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I finished watching season 1 of Dimension 20's "The Unsleeping City," and it made me really think about the chaotic and ever-shifting nature of the 'American dream.'
I have heard some people refer to the time we are currently living in as a second Gilded Age. Which has an emotional resonance, to be sure. The Gilded Age was called that because it was all shiny surface for those with wealth and power, and all desperation and churning rot underneath.
Gilded, not golden.
But I was thinking -- when, since the founding of the U.S., has the dream of possibility ever been equally established? I *cannot* think of a time. I mean, YES, there have been times when the wealth of the nation is more evenly distributed than now or the original Gilded Age. Yes. Obviously.
But it's never been close to even.
There is a scene near the very end of The Unsleeping City in which the player characters describe what they think the American Dream is. Freedom and opportunity for all, that all might attempt to be what they choose. Our Heroes are opposed by something that is the opposite of that, who believes that the dream is to gain unending power and wealth for personal use.
I watched it and just thought about the extractive capitalism we live in now, the enshittification of everything.
I want to oppose that distortion of the American dream.
I *do* oppose it.
In this second Gilded Age, in this eruption of festering fascism, in this time of greed so unchecked that it feels like the world is being devoured, I stand with our Intrepid Heroes as they fight for the American Dream.
I have heard some people refer to the time we are currently living in as a second Gilded Age. Which has an emotional resonance, to be sure. The Gilded Age was called that because it was all shiny surface for those with wealth and power, and all desperation and churning rot underneath.
Gilded, not golden.
But I was thinking -- when, since the founding of the U.S., has the dream of possibility ever been equally established? I *cannot* think of a time. I mean, YES, there have been times when the wealth of the nation is more evenly distributed than now or the original Gilded Age. Yes. Obviously.
But it's never been close to even.
There is a scene near the very end of The Unsleeping City in which the player characters describe what they think the American Dream is. Freedom and opportunity for all, that all might attempt to be what they choose. Our Heroes are opposed by something that is the opposite of that, who believes that the dream is to gain unending power and wealth for personal use.
I watched it and just thought about the extractive capitalism we live in now, the enshittification of everything.
I want to oppose that distortion of the American dream.
I *do* oppose it.
In this second Gilded Age, in this eruption of festering fascism, in this time of greed so unchecked that it feels like the world is being devoured, I stand with our Intrepid Heroes as they fight for the American Dream.