"And like other American Dreams, the power of this one lay in a sense of collective ownership: anyone can get ahead."-Cullen

This post gave me trouble.  I was going to write it, I was going to write it, I was going to write it, and clearly, I very nearly didn't.  The Cullen chapter, whilst I kind of despise the man (mayhaps he's too close to a certain "vampire")? was intriguing in the idea of the American Dream being accessible to every person, almost as a mythos or dogma.  Going through the public school system, we learned that education was the key to getting ahead, self made and self educated people...the whole nine yards.
But here's the thing.  I can't completely say that I believe that anymore.  The beautiful gorgeous optimistic idealistic charming...(read: mildly irritating) side of me wants to believe that anyone, with diligence can pull ahead.
The horrid realist cynic (read: really not that bad...) side of me really can't acknowledge that simply by working hard, everyone pulls ahead.  That's why I disagree with the idea of collective ownership.  Sure, it's practically been indoctrinated into us since the cradle but I see so many cases where people just don't seek out what's good for them.  At my high school, there were about 25% of people who wanted to work hard, the other 75% either coasted or blatantly didn't care.  And even that other 25%, there were maybe a fourth of them (so...6.25%, and I'm being generous) that actually wanted to learn, that actually had passion for their education. And if we take those 25% as being more likely to be successful, we're in trouble.
Call me cliche, but I love to learn, I really do!  I like reading, I like other perspectives, I like knowing things that I didn't know before simply for the sake of knowledge! And that's where I think that Cullen's interpretation falls flat.  You need to educate yourself to get ahead (80% of the time) but 100% of the time you need diligence and passion.  You can go through the  motions and maybe succeed, but you're not living the American dream until you have passion for what you're doing.  The American Dream to me, the idea of upward mobility, is accessible, but without love for what you're doing, or some sort of goals that you want to attain, a purpose, it's completely useless.  There may be some people who are ahead, and "living the dream" but without the passion for something behind it...everything just feels flat.