Dreaming The American Dream
In the German spirit
the matriarchal link with nature rules
in the form of the hegemony of music
to an extent unknown in any other people.
We intellectuals,
instead of fighting against this tendency like men,
and rendering obedience to the spirit,
the Logos, the Word, and gaining a hearing for it,
are all dreaming of a speech without words
that utters the inexpressible
and gives form to the formless.
Instead of playing his part as truly and honestly as he could,
the German intellectual has constantly rebelled against the word
and against reason and courted music.
And so the German spirit, carousing in music,
in wonderful creations of sound,
and wonderful beauties of feeling and mood
that were never pressed home to reality,
has left the greater part of its practical gifts to decay.
—-excerpt Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse p. 135
I admire German idealism, because by nature I am a romantic. Strange to recognize myself so characterized in dark print on a page, or a glowing screen. As a kid I loved playing alone in the woods, in the magic of exploration, anticipation of what I might see in a drop of pond water, or experience while hiking in an abandoned quarry. And then in my early adolescence I discovered Rock n Roll. The wild voice of a Fender Stratocaster guitar in the hands of Buddy Holly was the voice of a god, doing the work of creation.
I’ve changed little, with only more layers added as the years have clicked by. Those years of earning a living, spent with others creating a company to express my sense of the essence of existence, aspiring to beauty of form, to a kindness, a generosity in connection with customers, and co-workers. And there has been the relationship with my wife and our three now adult children. I have learned imperfectly to fulfill the role as spouse and parent. I have learned to fail better. There have been plenty of discoveries, of beauty, meaning and terror. The lessons of trial and error are precious.
The words of Herman Hesse, his assessment of the German spirit are a strike-point inviting an assessment of my own essential spirit. And the assessment of what I have learned by virtue of my failures.
Returning to the generalized point, to parallel the lines spoken by Harry Haller, a bitter assessment of his own participation in the German Spirit–what is to be said of the American Spirit?
America is a recent creation, settled initially by groups of refugees from Europe, and then from every other country. The practice of slavery is a major feature of our story. We fought a devastating war to put an end to the legal, formal enslavement of people from Africa. And our forefathers eliminated the indigenous people who lived here before us; their descendants live on reservations.
What about the American Spirit?
Do we Americans not attempt to monetize everything? I’ve listened to local news reports of massive developments underway in Chicago. These are cities within a city. From the South Loop to the North Branch of the Chicago River large tracts of land have been approved for development. “The 78” by the Related Midwest company will be a 7 billion dollar project, featuring 13 million square feet of office space. This comprises 78 acres in the South Loop. The Lincoln Yards-Sterling Bay project on the north branch of the Chicago River is a 6 billion dollar development featuring a 20,000 seat soccer stadium. There are no prospects that very much housing affordable to working class families are included in development plans. The process of gentrification continues on steroids. Maximize the return for ownership, for the investors.
This is the overriding value, the desideratum. This is our reality.
It is too much to hope that we Americans will identify our national proclivity. The German people were no more able to recognize where the National German Socialist Workers Parties torchlight rallies in Nuremberg would lead. Like Germans of the Wiemar Republic we are on the inside, being dreamed by our dream.
