Stella Lamari 3

http://gsevenier.free.fr/culturalImperialism.html

“American Cultural Imperialism: Gift or Threat?”

Gaelle Sévenier points some positive and negative features out about American culture and how it affects million lives.

America is often seen as a role model who is spreading universal values and human rights. It stands for equality, freedom and democracy and battles against anti-authoritarian messages and racism. Many articles discuss how American culture has changed the world, but what about America itself?

How are Americans affected by their own culture?

Fact is that America has also problems like every other country. If we check the American system out we will find lots of features which do not fit in some values and even the human rights. European countries are against the death penalty.

What about America?

The government has the right to convict somebody to death. No matter which crime this person committed nobody has the right to decide about death or life. It is also against the Ten Commandments and we all know that America trusts in God, but is not GOD!

“Equality” is also an aspect which disagrees with some American values, because not every American has the chance to study due to the high fees. There is a gap between the poor and the rich and many Americans cannot afford a health insurance. They do not get any medical care. For European countries health care is something essential that everyone has and is also important for human dignity. Before American spread its values, it should change the situation in its own state.

In spite of these contradictions America and its culture often affects the world in a positive way. Gaelle Sévenier claims that Superman, Spider-Man and Batman replaced local heroes and Coca Cola and Pepsi local drinks. This may be true but American ideas and products can inspire different nations in different ways. American music inspired many people. After the Second World War “Jazz” become a creative spirit of Blacks and was a way to express feelings and opinions against war, racial and economic oppression and commercialism. French youth used jazz as cultural resistance against the German occupation. In 1980s French people created their own style of hip hop in their own language. (American Cultural Studies, page 328/329).

American movies, music and products must not replace local things but they can be used to create something new and unique! America was also affected by other cultures due to immigration and the diversity of nationalities.

I think that we should not only consider how American culture affects our daily lives but how Americans really feel and think about their own culture. America is not perfect and struggles for a better future.

But who is really perfect?

The answer is: Nobody!

Fact is that we all should look and learn from each other!

Claudia Otto 3

http://www.americanforeignrelations.com/A-D/Cultural-Imperialism-Three-trends-of-cultural-transfer.html

Is the transfer of the American culture an instrument of power and cultural transmission actually cultural imperialism?

To answer this question one has to take a look at history, especially at the time after World War II in Europe. As the article clearly states, there are two opposing answers to this question. On the one hand people say that the United States consciously tried to export their culture in order to get access to cheap labor, new markets etc., but on the other hand people argue that it is a more fluid concept of giving, taking and adapting cultural products and values which would make "transmission" the more appropriate term.

Taking a closer look at American history one can discover that the U.S. actually founded a propaganda organisation right after World War II with the single purpose of transmitting the American culture to other countries. These plans developed mainly due to the political and economic competition between the U.S. and the communist Soviet States, as well as the fact that America had a rather bad reputation all over the world. But even if the main reason for establishing this institution was based on the intention to spread the well-working, supposedly universally beneficial democratic way of life, it is hard to imagine this without a certain amount of pressure being put on societies to adopt American culture, making it seem imperialistic rather than just a form of transmission.

But the concept of cultural imperialism also pictures the countries to which the American culture is transferred as passive victims, which is simply not the case when looking at the different countries of Western Europe.

Of course, American culture has influenced those countries but the most influential organisations where in fact non-governmental. Studies also showed that societies do actively resist to American (or any other) cultural influences if they feel it threatens their own traditions and values or they adapt and modify it to their specific needs. Other cultures adopt new cultural products from the U.S. knowing that it does not interfere with their "old" cultural values and is just too different. These facts show that American culture or any other culture cannot be forced on other countries so easily because the individual cultural identity as well as resistance play an important role in this process.

So maybe "transmission" is the term that describes the process of cultural transfer more accurately than "imperialism".