Quote:
Originally posted by Cowperson@Sep 8 2004, 02:12 AM
Lanny, you must really hate the USA to deny the obvious influence it has.
A good essay on the globalization of American culture. In 2000 years, will the world remember Disney or Plato?
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It has nothing to do with hating the US. Jesus Christ, you sound like a whiny Montreal fan. "You won't blow smoke up my ass about how great the Canadiens are so you just hate them, you hate hockey, you hate everything that has to do with the game! You suck!!!" The fact of the matter is that American "culture" has not really developed to the point of being the dominating culture in the world until the mid to late 50's. Prior to that America took a very isolationistic approach to the world and did not export their culture, which was minimal anyways. So I look at it as what the hell has the US given to the world from a "cultural perspective". In the big picture, not a helluva lot.
The American Empire is still way too young to have a comparable contribution to any of the great cultures like the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabs, the Chinese, the French, the Germans, the Russians, etc. Give them a chance to have at least a century where they're having a culture impact before saying how great they are. As you said, will the world remember Pluto like they do Plato? Madonna like The Madonna? There is a massive difference between Pop Culture and actual culture. I think the Americans have contributed greatly to Pop Culture, but are a speck on the map when you look at culture compared to the human experience. There are cave paintings in France that have added more to our culture than the Americans did from 1776 through 1950. Since then America has played a huge role in shaping our lives, especially here in North America anyways, but how much of that will be worthy of historical significance three or four hundred years from now. Hell, how many kids these days know what a Hoola Hoop is and what brought it into our homes?
EDIT: To add in regards to the article posted.
I think the essay supports my view in the belief that America has had a huge impact world wide in the past 50 year, but it has done nothing but export "Pop Culture". As we all know, pop culture comes and goes. Andy Warhol said it best when he spoke of 15 minutes. That's what American (pop) culture is all about. Getting your 15 minutes and then being forgotten. I can't think of much that America has provided that transends a generation and is uniquely "American". I struggle to think of a food that is uniquely American (the hamburger is German, and the french fry is, well, French). People natter on and on about culture in Canada and "what is Canada and what makes Canada unique", but what is America and what makes America unique from a cultural perspective? Anyone?