“Convictions are prisons,” Friedrich Nietzsche
“The American dream was a cruel mistress whom presented all people with opportunity, yet even with success made happiness constantly out of reach,” F. Scott Fitzgerald
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"I am a total loser. I have wasted my life…" "I can't do anything right…" "My life is an utter failure…" "I feel that I am absolutely worthless…" "Compared to other people my life hasn't amounted to anything…" and "I don't see the point of going on." You can often hear those cries of anguish, anxiety and utter despair not only from some adults but a growing number of school children who are afflicted with low self-esteem. They accuse themselves of being 'losers' before their life has practically really begun. Some ask themselves in the spirit of Irish poet Seamus Heaney “Is there a life before death?”
Whence all this rising low self-esteem among people with which psychiatric hospitals feel they can't cope? Mental health problems are often put down to biological factors such as inherited genes, false perceptions which children have of themselves or brain damage of some sort—while the strong social, economic and political values of society which shape the influence of people are either ignored or understated. The notion that it is a largely irrational, absurd and unjust society which is driving people over the edge never occurs to many. What if it is the very dominant ideas and views prevailing in society which is partly driving people to nervous breakdowns, suicide, and such low self-esteem? What if the American dream itself and the prevailing dominant ideas of how some define success and failure and judge others are responsible for young people lacking such self-confidence?
The German philosopher Nietzsche once declared that 'Convictions are prisons.' By this he meant that we could negatively perceive our own selves in a very narrow, unrealistic and unfair way. We could also fall in love with abstract ideas so much that we condemn people who don't share those values and even condemn ourselves for failing to live up to those standards. But Nietzsche also meant that with certain convictions we might cease critical thinking and surrender our personal autonomy to, say, an extreme political or religious body. We might stop questioning everything!
What if notions behind the American dream as well as conventional ideas of how we define success and failure are turning our lives into prisons? It is worth at least questioning the validity of such notions and exploring alternative views. By doing this people might discover a new sense of personal freedom and joy! Doors of perception might let light into conviction run prisons and lead to a way out of prisons.
THE AMERICAN DREAM
But what constitutes those dominant ideas and values which families, schools and institutions seek to bring us up in? Without doubt the American dream or rather American dreams still shape so many aspirations. What is the American dream?
The basic idea is that anyone, regardless of his or her origins, status, nationality and station can, via practicing particular virtues such as hard work, persistence, and openness to ideas, obtain affluence and happiness. It might take the form of possessing a good job, affording a good house or acquiring a happy family. In contrast to old Europe where all kinds of class and social barriers prevented social mobility, the new land of America is much more open and flexible to a career of talent. There are countless articles, books and films promoting those ideas.
I even came across a strange American cartoon where an animal is advising another poor animal 'You have to earn respect.' {This means that people who have not earned the right amount of merit or money don't deserve to be respected.}
LOST DREAMS
It has been clear for decades that the American dream hasn't been working for most people. The most trenchant critiques come from authors of American literature such as Jack London, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jack Kerouac, J.D. Salinger, and John Steinbeck. They wrote powerful and moving narratives of people shipwrecked against the rocks of their quests to find contentment. The most honest and serious student of American literature has to confess that the American dream largely remains a distant and remote vision. And not everyone wants to realize the American dream because 'settling down' to a respectable job with a comfortable family sounds pretty boring.
In a largely unknown novel on America called 'The Man who Disappeared', Franz Kafka wrote a novel about an immigrant stumbling into America , becoming homeless, and then finding that America simply replicates the social divisions and inequality in old Europe. In other words, America is just a sort of “Europe Number Two!”
Kareigh White, an American author, writes, 'Given this, and my own experience living in the United States for 21 years, I can confidently say that the American dream is a dead, outdated concept that barely exists in the first place and was created to keep Americans happy about working for money hungry corporations.' Almost half Americans don't even retain savings for a black day (a rainy day). As many as 3 million Americans are homeless and there are countless numbers of Americans working long hours for low wages. Hard work doesn't always boost their prospects!
One of the problems of the American dream is that it is so ambiguous. What does being rich or prosperous mean? Does it mean you own 2 or 3 cars, own a huge house, and you are a powerful person? Does it mean a form of self-realization? Does living the American dream simply mean 'Not giving up?' There is no precise criteria as to what realizing the American dream is because it is riddled by contradictions and incompatible ideas of what is termed success. What if the most powerful man in the world lacks any property or wealth? Does that mean he is 'a loser'?
