Heene’s cognitive dissonance deflated his American Dream

The Heene family saga is a tale of a dream turned into a nightmare. Richard Heene, in a delusional ploy to catapult himself and his family into the national spotlight, is now likely to face some serious legal consequences. His family may be permanently fractured. Life will never be the same.

But in this utterly unique case are the kernels of a national psychosis that just about all U.S. residents share. It’s a form of mental illness, and it’s called the American Dream. Allow me to backtrack.

On a recent trip to Europe, my Danish host posed the following question over wine and cheese:

“We don’t understand. Why did so many Americans buy all those houses they couldn’t afford?”

We were sitting in an old converted farmhouse in the countryside, in a village with farms that had survived centuries of economic change. My host and his wife had moved here a few years ago, after more than 20 years spent in a cramped Copenhagen apartment. It was the crowning achievement of their financial journey together, and it had taken them into their late 40s to be able to afford this beautiful but modest house.

Not much of an expert on financial instruments, the only answer I could muster was to start describing our national optimism. If there’s one thing that binds together the disparate communities of our giant nation, it’s the belief that we all grow up ready to build our own fortunes. Immigrants, minorities, nobodies—anybody has the potential to become someone more noteworthy just by living on American soil. Look at Barack Obama! The proof’s right up there, in the White House. So, along the way, we acquire the trappings that convince us that we’re making it, and houses are the most obvious markers of success. The bigger the house, the more convincing the argument.

I looked up expectantly at my host. I’d delivered, I thought, a pretty rousing defense of the spending habits of my fellow citizens.

“Funny,” he said. “Every American says exactly the same thing.”

Oh.

There I was, sipping wine and exposing myself as yet another brainwashed American prattling on about economic opportunity and the road to success. Somehow as a nation we’ve gobbled up this propaganda that anyone with enough grit and ingenuity can clamber up the ladder to wealth and fame. The Heene family balloon was, if anything, proof that true creativity is amply rewarded with a riveted national gaze. Let’s face it—the guy really did know a thing or two about what makes good reality TV. Is it so crazy for him to have hoped for a more rewarding life? He’s certainly not alone.

According to MetLife’s 2009 Study of the American Dream, 72 percent of Americans believe they can achieve the dream in their lifetime, and 83 percent still believe that the U.S. offers the greatest opportunities for people to achieve success and happiness. The study, however, also revealed that half of its respondents say they are only two paychecks away from not being able to meet their financial obligations. I suspect that the dissonance between these two realities—the belief that anyone can succeed, coupled with the harsh fact that most of us are on the brink of financial ruin—can spur seemingly irrational behaviors that attempt to resolve the conflict. At least that’s the theory of cognitive dissonance, which holds that people who hold contradictory beliefs will go to considerable lengths to rationalize the contradictions in pursuit of internal consistency.

Richard Heene’s helium balloon stunt could easily be a case in point. Balloon Dad, for whom success is defined as fame and celebrity, had had a glimpse of what life had to offer. If he, an ordinary guy in Colorado, could get on national television, then the dream had to be real. It’s all in his hands. And so the dreamer got to work.

Posted by Sandra Upson