The Master Spell that is the source of our Faulty Happiness Formula is the 1950s version of the American Dream. This foundational distortion of the original American Dream has ended up hijacking virtually every sector of American society.
This disease has spread like a cancer to many parts of the world. In many other democracy-centered republics you’ll find The Master Spell in a slightly different form. It’s that country’s own version of a faulty happiness formula — most likely a variation on the 1950s profoundly distorted version of the American Dream — that is undermining that country’s founding vision as well.
Why? Because in the 1950s the United States was seen in many places around the world as a beacon of liberty, hope, prosperity and democracy. And because of this, what the United States did in those days, many many others in the world sought to follow.
What is the vision that virtually all democracy-centered republics have in common? It is to create:
- A society that functions at the intersection of preserving individual freedom AND promoting the common good; AND
- A government that’s mandated to be a servant to its citizens rather than to itself or special interests, and whose most fundamental task is to transparently develop and steward regulations that wisely navigate the seeming contradictions between individual freedom and the common good.
“The Master Spell That Blinds Us all™ replaced that lofty spiritual vision the following dysfunctional ego-based delusion:
- The pursuit of happiness was redefined as excessive consumerism because that was believed to be the solution that would keep the economy growing in peacetime following World War II while also minimizing the chances that what happened in Nazi Germany could happen elsewhere. (Bear in mind that both of these intentions were quite noble at the end of World War II!);
- Personal freedom was redefined as conformity to the “happiness lifestyle” that the Manufacturers of Consent who installed the 1950s distortion of the original American Dream (and the faulty happiness formula in other countries) — that lifestyle being about having all of the latest consumer conveniences, owning a home and a couple of cars, taking wonderful vacations, etc.;
- The common good (social responsibility) was redefined as overwork: working longer and longer hours, in jobs that one wasn’t necessarily passionate about, for companies whose values one didn’t necessarily agree with, in order to climb the corporate ladder, in order to make more money, in order to be a loving breadwinner whose family could enjoy the fruits of the 1950s distortion of the American Dream.
This is the Faulty Happiness Formula that spawned the popularization of credit cards and the excessive consumer debt that accompanied this.
This is the Faulty Happiness Hormula that pressured more and more companies into unquenchable growth spirals that caused them to sacrifice social responsibility for profits.
This is the Faulty Happiness Formula that seduced more and more citizens into a state of resentment and learned helplessness, in which they looked to the government and companies to take care of them in return for all that the true happiness, family love, and integrity they were sacrificing in order to fill their part in making the 1950s distortion of the American Dream come true.
This is the Faulty Happiness Formula that gave the government the excuse it needed to over-regulate corporations (even the ethical ones), to become over-responsible for choices that individual citizens were making (even the self-responsible ones), and to have to therefore increase taxes in order to implement the over-regulation and over-responsibility mandate that the 1950s American Nightmare spawned.
This government over-regulation gave companies an incentive to sacrifice social responsibility in their efforts to sidestep government control, and it gave citizens permission to abandon self-responsibility and replace it with an entitlement mentality.
Reclaiming personal freedom and helping to bring about a more socially responsible society requires:
- Waking up from The Master Spell That Blinds Us all™
- Getting really really clear about The Master Spell’s anatomy, its repercussions, and the Manufactured Consent tactics that are being used to keep it going… and calling out into the open all forms of Manufactured Consent that are Hijacking the Original American Dream (or your country’s equivalent)
- Reclaiming the original Freesponsibility mandate of all democracy-centered republics: defining the pursuit of happiness as the intersection between personal freedom and the common good;
- Refraining from turning groups with different solutions from ours into “the enemy,” and instead mastering collaboration skills that create sustainable solutions.
It’s time for you to:
- Discover precisely how to recognize Manufactured Consent tactics and the wide range of symptoms of The Master Spell That Blinds Us all™. (To learn more about Manufactured Consent and the person who coined that term perfected the tactics that make it work, click here.)
- Reclaim your personal power without becoming a unethical tyrant.
- Connect and collaborate with others to co-create the social change that will enable your country and our planet to usher in a new golden age in which we finally manifest the self-evident truths embedded in the foundational principles of sustainable happiness and democracy-centered republics.
If you resonate with what you’re reading on this website, you’ve found your tribe.