There is nothing like a little journey together to make people understand each other.  What is the reality which we are fleeing? What is it about the current reality that makes it more comforting psychologically to attempt to remake it than to deal directly with it? When the work of interpretation has been completed the dream can be recognized as a wish-fulfillment. If I can now declare that wish-fulfillment is the meaning of every dream, so that there cannot be any dreams other than wish-dreams, I know beforehand that I shall meet with the most emphatic contradiction. My critics will object: “The fact that there are dreams which are to be understood as fulfillment of wishes is not new, but has long since been recognized. That there can be no other dreams than those of wish-fulfillment is yet one more unjustified generalization; which, fortunately, can easily refuted.” #RyanPhillippe 1 of 9

Reality and unreality have always been opposite sides of the same dichotomy. Each is a reflection, a product of, and reaction to the other. It is so bewildering that many people find it easier to flee from reality than to deal with it. There are three principal features that characterize the new reality. The failure of success, or, the World changed drastically, but we did not factor; the strange order, or, everything is paradoxical factor; and the weird connections, or, everything is interconnected in strange ways factor. Taken together, they explain why reality is so generally incomprehensible. They reveal that we are no longer, as we once were, in control of our destiny. We are now the prisoner of, or at the very least subjected to, powerful and distant forces beyond our complete control.  #RyanPhillippe 2 of 9

To understand the complexity that constitutes the new World, the proper starting point is the condition the United States of American found itself in prior to 11 September 2001, around this time, the United States of America had a budget surplus of $127 billion. Then America was the richest, strongest, biggest, and most productive economy in the World, it factories the most modern with the latest computer technologies. Its work force was the best educated and the most productive. Its industry produced the most advanced and highest quality goods. As a result, the U.S. goods were in high demand. In return for their high productivity and the high demand for goods, American workers enjoyed the highest salary benefits and standard of living anywhere on the planet.  #RyanPhillippe 3 of 9

All of this was made possible by a number of distinct advantages the U.S. enjoyed over almost all other economies and nations of the World. Our resource base was incredible, the U.S. being blessed unlike no other nation in the abundance and extent of its raw materials. With very few exceptions, the U.S. was nearly self-sufficient. It was independent, as few nations were, of having to call upon the raw materials or financial support of others. American internal domestic markets were so huge that U.S. manufacturers and businesses could ignore without harm all other foreign markets and concentrate almost exclusively on markets they knew more intimately, like farming, and could control ore fully and directly.  #RyanPhillippe 4 of 9

Our general technology base was the latest and most advanced, thus making our entire society the most modern for all times. The U.S. had in effect an almost monopolistic lock on the importation of whatever raw materials it lacked and at a cost considerably below prevailing World prices. Because the rest of the World lacked the productive and manufacturing facilities, they had few choices but to ship their raw materials to the United States of America below prevailing World market prices in return for final, finished products that were sold back to them. America also had one of the finest infrastructures mankind had ever seen. Its roads were the best for their times.  #RyanPhillippe 5 of 9

Citizens were not only starved for American made goods and services, they also took pride in land ownership, national parks, and historical buildings. Manufactures could produce a limited number of distinct types and styles of goods, knowing that what they produced would be gobbled up instantly, no questions asked. Victorian houses were cherished for their authenticity, people loved Cadillac, and Eddie Bauer, the American flag was held high outside of many houses. And the lifecycle of consumer products like a car or refrigerator was normally 30 years.  We did not have this disposable society were people knocked down perfectly good walls, for an open concept, to entertain friends and family they never see. Our bought new cars just to fit in and look cool.   #RyanPhillippe 6 of 9

All this meant is was relatively easy to justify the costs involved in building big plants and equipment that were necessary to produce the goods in large quantities to service mass markets. One could be relatively certain that the demand for goods would still be there by the time they rolled off the assembly lines into American stores. BMWs and Mercedes-Benz were still considered exotic cars. The oceans acted as natural buffers and transporting costs were high. American was perceived as smarter than the rest of the World, and we could penetrate markets anywhere. Foreign manufactures had to pay huge costs to set up factories for distribution and dealer networks on our home shore. The grand result was that we could ignore the rest of the World, but they could not ignore us.   #RyanPhillippe 7 of 9

We were the World. We were not only strong, but literally called the tune and choreographed the dance to the flamingo. Americans has decisive advantage in brains, talent, ingenuity, a well-educated labor force, affordable raw materials, and consumer tastes that were quite predictable. Mcscuse me bitch, but people loved McMansions, which reminded them of the Victorian era. The economy was enduring and stable, then manufacturing organizations—and even government agencies—could grow, so it would seem, almost without limit and lose no efficiency in the process. It is not mere industry that will produce good work, nor yet skill, nor even genius. The heart of the artist must be thrust with all its gushing tides into the performance.   #RyanPhillippe 8 of 9

Like the land itself that was so big that it seemingly could never fully be conquered, organizations pursued growth like a demon. The aimed to be as expansive as the land they strove to emulate and finally to conquer. Prior to 911, the United States of America became the biggest, most successful economic—machine—the World had ever seen. And the term machine, metaphor that it is, was the perfect description for the country. Given the overwhelming success and advantages the U.S. enjoyed, what possibly could ever happen to derail the American dream machine? Or had there always been a monster, a nightmare, lurking somewhere within it?   #RyanPhillippe 9 of 9