Making a Hallucination a Reality

"For many of those in the lowest reaches of the social structure, the American Dream is a hallucination."  (261).  Thanks to decades of history, oppression, and inequity, the poor now live their life meandering through the desert, thirsty and finding that oasis.  The American Dream tells them that if they just keep walking and searching for opportunity, the oasis will come.  However, for every man in MacLeod's ethnography, that opportunity quickly faded away like a hallucination.  Simply put, "The achievement ideology promulgates a lie" (264).

I appreciated MacLeod's insistence on turning the Eiffel Tower into an onion.  More equal distribution of wealth could go a long way to improving the opportunity structures of our nation's most disadvantaged citizens.  However, the world's insistence on a capitalist philosophy will only continue to spiral society into a clearly defined bifurcation.  The future looks bleak for the poor who for generations get cycled back into the desert of poverty.  In all honesty, until the oasis for a select few completely disappears than the falsified American Dream will perpetuate onward into the future.