Do you agree with the statement that America has no culture?

Nowadays the world is a really small place compared to what it used to be before. Twenty first century brought many changes for our society and it had been marked by the rise of a global economy, the rise of the consumerism, mistrust in government, deepening concern of over terrorism and an increase in the power of private enterprise. With the fall of the Soviet Union the USA became the sole superpower, and although it is suffering from many domestic and foreign problems, it still has a huge influence on the world‘s matters .The same thing is with the culture.

The term Americanisation has been used since 1907 for the American impact on other countries. I will write about negative and positive aspects of America’s culture and how it affects our world and how it was formed. One of the main things which form society is a culture. If we are talking about the USA, it is primarily Western, but influenced by the Native American, African, Asian, Polynesian and Latin American cultures too. Despite certain consistent ideological principles (e.g. individualism, egalitarianism, and faith in freedom and democracy), American culture has a variety of expressions due to its geographical scale and demographic diversity.

The United States has often been thought of as a melting pot, but now it trends towards cultural diversity, pluralism and the image of a salad bowl. Many American cultural elements, especially from popular culture, have spread across the globe through modern mass media .For example, Hollywood dominates most of the world’s media markets. It is the chief medium by which people across the globe see American fashions, customs, scenery and way of life. The same is with music industry. Many U.S.-based artists, such as Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson are recognized worldwide and have sold over 500 million albums each. Moreover, America‘s corporate business is selling the ideas of freedom, choice, competition for all the world.

Cocacola is the most recognised brand in the world and it is a symbol of Americanization and it‘s culture. Furthermore, fast food companies are also often viewed as being a symbol of U.S. marketing dominance. Companies such as Starbucks, McDonald‘s, Burger King and KFC have numerous outlets around the world. Finally, the USA had a lot of really influential poets, such as M.Twain or E.Hemingway whose works continue to be popular to this day. However, all these things poses quite a few problems if we really want to understand if such thing as „American culture“ exists.

First of all, the global presence of America‘s influence in business, politics and economy. Multinational food corporations are „killing“ small business by having less expenses and hiring workers for a lower salary. Speaking about politics, the USA in the last 20 years has participated in more wars or conflicts more than any other nation. Secondly ,the globalisation, which America brings to our homes ,imposes some laws or certain ideas on citizens which might be harmful in the long term for nation‘s economy or it’s standings of values, and customs, which can not be changed if we want to have society with moral standarts.

Finally, most of the media and production created by the USA has a really low art value or lack a deeper meaning, because the reason they are created is profit. And if you want to have a profit, you have to sell your merchandise, you don’t need anything really mind provoking. To sum up, I believe that American culture exists ,and there are many great things which were made or created in the USA, such as music or modern technology ,which we use everyday, but we shouldn‘t forget that this country also invented things like weapons of mass destruction and started many wars, because the USA is „the world‘s police“ and they have to make sure there is peace in the world.