I am not part of America, but America has always been a part of me. Like no other country, the mere name carries a special fascination for me, and despite all its contradictions and problems, I have always felt attracted to it. This presidential election, can America leave behind the narrow mindset of the old guard, shaped by the Cold War and by a dangerous superiority complex, which made some Americans believe that they have a God given right to rule the world?
In the twentieth century America was seen, and saw itself, as a country of ‘unlimited possibilities’, where its citizens were not constrained by class, authority and tradition, and anyone (but by no means everyone!) could rise from low beginnings to become rich and successful – if you only made the effort.
I began dreaming of going to America as a teenager in the 195Os, not to become a millionaire, but because I wanted to be ‘free’ and escape Germany’s post-war reality which I found too authoritarian and restrictive. (Since I had neither the money nor the courage then to venture into the unknown, I put the dream on hold.)
For the West German people, the idea of freedom has never been high on the agenda – apart from driving without speed limit on the Autobahn. They are happy if things are under control in the family and in society at large, and feel it’s up to the government to make sure that their life is in order. (That was of course different in the GDR, where the East German people were deprived of important freedoms by an authoritarian regime).
As a student at University, my teenage yearning for the vast and promising land of America was superseded by an intellectual curiosity for literature and philosophy. Instead of seeking personal freedom I was now more inspired by the freedom of ideas. Like my Dreaming of America, studying Arts was a kind of ‘escape’ from Germany’s post-war reality.
By some luck, my dream of going to the country of my dreams was fulfilled in 1967, when I was given the chance to study in Berkeley for a year. I didn’t go to the United States with any great hopes for my future – unlike the millions of migrants from Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth century, and many others from Latin America and Asia who escaped economic hardship, religious persecution and political pressures, or simply wanted to be the masters of their own fate. I went there as a privileged European male in comfortable circumstances, thanks to a paid trip, a tutoring job and ideal study conditions.
In California, I encountered an unexpected variation to the American dream. In the mid sixties, Berkeley had become the ‘cradle of the student movement’, where in the struggle for personal freedoms and against racism, students demanded that the governors of the University allow them to pursue a free counter culture life-style and engage in political action on campus.
The increasingly volatile milieu became the breeding ground for protests against the war in Vietnam, in 1964. Thousands of students resisted the draft and opposed America’s involvement in the War. They did not only want to prevent more American casualties, they also sympathised with the immense suffering which the people of Vietnam had to endure from military campaigns.
The resistance against the War in Vietnam was arguably the single most important achievement of the student movement, because for the first – and so far only! – time in human history, a young generation stood up against the government and the establishment, and helped to stop a War. The political protests, which the American students initiated, soon became a model of civil disobedience for the rest of the world, and they have remained so to this day. One could say that this special variant of the American dream could only happen in this country.
The movement did not emerge quite out of the blue, it benefitted from the decade long push for civil and human rights by African American people in their fight against discrimination and oppression, which made it impossible for most of them to live the life of ordinary citizens, and share in the ‘American dream’. Out of their suffering emerged ‘a dream within the dream’, which Martin Luther King formulated in his memorable speech in Washington on August 28, 1963:
So even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
The struggle for human and civil rights, which was recently revived by the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, is of course far from over and will occupy America for a long time to come. The main goal is no longer individual freedom, but racial – and that also means social – equality, as enshrined in the constitution.
In the 21st century, this difficult struggle has been overshadowed by another serious issue. The most urgent problem which America and the rest of the world are now dealing with is the ever more threatening climate change. It poses a serious challenge to American (and global) society and exposes a fundamental contradiction between unfettered economic production and consumption, vis a vis a more sustainable way of life.
At my advanced age, the youthful ‘dream of America’ has evolved into a ‘wish for America’. I hope that this unique multicultural nation, which has been a beacon of individual freedom and free enterprise in the twentieth century, will become a major player in advancing a more sustainable economy, in pushing for global political cooperation and in fighting for social equality, in the pursuit of universal human happiness.
The forthcoming presidential election could offer a chance for that to be achieved – provided that as president, Kamala Harris leaves behind the narrow mindset of the old guard which was shaped by elements of the Cold War and by a dangerous superiority complex, which made some Americans believe that they have a God given right to rule the world.
Since his retirement from the University of NSW, where he taught courses in General Education, Jan Bruck has commuted between Sydney and Berlin.
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