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The American Dream: Curated or Uncurated?

Rodin
@Rodin
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It seems to me that the fundamental political struggle in America could be encapsulated in this post’s title.

A “curated” dream is something someone else chooses for you, arranges, facilitates, and ultimately controls. It ensures your life conforms to the curator’s guidelines, expectations and desires. It is comfortable for the many who are uncomfortable making their own decisions, uninterested in being responsible for their own outcomes, not wanting to be accountable for their actions.

The uncurated dream is the opposite. You manage your life with all your God-given freedoms. You own your accomplishments and your failures. Your pursuit of happiness — so long as you operate with respect to others, not depriving them of their God-given rights — is not constrained.

There are no free lunches. Everyone operates in a world of trade-offs. Those who promote or desire a curated American dream want to pretend trade-offs don’t exist, that free lunches are everywhere — it’s just that mean people don’t want you to have them.

The curated American dream is dross, disguised as gold.

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Discussion (25)

  • Susan Quinn@SusanQuinn
    Our museums are in the business of "curating," and they have abandoned their responsibilities. We have relied on them to educate, but instead they are presenting ugly propaganda. And people latch onto it because, as you say, they are afraid of exercising their own power. It's really a tragedy: taking responsibility for the whole of our lives is so empowering and positive, even including wins and failure. So many are betraying us and the American dream.
  • E. Kent Golding@EKentGolding

    You could at least tell us what you think the Curated American Dream is, so we would know what you are talking about. The uncurated dream is easier - it is whatever an individual wants for him or herself and their families -- not definable since different people want different things.

  • thelonious@thelonious

    An un-curated world works out much better for people with above average abilities. They have more options and more profitable paths. They generally have more cognition to navigate the complexities of life. Freedom comes with complexity. It can be cruel to those who have trouble navigating the problems that come from freedom. Many people don't have that many career options and many have trouble understanding any kind of semi-complex abstractions. A curated life has the attraction of making life more stable. A good deal of people prefer a more authoritarian stability over a more libertine freedom.

  • Susan Quinn@SusanQuinn
    Replyingtothelonious

    thelonious (View Comment):

    An un-curated world works out much better for people with above average abilities. They have more options and more profitable paths. They generally have more cognition to navigate the complexities of life. Freedom comes with complexity. It can be cruel to those who have trouble navigating the problems that come from freedom. Many people don’t have that many career options and many have trouble understanding any kind of semi-complex abstractions. A curated life has the attraction of making life more stable. A good deal of people prefer a more authoritarian stability over a more libertine freedom.

    But how do you define "authoritarian"? There is a huge spectrum of control, and the state's tendency is to increase their power and control over time. At some point, even those who live simpler lives are likely to feel oppressed.

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