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Assurance is not necessarily a good thing. If such confidence is established and confirmed after learning about many other different cultures in the world, then that's great. If it is due to utter ignorance or a result of being brainwashed about American being the "best" and "greatest", or due to the shallow observation that Hollywood and McDonalds are all over the world, then that's pathetic. Many North Koreans probably feel the same kind of assurance.
Well, at least part of Americans' cultural assurance comes from a lack of exposure to other cultures. The Hollywood mega-machine makes sure that most people only have easy access to stuff produced by their membership (the big studios, music companies, etc.) That's why Entertainment Tonight, etc. never talk about foreign movies, music that's not in English, etc. It's because slippage of audience to foreign stuff would affect the corporations' bottom line.
Of course, in the age of the Internet some people rebel against this and it's easier to seek out non-American contents than before. But relatively few people actually do this, as the cultural habits (all-American) have been so strongly entrenched over many generations.
As you know many Canadians are also addicted to the mega-machine's stuff and it's difficult to get them to pay attention to anything that doesn't have the seal of approval from Hollywood.
Relatively few? Did you poll all 325,000,000 people? Or is your opinion formed based on what the CBC has told you for decades about how dumb, stupid, arrogant, and violent Americans are?
I'm sorry but this notion that Americans lack exposure is nonsense. I've spent years living in 3 foreign countries - two in Europe and 1 in Asia. And here's a little secret: in each one, the biggest shows were some variation of 'X country's Got Talent!' or 'X country Idol' or their country's version of Survivor, The Office, X Factor, etc. Please move to Italy for a year and watch local TV. Berlusconi's Bunga Bunga Parties is practically all that graces Italian TV these days - reality TV trash, skimpy bikinis, the lives of drunk and rich Italian youth. Same for Spain. Same for China.
Do Spaniards know more about France than Americans know about Canada? Of course. Spain is geographically small and France is a powerful country. Conversely, America is very, very large and Canada is not a powerful country. So of course Americans will know little about Canada and will make little effort to study more. Canada is just not a relevant country. But that doesn't mean Americans are insular or lack exposure. Exposure to what? Americans interact on a daily basis with Mexican immigrants, Chinese immigrants, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian, Honduran, African immigrants, etc. Most Americans have tons of exposure to other countries. The problem is some see it as a threat and some see it as a positive.
Remember, America is 40% non-White. The USA is the 2nd largest Hispanic country in the world. The US has more African Americans than Canada has people. The US has more Hispanics than Canada has people. The USA is the developed country with the most languages spoken within its borders (overall it's Papua New Guinea and India). But Americans know a lot about other cultures. And yes, there are some who are too busy watching reality TV. Well, there are people like that in every country I've visited.
Relatively few? Did you poll all 325,000,000 people? Or is your opinion formed based on what the CBC has told you for decades about how dumb, stupid, arrogant, and violent Americans are?
I'm sorry but this notion that Americans lack exposure is nonsense. I've spent years living in 3 foreign countries - two in Europe and 1 in Asia. And here's a little secret: in each one, the biggest shows were some variation of 'X country's Got Talent!' or 'X country Idol' or their country's version of Survivor, The Office, X Factor, etc. Please move to Italy for a year and watch local TV. Berlusconi's Bunga Bunga Parties is practically all that graces Italian TV these days - reality TV trash, skimpy bikinis, the lives of drunk and rich Italian youth. Same for Spain. Same for China.
Do Spaniards know more about France than Americans know about Canada? Of course. Spain is geographically small and France is a powerful country. Conversely, America is very, very large and Canada is not a powerful country. So of course Americans will know little about Canada and will make little effort to study more. Canada is just not a relevant country. But that doesn't mean Americans are insular or lack exposure. Exposure to what? Americans interact on a daily basis with Mexican immigrants, Chinese immigrants, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian, Honduran, African immigrants, etc. Most Americans have tons of exposure to other countries. The problem is some see it as a threat and some see it as a positive.
Remember, America is 40% non-White. The USA is the 2nd largest Hispanic country in the world. The US has more African Americans than Canada has people. The US has more Hispanics than Canada has people. The USA is the developed country with the most languages spoken within its borders (overall it's Papua New Guinea and India). But Americans know a lot about other cultures. And yes, there are some who are too busy watching reality TV. Well, there are people like that in every country I've visited.
