The American Dream Movement: Integrating the Personal and the Political

The recent release of the brilliant Contract for the American Dream  by the American Dream Movement may offer an opportunity for like-minded individuals to pursue both personal and political transformation within a potent, national effort.

The preamble to the Contract affirms the “pursuit of happiness” and the first national summit will include “arts to lift the spirit.” Those elements suggest that the Movement may be open to using methods that enhance the nonmaterial world, which could make for a more effective effort than is usually the case.

One option would be for a “personal-political caucus” (perhaps named differently) within that Movement to integrate the personal and the political. While experimenting with how to enrich our lives personally and socially, we could provide others in the Movement with information they might find useful.

More than 250,000 people have already signed the Contract, which was produced with input from 131,203 individuals. As a next step, the Movement is calling for August 2011 Recess Actions to challenge politicians who want more budget cuts. Then the Movement will convene a Take Back the American Dream Conference  October 3-5 in Washington, DC.

I have signed the Contract and will participate in the conference, where I hope to explore with others how we can pursue a fundamental, comprehensive transformation of our society by incorporating lessons from the personal/social/spiritual spheres into our efforts.

The Conference invitation declares, “There will be…sessions organized by you.” So those of us who are concerned about both personal and political transformation and already know each other might invite other participants to address our concerns, goals, and hopes.

The personal is not political. Those two realms are different but not separate. They need to be fully interwoven and consciously integrated.

One way to do that would be for political activists to incorporate into their work some simple, best practices developed by those who concentrate on personal-growth work. That is what I’d like to pursue with fellow participants in the American Dream Movement.