How individualism blinds us from our complicity in collective sin
jonnyrashid.substack.com
Immigrants chasing the American Dream My parents emigrated from Egypt in part because they were looking for more opportunity and freedom from persecution. To us, the United States was a land of opportunity where dreams could become reality. They could achieve prosperity in the U.S. and they really believed that. To be honest, relative to Egypt, their success in the United States was noteworthy. My dad served as a manager of a McDonald’s before he found residency and became a practicing physician. He had a good career as a doctor, but it did come to an end because of some racist allegations against him. For them though, in many ways, it was a life better than they could have achieved in Egypt, despite its untimely ending. It installed the belief that with enough hard work, we can achieve what we wanted. It was classic American messaging. Barack Obama said it throughout his presidency. In 2014 during the State of the Union address: “If you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead in America.” In 2016, he’d add “play by the rules.”
How individualism blinds us from our complicity in collective sin
How individualism blinds us from our…
How individualism blinds us from our complicity in collective sin
Immigrants chasing the American Dream My parents emigrated from Egypt in part because they were looking for more opportunity and freedom from persecution. To us, the United States was a land of opportunity where dreams could become reality. They could achieve prosperity in the U.S. and they really believed that. To be honest, relative to Egypt, their success in the United States was noteworthy. My dad served as a manager of a McDonald’s before he found residency and became a practicing physician. He had a good career as a doctor, but it did come to an end because of some racist allegations against him. For them though, in many ways, it was a life better than they could have achieved in Egypt, despite its untimely ending. It installed the belief that with enough hard work, we can achieve what we wanted. It was classic American messaging. Barack Obama said it throughout his presidency. In 2014 during the State of the Union address: “If you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead in America.” In 2016, he’d add “play by the rules.”