An interesting illustration...

Back to the American dream for a moment. I think this is such an important topic for a rhetoric class--but, I've started reading a book called The Accursed Share: An Essay on General Economy by Georges Bataille. At one point, he is talking about how our actions are utilized by society. He says, 'As soon as we want to act reasonably, we have to consider the utility of our actions; utility implies an advantage, a maintenance or growth."

I think this can be related to the American dream in that society has a use for everyone, whether that use is as high of a dream as the person wants or is as high as that person is capable of dreaming.

He likens this situation to a bullring, and does it quite elegantly. The first thing I thought of was our discussion on the American dream ideal. This is such a nice illustration:

"Imagine an immense crowd assembled in the expectation of witnessing a bullfight that will take place in a bullring that is too small. The crowd wants badly to enter but cannot be entirely accommodated: Many people must wait outside. Similarly, the possibilities of life cannot be realized indefinately; they are limited by space, just as the entry of the crowd is limited by the number of seats in the bullring."

He goes on to talk about the various effects of this pressure. Pretty nifty stuff.