Is American Culture Being Overwhelmed By Foreign Cultures?

[Velociryx]

and that, my friend, is a very dangerous "cultural tradition" to hold onto....

-=Vel=-

[Japher]

I, as an American, am for preserving French culture. I demand that the French close their boarders and don't let anyone leave or enter, don't communicate with anyone, and by all means keep you smells to yourself... That would be fine by me

[gunkulator]

Originally posted by Spiffor

Culture is an important thing, and cultural diversity is what makes mankind so interesting. I would hate seeing cultures die. Mine or others.

Culture exists for man, not man for the culture. The problem with too much diversity is that it encourages segregation which in turn breeds xenophobia. We fear what we do not understand. We gravitate to what makes us comfortable. It is human nature.

The truth is that we are all human. We all have the same emotions, intellect and potential. What makes one man German and another Nigerian is a simple accident of birth. What makes those two men wary and unsure of each is other (and perhaps even hate each other) can be summed in a single word: culture.

Mankind has spent too much time creating arbitrary groupings of people, always with the subtext of hiearchy. Culture is one of the greatest contributing factors to these divisive groupings.

[Velociryx]

With regards to your post in reply to mine:

Radio stations need revenues. They GET revenues by getting (and keeping) listeners (advertisers pay them based on the size of their audience). If they play crap music, people will turn to a different station. If they play music people don't want to hear, they will turn to a different station.

Enough people do that, the radio stations will play different music (the music their listeners want to hear), or they will go broke.

But that's not what was happening.

No, not until a federally mandated law came along, did people start listening to local music.

Why?

Because they had no choice. The radio stations simply had to play it, whether you wanted to hear it or not. And of course it sells. Waffle House might not have great food, but it's always packed.

-=Vel=-

[GePap]

There are suich things as American culture, such as country music, jazz, blues, and a host of regional merican fare. And all of this totally "American" music and culture is as popular oevrseas as Indian music is in the US, ie, not very.

When people speak of "American cultural imperialism", I never imagine they mean their own musical styles innundated with Jazz and blues, but instead about modern marketing.

That is what most people think of when they think "American", not a what but a HOW. Burgers are an American dish, but why do we think McD's? They don;t make the best burger by far, so why are they so big? Becuase of how they sell. The Us excells at the mass marketing of stuff. The US is the leader in advertising and so forth, which is why you do get a flood of US mass market music and video flowing outward. Take movies. US movies have the greatest chunk of the world movie market not becuase we make the "best movies" from an artistic point of view, but becuase the US industry built itself up with mass market films, became rich and huge, and can now afford to have better production values than anyone else, as well as eventually hiring good non American talent to work for the US industry. Few other nations have film industies that could compete, and thos industries focus on fare so directed at a very secific audience that it will most likely fail in other mass markets (like Bollywood movies).

The genius of the US is mass culture is having figured out what appels universally, and perjhaps the only reason we ddi is becuase of the melange that makes up the US.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Velociryx
The trouble is, Spiff, you can't have it both ways.

Borders are amorphous things. Ideas and information will flow across them, no matter what you do. The moment you begin experiencing other cultures, you mix them (in yourself, in others you share your experiences with).

Culture is made up and defined by the people of your national group. The only way to perfectly preserve it is to never go anywhere (so you're not exposed to the influences of other cultures, and then bring this "infection" back to the Mother country), and only learn of other cultures by passively reading about them.

That's clearly not what you are advocating by your own actions, but it's equally clear it's what you (say you) want. Cultural preservation.

Can't have it both ways.

Well, Vel, what you describe is perfect preservation which is indeed irrealistic and stupid anyways. I sure do'nt strive for it. I know that cultural flow cannot be stopped, especially in the information era we're living in.
However, the cultural flow (or rather the cultural spread) can be slowed down in order for the recieving culture to have enough time to assimilate the foreign culture into one's own, and to make the new foreign elements definitely part of the local culture, with a local spin to it.
French rock owes much to American rock, French anime owes much to Japanese anime, French philosophy owes much to Greek philosophy etc. Better yet : French Frog Legs owe everything to Vietnamese Frog Legs
These French things would actually not have existed if thei foreign counterparts didn't exist. And they have been assimilated and made definitely French over time.