As more people become disenchanted with an American dream defined in terms of obtaining external goods, others think the American dream is equated with happiness. But the problem with that is happiness can be defined in different ways by different people and a consensus can prove elusive! How can you plan to become happy? Make them smile? And what if a happy society can be compatible with a system based on evil?
Some Germans claim the happiest parts of their lives were in Nazis Germany from 1933 to 1939 until the outbreak of war. They felt an elated sense of purpose and community for all the wrong reasons. It would be better if people made the main goal of life to practice attempting to be good by being honest, helping others and not becoming a murderer or thief.
As Alisdair MacIintyre argues, “The main thing is to try and practice the virtues and serve the good rather than seek to be happy.” Making others happy is important but it has to be subordinated to doing good. There is nothing to stop a society from turning itself into a community of happy hapless egoists.
WHAT DO PEOPLE DEFINE AS SUCCESS?
If you look at how people differently define what is success and failure things can get more complex. It is sufficient to take a simple example. While some Americans would view the acquisition of property, possessions and money as indicators of success, Buddhists in America and elsewhere would view it as a sigh of failure.
For Buddhists the idea is to avoid or at least be relatively free of strong attachments. They would view the aim of the American dream as one unwanted strong attachment. Both might even accuse each other unfairly of being 'losers.' From an “American dream viewpoint,” Jesus Christ could be condemned as 'a loser.' After all Christ never attained wealth, political power, or worldly riches. He was arrested and hung on a cross just like 'a common criminal.' Striving to become a good person might turn yourself into what others would define as 'a loser.'
The Scottish philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre wrote that the practice of virtues could lead to a person being deprived of a good job and home. He wrote 'Yet notoriously the cultivation of truthfulness, justice, and courage will often, the world being what it is, bar us from being rich, or famous or powerful'{“After Virtue,” by Alisdair MacIntyre, 2004. London: Duckworth, p. 196}.
I think that in schools children should be encouraged to freely discuss the complexity of those questions so that they become less judgmental. For we live in a society that is so over-competitive it rigidly and absurdly divides people into 'total losers' and 'total winners.' But this is a myth. The idea that there is a wholly self-sufficient person who does not owe any success to his family, friends, colleagues or strangers represents a fiction. All success is shared! And all failure is also shared.
A Russian philosopher Nicholas Berydaev stated, 'Another person's material problem is my spiritual problem.' The all or nothing approach that a person is either a total winner or loser is surely short-sighted—and myopic—in this complex world. Every one of us has won a little victory in our lives. The problem is that some people might succumb to peer pressure and take bad words too much to heart and go on to internalize those views. A person should not be too hard on himself and accuse himself of being a total loser.
WHAT NIETZSCHE SAID!
The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche must be one of the most misunderstood philosophers. In the Soviet Union, he was dubbed 'the father of fascism' which is nonsense to anyone who has assiduously read his works. In one of his works 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra,’ Nietzsche gave some thoughts to how some people might feel shattered about not achieving their goals. He consoled them with the following kind words:
“Timid, ashamed, awkward, like a tiger whose leap has failed: this is how I have often seen you slink aside, your Higher Men. A throw you made had failed.
But what of that, you dice throwers! You have not learned to play and mock! Are we not always seated at a great table for play and mockery?
And if great things you tempted have turned out failures, does that mean you yourselves are - failures? And if you yourselves have turned out failures, does that mean - man is a failure? If man has turned out a failure, however: very well! Come on!'
{“Thus Spoke Zarathustra,” by Friedrich Nietzsche, 1969 printing. London: Penguin Classics, p. 303}.
Nietzsche is saying not to take life too seriously and that there is nothing shameful about failing. He even considers failing as a kind of heroic feat. So failing can turn out to be succeeding—and vice versa. In his eyes, a person is far from being a 'total failure.' He states, 'And no wonder you have failed and half succeeded, you half broken men! Does there not strive and struggle in you - mankind's future?' {Ibid, p. 303}.
Nietzsche advises people to laugh at themselves, don't take life too seriously and consoles the person who believes he is a hopeless loser by claiming he has won some victories in practicing 'good little perfect things.' He states that people by setting good little things around them will heal their own hearts. They will also heal the hearts of others! He claims many things are still possible. Of course, all this may be at odds with other theatrical statements made by Nietzsche which will strike people as over the top and irrational.
But I think he is spot on when he inspires people to question their own reflections over whether they have failed in life or not. Here the humanist looms up to console wounded people!