The American Law

From a WSJ review of the 1935 essay "Puzzled America" by Sherwood Anderson, a description of the "American Theory of Life":

The notion that the United States is a uniquely open society, where the talented and industrious always have the chance to better their lot, is a central element of American self-understanding. The notion has been a prominent feature of American culture since the days of Ben Franklin, and it remains a core feature of the national ethos to this day. Indeed, in recent months the election of Barack Obama has reminded Americans of the promise that in the United States opportunity can be open to all.

Then it is discussed what effect the "American Theory" had on people during the Depression:

[In Anderson's travels around America during the Great Depression, he] found the people he met to be imprisoned by what he called the "American theory of life"--a celebration of personal ambition that now seems cruelly inappropriate. "We Americans have all been taught from childhood," Anderson wrote, "that it is a sort of moral obligation (editors note: the law) for each of us to rise, to get up in the world." In the crisis of the Depression, however, that belief appeared absurd. The United States confronted what Anderson called "a crisis of belief."

Wow!!! Read the whole article!! The author of the review (from Wesleyan University) has a really full and amazing understanding of the law! He rightly notices that the "American Spirit" or "American Theory of Life" rather than helping people during the Depression to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps", etc. actually imprisoned them and paralyized them. With all the discussion about how America emerged from the Great Depression, it was not the law of the "American Spirit" that rescued us!