However, if the pace of change is too quick, the local culture cannot assimilate the foreign culture into its own and risks of being replaced.

I have no problem with seeing my culture evolve (actually, the good and dynamic music scene is a recent evolution) thanks to foreign cultures. I have a problem with it being replaced, and as such destroyed.

[Japher]

I have a problem with it being replaced, and as such destroyed.

How can that happen? Why are you afraid of that? The only to avoid it is to become the next Nazi state.

[Dinner]

The market should decide if something is desirable or not. Forcing French music to be played is just another subsidy for a falling industry.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by gunkulator
Culture exists for man, not man for the culture. The problem with too much diversity is that it encourages segregation which in turn breeds xenophobia. We fear what we do not understand. We gravitate to what makes us comfortable. It is human nature.

The truth is that we are all human. We all have the same emotions, intellect and potential. What makes one man German and another Nigerian is a simple accident of birth. What makes those two men wary and unsure of each is other (and perhaps even hate each other) can be summed in a single word: culture.

Mankind has spent too much time creating arbitrary groupings of people, always with the subtext of hiearchy. Culture is one of the greatest contributing factors to these divisive groupings.

Like religion, and like many other things, culture has been a way to channel both human genius and human stupidity. It's diersity is precisely what makes us better than chimps with Brains : had we all have the same culture, this here debate wouldn't have existed, and most enriching discussions wouldn't have existed. If you browse 'Poly, you'll notice that many individual opinions are highly depending of culture, no matter on what end of the political spectrum you are.
And this is great. Because cultures allow people to think differently, communications between cultures allow people to further their understanding.

Besides, I don't know if you're fluent in a foreign language, but the very language helps shaping the way you think of things. Such differences are rare between European languages, but they can be stunning between more exotic languages. And this is great as well. Because once again, it allows to push back the borders of one's understanding, provided there is communication between cultures.

Even though culture can be a tool to advocate butchery, I don't think we should get rid of it. Not before we get omniscient

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Japher
How can that happen? Why are you afraid of that? The only to avoid it is to become the next Nazi state.

No, the only way is to have a defensive cultural policy whose purpose is to raise the cutural resistance in order to slow down the pace of cultural spread, so that the local culture has enough time and funding to assimilate the foreign part into its own.

Originally posted by Oerdin
The market should decide if something is desirable or not. Forcing French music to be played is just another subsidy for a falling industry.

Thinking of cultural product as yet another industrial product is wrong, for the reasons I exposed here
Culture is much more than some anonymous moneymaking activity.

[Japher]

No, the only way is to have a defensive cultural policy whose purpose is to raise the cutural resistance in order to slow down the pace of cultural spread, so that the local culture has enough time and funding to assimilate the foreign part into its own.

Boooo Hisssss

Cultural oppression... To do this you would have to take away the rights of immigrants! Nazi!....and to kill the thread: "Are you Hitler or something"?

ohoh I said it

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Japher
Cultural oppression... To do this you would have to take away the rights of immigrants!

Where did I mention immigrants ? I mentioned cultural flows in general. In the information age, immigrants are becoming less and less relevant in this regard. And I have no moral problems making law towards mass-entertainment companies, indeed. But I guess that making laws towards these good defenders of culture are absolutely extremistic

(I should stop, I just rolled my eyes in front of my computer )

[VetLegion]

The Yugo was indegnous to someplace.

That didn't make it a good car.

You bombed the crap out of the place, as a bonus you get to learn its name. Kragujevac, Serbia (parts produced all over ex-yugoslavia).

And no it was/is not a good car

[Maniac]

Bizarre thread. The fact that Spiffor and Paiktis need to explain a basic economic concept such as "unfair competition" to Velocyrix, who studied economics IIRC, makes me even more amazed at the bad quality of American education.

[Spiffor]

Not quite Maniac.
"Unfair competition", in any free-marketer's mind, can solely come from the state messing around, and can never come from competing enterprises. It just can't. Nossiree.