Spud v. Sputnik

So today I went to my niece's birthday party.  She's two, and she'll never remember any of the events of the day, but she had a great time and got several more toys that she'll never know what to do with due to the abundant amounts of play things she already has.  One of the toys she got, however, really struck me.  She got a Mr. Potato Head, the most well-known toy in history.  The more I observed her playing with this, however, the more I realized that Mr. Potato Head is, like it or not, quintessentially American.

Born in Rhode Island in the 1950's, Mr. Potato Head was the first toy to be advertised on TV, but didn't get its plastic potato body untill 1960.  Since its creation, Mr. Potato Head became the first toy to really gain a personality and become an "advocate" of social issues.  In 1987, Mr. Potato Head became the "spokespud" for a government run anti-smoking campaign.  Later, in 1992, he actually received an award from President Bill Clinton on the White House lawn when he shed his "couch potato status."

So a toy becomes a spokesperson and gets to meet the President.  Clinton likes inanimate objects better than us living, breathing American citizens who elected him (twice)?  Is this the message I'm getting from all this?

Not at all, because Mr. Potato Head is the ideal representation of the American Dream.

What did you say, Tim?

Mr. Potato Head is the ideal representation of the American Dream.

Let's take a look at the toy for a second.  Here's this shell of an object.  Mr. Potato Head could be young, old, angry, sad, happy, male, or female depending on what you choose to put on him.  He wears several different hats, both literally and figuratively.  Depending on what you decide to do with him, you can shape not only his appearance, but also his personality and character.  Why can you do this?  Because his spare eyes, mouths, noses, hats, etc. are stored where else but his hindquarters.

Now let's take a look at ourselves as Americans for a second.  In the economic sense, we are shells of objects.  Without developing ourselves as individuals, we are nothing more than a body.  We live in a society, however, where we are forced to shape ourselves to one extent or another.  We are required to go to school as children, and from there, we choose what we want to wear.  Just like Mr. Potato Head, we are a product of our choices.  While this has become a universal trait in the 21st century, this concept was uniquely American for so long, and still does have a much deeper American connotation than any other nation.  One of the reasons that it is still very American is because as every other nation has developed into a free market capitalistic society where all men are supposed to have an equal opportunity, America has just intensified the pressure to become a "have" as opposed to a "have not."  Consequently, Americans have learned to master several skills in order to be able to wear even more "hats."  For example, we have CPA's with their bar tending license, Physical Therapists who can act and play guitar, and teachers who write on the side.  This is done for supplementary income, but also because there is a constant pressure in modern America to stand out, and how better can one stand out than by being a master of many domains?

As for Mr. Potato Head's storage bin, the double entendre is intentional.  When we are short of cash and we magically have a skill set to fall back on for income, or when we don't have the grade we need in a class but we manage to use our communication skills in order to persuade our grade up a little, we pull it out of the same place Mr. Potato Head finds his extra facial features.  As we become more educated and experienced, we gain more and more things to "pull out."

So what does Mr. Potato Head have to do with the American Dream?  Everything.  If you want to be successful in modern America, the easiest way is to emulate this little toy, because the more we can pull out of our ass, the more hats we can wear, and the more hats we can wear, the more successful we are destined to be in the 21st century.

Stay posted tomorrow, January 4th, when I'll post my blog regarding the importance of the 2011 mayoral election and some introductory analysis on the "biggest political upset in Indiana history."