Revise, Revise, Revise

An Apology for the American Dream

A country that spent over 12 billion on cosmetic procedures last year¹ doesn't seem to hold reality at a premium, unless you count what passes for it on TV shows where "ordinary" people-rap stars, heiresses, ingenues-are thrown into unrealistic situations to behave in ways they never would if not for the cameras.
(At least, that's what the producers hope they will do.)

We are a culture that eschews reality, where even our newscasters have pounds retouched away from their photos. And perhaps that's with reason: To immigrants leaving a Europe where they were starving or facing incarceration, a place where reality could be shaped into a world of their own making was nothing short of utopia. On the other side of the historical coin, reality couldn't have ranked high in the minds of Africans forced here under nightmarish conditions, or the indigenous inhabitants banished-or exterminated-to make room for the invaders.

So it's only natural that for us reality is reinvention, whether it be with the frivolity of stars like Madonna and Prince, or with the determined gravity of same-sex couples seeking an inclusive definition of marriage. Everything from the automobile to laundry detergent--even laundry detergent packaging--continually undergoes transformation, in a constant state of becoming, perpetually new and improved.

Our fascination rises to the level of obsession: TV networks devote hours to makeovers of our homes, our faces, our wardrobes. Every week, Pimp My Ride tricks out a beater with its bumper held on by bungee cords, turning out rides with airbrushed paint jobs and custom stereo systems.

It's no longer necessary to be a celebrity or have a production crew to partake in the luxury of transformation, not even necessary to be injected with Botox or collagen. In a matter of keystrokes, we can represent ourselves with a clever user name and a carefully chosen avatar. Second Life gives us the opportunity to mirror nearly every aspect of our daily reality in virtual space. No matter how close to reality our online profile may be, we still project a separate self into cyberspace, entering a landscape where our interactions are likely quite different from what we'd transact face-to-face.

Our mistake may be in judging ourselves too harshly. With a history originating in revolution, should reinvention not form the backbone of our culture? Even given the Classical ties of our Founding Fathers--dare I say Fathers, when even our history is suspect and subject to reinvention?--our brand of democracy was new and improved. And it has continued to be so, since we have adapted to change, though not always embraced it. It took civil war to end slavery, but it did end. It took Constitutional amendments to grant citizenship to slaves, and civil disobedience for African Americans to begin reaping its benefits a full century later. Change fraught with conflict still trumps peaceful iniquity.

The elasticity of our governing document allowed us eventually to include women in our democratic process. Young men fighting our wars have not always been old enough to elect the legislators sending them into battle. Our metamorphosis as a nation has hardly been easy, and the transformations ahead present no less of a challenge. Young women still battle as second-class citizens in our military, while at home they are more likely to be killed by a domestic partner than a stranger. Our education system entrenches as many disparities as it erases. We're faced with the economic impacts of racism, homelessness, addiction, wage depreciation, and an ever-growing list of social ailments.

When change has happened, we've coped poorly, as with the repercussions of feminism, which has meant for most women the privilege of two full-time jobs instead of one. There are those who would blame women's insistence on equal rights for the tragic way we have abandoned our children to latchkeys and video games, but our past offers hope we will forge new solutions rather than regressing. As information technology converges with increased transportation costs, it seems probable our working lives will change dramatically over the next few decades, perhaps sparking an accompanying change in family life.

As all those before, these changes must be foreshadowed by a reformed vision of reality. Gripped in a battle over an American definition of family values, we are apt to forget that the model nuclear family we revere has not always been the reality, or even the ideal. Benjamin Franklin's wife reared his illegitimate children in her home; Mormon polygamists played a key role in populating and educating the American West; the details surrounding Thomas Jefferson's and Strom Thurmond's biracial children fly in the face of their public images. While historical examples don't excuse what we might now deem unacceptable, they do illustrate that there has never existed a single way of building a family unit, as many monolithic portraits as we'd like to display.

Reality for the United States is the cartoon Wile E. Coyote, whom we've beaten simply by beeping through a tunnel entrance painted on the side of a mountain. Like the Roadrunner, our ability to perceive the fake as an avenue of escape allows us to survive, even if we do, unlike our cartoon counterpart, barrel straight into a train from time to time. Today's flat idealization could be tomorrow's reality. And sometimes even a figure as unreal as Paris Hilton can run smack into it.

Does it trivialize our accomplishments to equate the Civil Rights' Movement with Warner Brothers' cartoons or new Tide? Perhaps. But not all of our reinventions will realize a grand vision on the scale of federalism or civil rights. As relative tweens in the family of nations, it seems natural we sometimes prefer Hollywood reality to our own, that we would create our own dollhouse version of the world in Orlando. We're even capable of ridiculing these tendencies, cheering the "real" Jay and Silent Bob on their cross-country trek to thwart the production of a fake. It's a telling moment when they land on the set in place of their doubles and no one knows the difference, a testament to our recognition that the unreal is only what hasn't been made yet.

The analogy may be apt in more practical ways: As tempting as it is to dismiss the commercial patina to our new and improved model of a nation, we should remember that innovation does require capital, both intellectual and monetary. The reason we adapt so readily to our environment may be precisely because we so value what is fresh and new, and because we are willing to shell out for it so extravagantly.

¹ "Cosmetic Surgery Quick Facts: 2005 ASAPS Statistics." The American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. 30 September 2006.

Fast food

After writing mostly fluff for Associated Content, this weekend I submitted an op/ed piece I'd originally written for a Vanity Fair essay contest. Since the prize was something like $10,000 and a trip to Italy, it was a real long shot. I'm still fond of the essay, though, and I thought it might play well online because of its pop culture references. (I will never, ever admit to adding a Paris Hilton allusion that wasn't in the original.)

I was only offered $3.11 for the piece, but considering commentary by other contributors on the site suggests they don't offer payment at all for editorials, it was still encouraging. I've been following forums and blogs of other contributors who have had articles rejected, so now I'm curious to see where the line is.

Since the piece has a certain timeliness and little chance of being published elsewhere, I'm glad for it to have some kind of audience. It was just accepted today and hasn't been published yet, but I'll probably copy it here in its entirety when it's up, just because it's a little showier than what I've done so far.

I recognize that all I'm accomplishing here is feeding my ego, and on a steady diet of fast food, at that. Is $3.11 still enough to buy a Big Mac?

Author in search of an audience

A few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a web site that will pay -- not very much, mind you -- for short articles. I figured I could crank out 400 words or so in no time, so I gave it a try. I retained the rights to all but one article and decided to start posting the introductions to some of them here. Just so you aren't caught off guard, I'm linking the bulk of the articles to the site that published them, Associated Content, because page views generate revenue on top of the initial payment. Since most of you reading this blog will be close friends or family, I don't mind using it as a shameless self-promotional tool. I've also begun experimenting with some other ways of earning revenue online, some of which I knew nothing about when I started this pursuit. (Note the Amazon search tab.)

Having earned so far the grand total of $31.55, I don't anticipate this becoming a cash cow. But I'm paying very close attention to the effect it's having on my productivity as a writer. Sure, I'm not writing the Great American Novel here, but I am writing. If this endeavor does nothing more than keep me working, it will have been worth every cent I'm paid.

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