How Strong is the American Dream?

I chose the quote by Michael Bloomberg in which he's speaking about the American Dream in New York. He calls this city the 'city of dreamers'; in a positive way. He's talking about the kind of dreamers to whom nothing seems impossible and every goal is achievable. If you misunderstand this term, you could possibly think about the kind of dreamers who have great ideas and plans but actually do nothing to make them become reality. This would be just the opposite of atypical American citizen. That's what Bloomberg would say. I think to him New York represents the whole United States, where, according to his quote, the American Dream has been tested – and triumphed.

It's pretty clear that he's referring to 911, which was actually a tough event for all Americans and so it also influenced the American Dream in some way. What does that even mean? Does the 'American Dream' mean that every citizen in the US has the same dream? Or is it the dream of the government?
It's none of that. This expression describes the feeling many people in the USA have. It's not an actual dream; it's the freedom of dreaming. Americans have all different and individual dreams. But one thing they all have in common: they believe in the realization. No matter if your dream is to get money, the 'Pursuit of Happiness', founding a family, building a house or even to change the world; if you truly believe in it you're part of the phenomenon that's called the 'American Dream'.
America was founded by people who think like this and the system was created in a way that has room for endless possibilities. Capitalism in American is very fundamen-tal because it's the system in which you can climb up higher than you've ever imag-ined and fall lower than you've ever feared.

Bloomberg mentions that the American Dream has been tested on September 11th; in a way that nobody expected. Knowing that there exist people out there who hate America enough to sacrifice thousands of lives, including their own one, is hard for every American. But the American Dream has survived, the catastrophe has never been forgotten, but America has learned a lot. They’ve learned that not everybody loves their ideology and it’s necessary to fight them and to think about the future, not about the past. 911 failed in some way: it could not kill the dreams and the hopes. That’s why the American Dream triumphed: it doesn’t falling is bad but you got to get up and keep dreaming.

This phenomenon also appears in the picture I chose. It shows a former white wall that has been written on. Different colors and handwritings show thoughts and feelings about 911.
In the center somebody has painted the twin towers, somebody else wrote the phrase ‘Osama must die’ all over it. Below you can see one word that’s written very big and in capital letters: ‘REBUILD’. I’m going to talk about these later. For me it is very remarkable that many quotes say something like ‘God bless Amer-ica’. You can see much patriotism in that.
No matter how much the terrorists hated America, the Americans will never stop loving their country. They have this kind of patriotism that you won’t find in Germany or even in Europe. The connection to the home country is much bigger in America. The reason for that might be the fact that they seem to have their own philosophy. You may remark that that’s not necessarily something special because you can think like them even if you live in Europe or China or elsewhere. The difference is that they’re able to live their philosophy and dream because they created their system in a way that leaves a lot of space for living their dreams.
Another interesting quote on the wall is ‘No fear, we will survive’. That underlines my thoughts about the immortality of the American Dream. Even if everything seems lost and hopeless, you will be able to win back your spirit through the love to others, to your country, or even through the hate on your enemies; you don’t want them to take away your hope so you keep on living, hoping and dreaming.
That’s a thing that we really need to have more in Europe. Around here, if something goes wrong, you either blame yourself or, even worse, you blame others. Anyway, you give up your dream and that’s the real moment of your personal loss.

The quote you read fist when you have a look at the picture is ‘Osama must die’.
For the writer, Osama Bin Laden represents all enemies and haters of the American way and he wants them down. He is not able to accept any other solutions; if there is any opposition, it needs to be eradicated.
That’s a disadvantage of the American thinking: it’s intolerant.
Americans love their country but sometimes they disrespect others for being different. That’s a very radical way of freedom isn’t it?
The weakness of America is its uncontrolled strength and power. For example, the NSA is on all of us to find possible enemies of America. In Germany and Western Europe nobody blinks an eye.
Everybody seems to have accepted the USA as a superpower. Every GPS signal is running on American satellites. Europe does in fact have its own GPS system but it’s so bad that it’s hardly ever used. It’s a normal thing that the USA has the power over almost every modern technology, space shuttles and also got the biggest military force.
It’s okay because everybody trusts and partly supports America in their decisions. But my opinion is that it’s dangerous to leave so much power in the hands of people who are so radical against any possible enemy. (UL)