Life, liberty and the pursuit of the American Dream
November 3, 2025 6:55 PM
Wednesday night, 11:30 (10:30 Central). I have a bottle of beer and my roommates have all turned in for the night. The television is on in the corner. I find it best to watch television at night and alone. Then there are no distractions, no glare from the picture window that takes up most of the wall in my living room, nothing to do but become absorbed in some serious cultural criticism. Throughout my adult life, I’ve found that every time I turn on the television, I'm bombarded with yet another new reality show. See what happens when the last grasp of fame has slipped from B-listers’ hands. See what happens when we place you (or your wife, your daughter, your son or whoever) in ridiculous situations. See what happens when...well, when you are tired of our Sitcom Gimmicks and Quiz Show Fads and would rather watch the picture window. Of all these hyper-reality shows, of all these airbrush-spraytanned pseudo-life dramas, there is one which speaks more to our time than all the rest. Storage Wars. For those unfamiliar, the show is described by A&E as "...follow[ing] teams of bidders looking to score it big in the high stakes world of storage auctions." We watch as four “teams” travel to different storage lockers in Southern California (once as far as Las Vegas, but that’s a can of worms I won't open up here) and attempt to out bid their rivals on “units” that have gone unpaid for at least three months. We watch, breathless, as they dig through mortgaged treasures. One character describes the experience – with childlike euphoria – as a type of high. That he is addicted to the feeling. Christ. We watch this. We watch as strangers dig through other strangers’ battered lifetimes in hopes of finding some sort of hidden treasure. But why? What entertainment value lies here? There has been a recent explosion of shows hell-bent on turning the recession of 2008 into some sort of game – Pawn Stars or Auction Hunters and Storage Hunters. These highlight just how far the American Dream has fallen, the anonymous failure that has helped – with the last bounced check – to provide a better life for a lucky prospector. And the people on these shows are just that: prospectors. They are panning for gold in a stark, urbanized landscape where all that matters is hanging on to your money just longer than your neighbor and where redemption comes in the form of an antique desk or stereo equipment. The American Dream: that every elusive goal of material wealth is no longer a success story. For one person’s achievement is now dependent on another's failure. Is that what was meant by “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness?” I suppose it’s true what Robinson Jeffers said: “One always knew that cultures decay.” The American Ideal of one man versus the environment, from cowboys to pioneers, from Lewis and Clark to Neil Armstrong is dead. It has been replaced by a seeming free-for-all where nothing is sacred and empathy is for the weak; where relationships are failing and belief has been replaced with manipulation. Schaudenfreude is a wonderful thing, I suppose, but for me it’s time to put away my guilty pleasure and turn back to that beautiful picture window. At least there I can help the people who trip down Liquor Lane.
