Quote:
Originally Posted by Nashe
This thread is making me ask myself "What lure is causing the global dominance of American 'Culture'?" Everybody (myself included) complain about it, but consume it nonetheless. There's a shred of hypocrisy about it that I'm not comfortable with, haha. Fast food, snacks, music, movies... why do we all love to consume them, even if we don't "love" them? Because they are there? Because they are cheap? Because they "taste good"? Is that enough to create a global brand that doesn't really even have to be "pushed"?
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I suspect it is a human thing more than a national identity thing. For example, humans have long been programmed to eat fat and sugar, as in times of food scarcity, these things give us energy and allow us to survive until more nutritious food is available. It's in our DNA, regardless of how we might want to deny it.
American culture? It's there, in our faces, and in a language that most of us can understand. I would suggest that as 'not Americans' we don't even completely consume their culture the same way they do, but a lot of entertainment is centred around things that are basic to the human experience... i.e. sex, love, conflict, emotions, social interactions, etc. Everybody can relate to them, and the American aspect of them is more just a superficial thing than anything else.
Proximity is always a factor, but also the amount of money put into the promotion and development of such products (apparently size is everything... haha). Additionally, my opinion is that not everybody thinks in terms of allegiance to a particular nation when they are consuming food or 'cutlure'. Those ideals are heightened to the extreme in this thread, IMHO, but I suspect that many people don't even care about it (which is why many participants in this thread are very concerned about the future of francophone Quebec culture and language).
One thing I have always thought of as being curious is how Japanese adopted American culture on a superficial level, even though most whom I have known are extremely proud of their nationality and their culture. Yet, when I was over there, I saw cars driving around with 'english' slogans on them that didn't quite make sense to a speaker of the language, but the 'image' was present. There was also Christmas decorations and music in malls, even though the majority of the population is Buddhist (it was explained to me that they adopted the superficial "Santa Claus" aspect of Christmas, and not the religious aspect... upon reflection perhaps not that different from the US and Canada). Etc., etc. It's almost like a part of the population (mostly younger people) thought that the image of the US was "cool", even though they still were proudly Japanese. That's just my personal experience... YYMV.
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Just being funny here, and though your logic seems a little questionable, I will agree that Quebec and Ontario (or Upper and Lower Canada, or the Province of Canada) have always been bigger than the Maritime Provinces. It's a fact.
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