This sure doesn't sound like a post coming from someone with a high level of cultural assurance, devoid of insecurity.
Relatively few? Did you poll all 325,000,000 people? Or is your opinion formed based on what the CBC has told you for decades about how dumb, stupid, arrogant, and violent Americans are?
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Hehehe. I am actually known on the Canada forum for defending Americans against those vicious stereotypes that Canadians often have of them.
I'm sorry but this notion that Americans lack exposure is nonsense. .
If you don't think that the entertainment division of Corporate America has done everything in its power to stymie exposure and interest in stuff that isn't contributing to its bottom line (generally anything too "foreign"), then that kind of proves how good a job they've done.
Relatively few? Did you poll all 325,000,000 people? Or is your opinion formed based on what the CBC has told you for decades about how dumb, stupid, arrogant, and violent Americans are?
I'm sorry but this notion that Americans lack exposure is nonsense. .
Yes, relatively few. In percentage terms, definitely. But 10% of Americans is still about the same as the entire population of Canada.
It's actually a credit to those who do seek out different stuff BTW.
Are you sure about this?
Do me a favour and ask 10 random Americans you know the following 5 easy questions.
1) What's the capital city of Australia?
2) Who is the prime minister of France?
3) What's the last dynasty of China called?
4) Where is the strait of Hormuz? (or easier: what language do most Iranians speak?)
5) what's the most populated country in Africa? (or easier: how big is Africa in comparison to the US)
I doubt any of them can get more than one question right, if at all.
Do Spaniards know more about France than Americans know about Canada? Of course. Spain is geographically small and France is a powerful country. Conversely, America is very, very large and Canada is not a powerful country. So of course Americans will know little about Canada and will make little effort to study more. Canada is just not a relevant country. But that doesn't mean Americans are insular or lack exposure. Exposure to what? Americans interact on a daily basis with Mexican immigrants, Chinese immigrants, Vietnamese, Korean, Indian, Honduran, African immigrants, etc. Most Americans have tons of exposure to other countries. The problem is some see it as a threat and some see it as a positive.
Remember, America is 40% non-White. The USA is the 2nd largest Hispanic country in the world. The US has more African Americans than Canada has people. The US has more Hispanics than Canada has people. The USA is the developed country with the most languages spoken within its borders (overall it's Papua New Guinea and India). But Americans know a lot about other cultures. And yes, there are some who are too busy watching reality TV. Well, there are people like that in every country I've visited.
The main impact of all of this diversity tends to be in the area of food.
For most everything else it's just folded into the American mainstream which of course is evolving but very slowly and the impact of immigrant cultures is gradual and subtle, as opposed to revolutionary.
The U.S. does occasionally "let in" foreign stuff but only when it can come in via the "industrial entertainment" complex's channels and vehicles. Hence, Gangnam Style came in via Universal Music, the Macarena via RCA...
More often than not, though, things get repackaged or totally redone in American versions... If you are hispanic you may know that Ugly Betty is a remake of the Colombian show Betty La Fea...
I don't even know where to begin with all of the American remakes of foreign stuff in movies, TV, etc.
In most parts of the world, when something foreign is good, people often consume it in its original version. Instead of producing a local (often inferior) variant to not force their captive populace out of its comfort zone.
BTW, I am not anti-American. But I do call them as I see them. And this is an aspect of American culture that I find unfortunate.
I live in Quebec, which is the only part of the U.S. and Canada where film distribution in not (virtually) completely controlled by the Hollywood mega-machine.
As a result, we get more access to foreign movies (and not just French ones, as you might be tempted to think), even in our smaller cities - not just in central Montreal.
This is related to other aspects of culture as well.
For example, the Millenium series of books from Sweden were best-sellers in Quebec a good two to three years or more before anyone in the rest of Canada or the U.S. had heard of them.
(And thank goodness Oprah Winfrey's book club took an interest in books written in languages other than English, or this would have been yet another "blind spot".)
The movies in Swedish based on these books were at the top of the box-office in such sophisticated locales as St-Hyacinthe, Rouyn-Noranda and Rivière-du-Loup, a couple of years before cosmopolitan New Yorkers had any clue who Lisbeth Salander was...
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