American Cuture And Globalisation Essay Research Paper — страница 2

1976 referendum, Aboriginal people were not allowed to vote because they were not considered the equal of whites. Relating back to our topic, we are able to say that American culture has and is being fed throughout the world via the media, cinema, textile and other ways which has resulted in a dominance or superiority just like the cases in Australia. This is then considered something normal, natural and harmonious with the help of ideology. All these conditions were produced, perpetuated and naturalised through the circulation of ideologies. On this analysis, ideology is not so much an effect of power located elswhere as it is a condition of power itself, or an instance of power made manifest. When Australian children return the smile of the McDonalds clown, when they admire Tom

Cruise s flamboyant Top Gun heroism, they salute, in ideology, the stars and stripes. American imperiality appears natural in these signs, it goes without saying , and the Australian children are implicated in the meaning of the face and the film to become the subjects of their respective discourses. Without the role of globalisation it is not possible to speak of a term called American dominant culture. The dramatic effect of globalisation has and will be strengthening this term. People around the world have become less like themselves and more like each other. The most common name that puts this in front of our eyes is McDonald s. When a McDonald s restaurant opens in a foreign country, it represents the penetration of a foreign symbol into a host country. The adoption of that

symbol invariably initiates a metamorphic transformation whereby that symbol is refined within the culture in question, including the use of the products in question and the role they play in the particular cultural setting. So with the introduction of a foreign symbol into a host country like a new McDonald s restaurant, the impact is not so dramatic and the host country does not fully take in the American culture but shapes it in a way to suit their lifestyle and tastes. For example, the food and names of the food at McDonald s in Tokyo is slightly different to those in America. Or the fact that locals were not impressed with the no food, no eskies, no bare chests rules which were widely broken and had to be abandoned at McDonald s Wonderland situated in Western Sydney. This

showed that the American formula was not as international as had been hoped, and local cultural practices had to be acknowledged. That is to say, globalisation is not determined in its effects; the cultures impacted upon are not without resilience and creativity. The American culture passes through so many filters as it crosses the ocean – filters of language, values, references – that what East Europeans are receiving for example is far from what Americans think they are sending. More recently, the front-line troops in a rising French revolt against American trade practices mustered in central Paris on the 29th of September, sending a warning shot to Washington and their own Government. Small farmers, leftwing politicians, union leaders and green activists united in a show

of force to demand a halt to what is increasingly seen in France as an American-led drive to rob nations of their livelihood and identity under the banner of free trade. The grassroots movement springs from old-fashioned French antipathy towards American methods, especially over food and entertainment. The spur was a series of protests by small farmers against outlets of the McDonald’s restaurant giant in late August. Culture has, for the moment at least, been defined and positioned as a trade issue be it at the elite Organization for Economic Co- operation and Development club of developed countries or the World Trade Organization where nations argue trade disputes. At its core the debate is about cultural policy, how countries individually and as an international community

view the importance of cultural diversity and the means to nurture an independent identity in our brave new world of globalisation. It is about how to ensure that globalisation doesn’t lead to a loss of cultural diversity, a loss of independent identity. Even President Bill Clinton acknowledged that globalisation ”ain’t worth it if we lose the human face of the international community. The U.S. should do more than heed these warnings; it should recognize that strong cultures are in America’s self-interest. If societies feel under assault, insecurities will be magnified, leading to policy paralysis, strident nationalism and anti-Americanism. 34a