Rethinking the American Dream

What does Psalm 23:1 mean?

People usually find a way to twist data points to reflect their own opinions. It is called confirmation bias. You want to believe something to be true, so you find evidence that points to it being true. Meanwhile, the evidence that makes it false is right there in the open. But you just ignore it. Follow me closely; I’m going somewhere with this…

Confirmation Bias

Sometimes you don’t even see the evidence. Someone brings it right in front of your eyes, and you still don’t see it. We are all guilty of this, by the way. We are looking for facts that confirm what we believe.

When we find facts that prove our beliefs to be false, we hope it is a lie. And we just keep digging. Many call it digging for truth. And yes, sometimes it may be a truth. But what we are doing is digging to find confirmation of what we believe in.

Why am I talking about this? The official inflation number that comes out every month is just too absurd to be true. And this is not just in the USA. This is around the world. But does it matter when all the big names agree?

People are seeing their grocery bills double over a short amount of time, and you are telling me inflation is at 4%? I saw the price of a loaf of bread quadruple in one country. And wages aren’t growing.

This is why you have the recent wave of strikes. But that anger is misdirected. Most people (especially in the USA) think big business is the problem. But the real problem is government spending. Not a lot of people can make the connection, though. It’s complicated for a reason.

With the US (aka the country that prints the global reserve currency) funding two wars, supporting Medicare, Medicaid, and social security, plus the baby boomers retiring in the next 5–10 years, there is a big reason to worry.

The biggest expense on the US budget right now is fast becoming the interest payment on loans. In other words, the US government is borrowing money to pay back borrowed money.

I don’t assume that will continue forever. This is because the US government has collateral. And this is the taxpayers. If you really think about it, the taxpayers owe the bondholders, courtesy of the government (that gets to spend money from both sides on anything they like). And neither the taxpayers nor the bondholders are happy with the government.

The American Dream

I was fully prepared to make a great first impression. I set up backup internet just in case. About 2 minutes before the call, I realized I didn’t have the call link on my tab (which I usually use for calls like that).

It was too late to start transferring data from iOS to Android. I had to switch to my iPhone. And I barely made it in time. The call didn’t go the way I expected, though. All the questions I wrote down became irrelevant about 5 minutes into the conversation.

But I took something from the conversation. He told me, “Write a song that everyday people like you can relate to.”

More than anything in the world, I feel the pain of intelligent, hardworking people who make very little money. For some reason, I am not so passionate about people living in extreme poverty in villages. For the most part, I am unconcerned about those. This is because I have lived among such people.

You are the one who calls it poverty. To them, it is life. And they find joy and fulfillment in their own ways. In fact, I have seen people destroy the peace, joy, and serenity they have with “financial aid.”

I always tell people that if you want to help people in these remote regions in abject poverty, don’t give money. They don’t need your money. They don’t need your welfare. Sorry if you feel insulted, but it is true. They only need your money if you have given yourself first.

If you cannot give yourself, your money will never make a difference. In fact, I can almost guarantee that it will make things worse.

But the intelligent working person in a city is different. This is someone with an idea or dream. This is someone desiring to create something groundbreaking in some way. I find it absolutely heartwrenching when such people are stuck in a rut. And this is mostly because of the lie the American Dream has become.

The Lie

If you work hard, you can achieve your wildest dreams.

Ladies and gentlemen, that is a lie. Yes, you can achieve your wildest dreams. But it is not by hard work. It is not by working hard. The world is filled with successful people taking credit for things they had no idea how it happened.

And I see it all the time. It infuriates me. People try to tell their stories in a way that gives them the MC (main character) role. Most inventors were not geniuses. They were just people committed to trying and discovered something by accident.

Success comes via luck. Success comes via opportunity — someone with access seeing what you do and deciding to open a door for you.

This brings me back to the American Dream. Most people are deceived into thinking that they can take some certain steps and achieve success. While steps are important, they just make you a hand-raiser. It takes someone picking you to break out.

So, the American Dream is not about trying to become a billionaire, owning jets, driving a Ferrari, and all of that. Yes, anyone can get there. You certainly can get there. But getting there has nothing to do with how hard you work or how talented you are. Staying there might require hard work but getting there is a matter of opportunity. It is a matter of someone successful giving you a chance.

But you have to be a hand-raiser. And there is no guarantee you will go all the way. And you have to know that very well. So, if your whole life you are obsessed with being picked, you will have a sad life. Just live instead.

The American Dream (which is not only limited physically to the USA because the whole world is subject to the US dollar) is not about reaching a super high level of success. Instead, it is about being in a good place to create. Being in a place good enough where you can think of what you want to produce, not how you want to survive.

The Deception

I have long wondered about a particular verse of the Bible. Psalm 23 vs 1. Sounds so simple but also confusing. It says:

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.”

I have always wondered why. What does it mean by “want”? If you want good stuff, can’t you just say you want it? Why is the Psalmist against wanting stuff?

It took me a while to figure this out. But I eventually did.

Yes, you can have the good stuff. But the moment you want it, You become someone that can be easily manipulated.

Someone who has what you want can manipulate you to do what you don’t want to do. Let’s say you want a million dollars. Then, someone who has more than that tells you to falsify some records and you will get it. Even though you know it is wrong, your mind will start creating new theories and beliefs that make the falsification not look like a bad thing.

In fact, you might start coming up with theories that suggest it is a good and brave thing. The more you play with the idea, the weaker your resistance becomes. And that is often the starting point of a life of regrets.

If you want it, you can be manipulated with it. And the real deal about life is being true to yourself. Is there a guarantee that you will get what you want without getting manipulated? Nope.

So, what’s the gain?

When you get to that place where there is nothing you want, where there is nothing that can get you to stop being who you are (to get something), that is where true life begins. So, if I’m to paraphrase Psalms 23 vs. 1, I’d say:

“The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be manipulated.”

Think about that for a bit.

“The Lord is my Shepherd, no one can use material desires to get me to change my ways.”

Not a lot of people can say that today. Of course, as you go through life, you will change. But the question is this — is it a change to be more of who you already are or a change because you want a particular (material) thing?

The Message

The American Dream is not about fancy cars, or making a billion dollars. Most people who made a billion dollars didn’t even think they would make that much money.

The American Dream is about being in a place where you are free to be who want to be so that you can create what you want to create. That’s why people ran away from wars, totalitarian rule, etc., and risked everything to enter America in the 19th and 20th centuries.

It is sad that the new generation thinks that it is about cars, houses, jets, and material hubris. Yes, those things come sometimes. But to want or chase them is to get played.

And there are lots of people getting played today by people who show them these material hubrises and then use that as a manipulation tool. And yes, in the end, those manipulated do NOT get what they want. They just end up doing things the manipulators want them to do.

This is because that high level of success happens for just a few, at random. You have zero control over that. But you can control the fact that you have the basics and fundamentals of life to live in a constructive and responsible way.

Focus on what you can control. Set your priorities right. Don’t be manipulated.

This is the message of my new song. Check it out:

Conclusion

Set your priorities right. Don’t chase hubris. People will always try to manipulate you with what you want.

If you bond with this message, you can spread the word around you by getting one or more of these:

And there’s more from where that came from — tees, tote bags, etc.

Cheers.