. In the good life, we have meaningful, honest, good, paying work. It's not necessarily the best part of our day, but we don't hate it. In the good life, we have a safe, healthy, warm or cool place to live, to call home.
[00:03:37] And in the good life, we don't have constant nagging fear of of loss or pain or being cast out or war or death.
[00:03:47] Instead, we know and understand and love and belong where we are.
[00:03:53] Does that look like the American dream from 1931? Or the 50s? Or even the 80s?
[00:03:59] Probably not for a lot of people.
[00:04:02] Maybe yes, actually, for some people.
[00:04:05] But here's the point. I believe that the American Dream is alive and well in spirit.
[00:04:11] We still care. We still strive.
[00:04:14] We still want to belong.
[00:04:16] We still want to move forward.
[00:04:18] We still want to love and be loved. We still want to succeed.
[00:04:24] Right? And if we don't want some version of those things, then what are we even talking about? What are we doing?
[00:04:34] Look, we all deal with stress. Stress is not the problem.
[00:04:38] The problem is that our body's innate stress response is built for physical challenges instead of the mostly mental, emotional and virtual stresses that we face today. In my book, Stress Response, you'll learn to manage your response to stress in order to reduce anxiety, avoid burnout, and find calm and steady focus. The ebook is available on Amazon and only 99 cents for unlimited time. I After you download, please don't forget to leave an honest review and rating so that others will find it too.
[00:05:11] By its nature, a dream is aspirational. The American Dream is aspirational. It's hopeful. We need aspirations. We need hope. We will be lost without it. Maybe the real question is whether or not the American Dream is attainable.
[00:05:27] Can anyone and everyone pursue it?
[00:05:30] Can anyone and everyone reasonably be able to achieve some version of it? I think that speaks first to opportunities.
[00:05:38] What opportunities are available?
[00:05:40] Who are they available to?
[00:05:42] Who can win those opportunities?
[00:05:45] That comes down to competitiveness, in my opinion. I think in an ideal world that opportunities would be open to all and that people would compete for them and. And those who are best suited or most skilled or the best fit would win those opportunities.
[00:06:01] But I know there is all kinds of bias and disadvantages that people have here in the real world, so I guess I would focus on making people more competitive for the opportunities that they want to pursue.
[00:06:16] Anyways, I should start wrapping this up. You know, in this podcast that I think it's worthwhile to consider what we consume, believe, say and do.
[00:06:27] That goes for what we eat and drink, but it also goes for what we read, see and hear.
[00:06:33] That's why I so appreciate Braver Angels for focusing on, encouraging and empowering people to think about what they hear and what they say, and to engage productively with people they don't agree with instead of shouting at them or running away. You can learn more about Braver Angels at braverangels. Com and you you can watch or participate in their debates. Maybe that will improve your next holiday meal with the family. Whether you need to listen to your crazy uncle or if you are that crazy uncle. And for today, that is enough.
[00:07:09] Ready for more? Visit whatsworthwhile.net to listen to podcast episodes. Master your response to stress by reading my book, Stress Response, available through Amazon, or to get better before burnout sets in by requesting the free guide. Regardless of where you are in your journey, I'd love to hear from you and talk about how we might move forward together.
[00:07:31] Please contact me, Ramsey Zimmerman through the website or on social media like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or X. Thanks.
[00:07:50] Sam.
