C.R.E.A.M.

I have a friend that grew up with a good amount of money.  As a young man, though, he rebelled against his upbringing, his family, and the lifestyle generally.  For about five years, he did a whole lot of nothing; hung out, wandered around, smoked, thought about life.  I suppose he was the recipient of much condescending talk and unsolicited advice from his family and from his peers still treading closer to the straight and narrow.  

But now he’s got a good job, and has been back on the wagon the last couple of years.  He’s ready to settle down, he says, and he’s ready to strike it rich.  And to all the nay-sayers along the way, he’s anxious to show it off.  He wants *BLING*, he says (with a bit of irony, yes, but only a little).  “It’s the American Way,” he tells me.  A quintessentially American inclination: to show it off.

Cash Rules Everything Around Me - C.R.E.A.M. - get the money, dolla, dolla bill, y'all.

Of course “showing it off” is not exclusive to America.  The rich have been laden-down with heavy metals and shiny stones ever since humanity could conceive of its utter dominion over this pretty planet.  But I think it could be that showing off *BLING*-style is quintessentially American, because it has grown out of another quintessentially American exercise: social mobility.  *BLING* means you made it.  You did something, probably took some risks, and you want some recognition.  From your friends, from your neighbors, from strangers and from passersby.  

Money and status are very personal, individualistic things here.  “Making it” is, after all, the stuff American Dreams are made of.  It is by definition not something you’re born with.  Which is why my friend with the rich family would also want to wield his own bit of *BLING*.  Because you can also “f*#% it up.”  Our second favorite story to see on the big screen.