Troutman, you make a compelling argument by including some of the great American writers. But have they changed the "culture" by writing a great book? They have indeed contributed greatly to the literature world. I wouldn't call Huck Finn one of the great novels, but that's more of a personal preference I guess. I also don't think that has affected culture one damn bit. The book has a great theme and is an entertaining read, but how has it impacted the "culture"?
I look at cultural contribution from a different angle I guess. I look at whether a contribution changed the way we do things or the way think as a collective. I don't think the US really had much of an impact until after WWII. I think at that point the US has had a massive impact on OUR culture, and is NOW having an impact on other cultures, but forthe most part they were adopters of other cultures as their own culture developed.
One thing I think that is confusing you is the impacts of technology on OUR society rather than the cultural impact of these inventions. Cultural impact means they are adopted and become a standard of our way of life and they transend generations and cultural differences. Mathematics, astronomy, language, arts and literature, engineering, etc. are the things I'm talking about.
I think that America has provided the world many great things but they are still too early to consider their impact on the culture. Television is defintiely one thing that I think has the potential to have a massive cultural impact. As I pointed out, Americans did not ivent the technology. What they have done is pushed the technology to an enitely new level and make it an every day tool in our existence. For OUR culture is it extremely important. Others are begining to adopt it as well. But it is still to early to say that this is a great cultural contribution when there are still plenty of people on the planet that can remember a world without the technology. I measure cultural impact by how generations adopt new ideas. This is why I thik it is way to early to make a call on the cultural adoption of many potential "American" contributions. I'm not saying America has not contributed to OUR NORTH AMERICAN culture, just that they have not contributed greatly to culture itself. A lot of what America has done has not transended borders. Hence me picking out their music, which has transended borders and changed the way generations choose to listen to music (which is indeed cultural). Get it?
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