The Dream
What everyone chases
The Dream refers to a widely shared aspiration, typically the American Dream—the belief that anyone can achieve prosperity and success through hard work.
The phrase carries both earnest and ironic weight: They came here chasing the Dream, The Dream is dead for most people.
In other contexts, the Dream may reference Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision of racial equality, or any collective ideal that defines a culture's highest hopes.
- visionAbility to see
- nightmareFrightening dream causing wakefulness
- sleepRecurring unconscious repose
- aspirationStrong desire for achievement
- hopeDesire for good outcomes
fantasy · reverie · subconscious · surreal · Martin Luther King · ambition · wish · REM · lucid · goal · desire · illusion · imagination · pillow · drifting · ethereal · utopia · prophecy
The Dreamharsh reality
Uncomfortable actual circumstances
bitter truth · disillusionment · rude awakening · broken promises
The Dreamwaking life
Conscious daily experience
wakefulness · consciousness · reality · alertness · lucidity
The Dreamsystemic racism
Discrimination embedded in institutions
structural inequality · generational poverty · redlining · mass incarceration
dream, dreams, dreamed, dreamt, dreamer, dreamers, dreaming, dreamlike, dreamless