Will the Americanization of the world ever stop?

[pbobcat]

I'm not giving them credit, I know Apple is a US company. Just pointing out some international involvement

[drknoble]

Originally Posted by pbobcat

I'm not giving them credit, I know Apple is a US company. Just pointing out some international involvement

Reputable people give credit where it's due.

And, wouldn't Apple be considered international involvement for you and domestic for me?

[Brother Jonathan]

Reading through this thread I was so shocked by the beliefs being expressed I had to register just so I could post.

Americanism is not a good thing, not for Americans and not for non-Americans. It is bad for the whole world as it would lead to homogeneity of the world. Which reduces the world population's ability to mitigate disaster. And this is extra bad for the U.S. as out power base is built upon innovation derived from both possessing a culture that promotes risk taking so as to attain upward mobility and a variety of ideas that come from the assorted influx of immigrants.

So its not something anybody, Even Americans would want.

Another thing is that reading through this thread I aw quite a huge arguments were based in the same fallacy that states, that because America's culture is a mixture from other cultures, that America has no culture of its own. This is false as a culture is a state of being and origin is irrelevance. Even if tyhe culture was dservived 100% from lets say, Britain, it would still be 'America's culture. Just America's culture would have been from Britain.

Thus Americanization could be ascertained by viewing the world cultures and looking for any cultural change occurring that is apparently derived from American influence. Not very easily ascertained as it is a little difficult to tell American influence from simply the effect of globalization due to America's own melting pot culture, unless the influence from America is so great that the resemblance becomes unmistakable or there something unique about it, such as a particular way it mixes or some other correlative evidence.

Knowing this I believe that the only influence America is having culturally that is not simply a short term fad, is our business models. (Focus on the bottom line, temporal efficiency, career centered upward mobility and associated pragmatism (Any apparent adoption of American fashion styles would be a result of this.)) Although these are often taken to unsustainable extremes.

Mass corporations like MCdonalds have to greatly alter the given experience and menu to make money in the local culture. To the point that they would be utterly unreginzable to an American, with just a small selection of basic American items kept on menu. Though in some cases not even then. Exported Television and Pop culture is carefully selected to reinforce existing beliefs and cultural ideals so as to maximize sales. And American icons such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck No longer serve their nation of origin in any context. All comics and most television programs they and similarly adopted icons are used in production with are written and directed entirely by local talents.

So in my opinion Americanization was never a thing.

And this is a good thing as I said. In fact, that America is having so little influence on the cultures of the world only serves to defeat the argument that America is some sort of empire or tyrant. Both meaning the same thing as empires by their nature are evil. And as such both are strongly against all American ideals and any suggestion that America is an empire should be treated as the gravest insult possible. Thus no Americanization is good for America in every way shape or form. Not to say that in the cold war, Mexican American war and in dealing with the Native Americans America didn't commit atrocious acts of hypocrisy. But that was then and this is now. Now being no Americanization thus no empire.

So it makes little sense that any American should be defending the ideal of Americanization believing himself to be supporting America. Although it is understandable to be caught up in the competitive spirit of these debates, that does not make it any more foolish.

I believe this is all I have to say.