The Americanisation of Globalisation: Taking Credit, Placing Blame - Essay Example

The Americanisation of Globalisation: Taking Credit, Placing Blame The term 'Americanization' originated in the early 1900s when foreign immigrants arrived on the shores of the United States and were instructed to become Americanised. The new arrivals were instructed to dress like Americans, eat American food, abide by American customs, and learn the English language. While most assimilated into the American culture and way of life, many of their traditions and cultural values were maintained. Today, as the world is brought closer by technology and communication, there is the fear that globalisation is Americanisation. While it is true that American products dominate the marketplace and American culture influences youth around the globe, these are surface lifestyle events that have no depth of lasting impact. However, America does have an export that is placing a lasting hold on the global landscape. While culture may be just a by-product of Americanisation, free market capitalism and its attendant freedom of choice has swept the globe, advanced American ideology, and is restructuring the political and economic foundations of the world. The concept that globalisation is being Americanised implies that there is a global community that transcends the local nationalities and infers the existence of some super-national group whose nationality is that of the world. They are global citizens who have shed the restrictions, traditions, and culture of their native land and adopted a new and ubiquitous culture that is predominately American. Since the end of the Cold War era, when there was a war of ideology around the globe, a new sense of capitalism based endeavours have been blanketing the globe. These efforts have been augmented by what some people think of as parallel international governments and institutions. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), The World Trade Organisation, The World Bank, The World Health Organisation, and a myriad of trading blocs have conspired to form the new global community. The IMF is ruled by the seven largest industrialised nations known as the Group of Seven (G7) that controls most of the Fund's voting power of which the United States has the overriding control as well as the ability to veto. The US has been a major advocate of free market exchange and financial deregulation with the other G7 members following, though at times reluctantly, in their path (Pokorny 2005 p.321). The overriding goal is to take control of the market by gaining, "...agreement for a common sense about globalisation...which, among other things, promotes 'sound' macroeconomic policies, the securing of private property rights and the depoliticisation of economic policy" (Bruff 2005 p.215). The global leaders have quietly acquiesced to the US's role as leader and have followed their lead. It is this sense of ideological agreement, both political and economic, that is fuelling the Americanisation of globalisation. It has led to a new sense of capitalist consumerism that displaces traditional cultural and spending patterns and results in the appearance of a homogeneous globalised culture. There has been an increasing integration and consolidation of economies around the world that are fuelled by institutions under predominately American control. The IMF and World Bank have become the standard for the economic behaviour of underdeveloped countries around the world that are in need of loans for development. These financial institutions have demanded that these countries "...open up their economies to liberalization under Structural Adjustment Programmes that encouraged governments to fund privatization programmes, ahead of welfare and public services" (Ssenyonga 2006). Capitalism, America's number one export, has had enormous an impact on the impoverished around the globe by way of American financial dominance. Globalisation is a broad and all encompassing term that includes economics, ideology, communications, culture, technology, entertainment, and fashion. It brings the world into a smaller and more tightly knit group that is bound together by the common bonds of the products they consume and their relationship to these products. Culture and ideology moves across the Internet and across migratory borders. It can move with the free flow of capital investment or in the release of the latest movie. This movement of ideas and culture is embraced by people all around the globe and not just by Americans. However, some see the movement as a new type of American "...corporate imperialism; one which tramples over the human rights of developing societies, claims to bring prosperity, yet often simply amounts to plundering and profiteering" (Ssenyonga 2006). Still there is more to globalisation than the multinational corporation that takes advantage of cheap labour and lax environmental laws to exploit the capital resources. Globalisation is a lifestyle. One of the bigger exports, and most widely used, has been the English language. The spread of the popularity of English as the universal language of choice has made American literature, music, and art more accessable to millions of people. According to Legrain (2003), "Around 380 million people speak it as their first language and another 250 million or so as their second. A billion are learning it, about a third of the world's population are exposed to it, and by 2050, it is reckoned, half the world will be more or less proficient in it". While English is spreading, it is sometimes at the expense of native languages, which fall into disuse and extinction due to the limited number of speakers. Traditions are translated, folklore is forgotten, and the heritage and culture is necessarily replaced by the new information gained through the new language. Technology has the greatest impact on this new globalised lifestyle and that technology is predominate on the Internet. The United States has been significantly involved in the development of the Internet and is still the dominant player on the Internet landscape. Such names as Google, Yahoo, and E-bay are American mainstays. Though they have outlets tailored to international needs, language, and cultural tastes they are dominated by American control and maintain an American flair for independence and attitude. This has spread out to become the driving style of the Internet as other outlets soak up a similar style for their portals. These are the visible signs of American culture reaching out in a pervasive manner to infiltrate every corner of the globe by way of the world's largest mass communication system. The Internet is not only dominated by American commercial concerns, but the very structure of the delivery system is under tight American control. Though it has been debated for years as to how the Internet should be managed, it remains predominately America's instrument. According to the Internet Governance Project described as, " an interdisciplinary consortium of academics with scholarly and practical expertise in international governance, Internet policy, and information and communication technology" the United States has a strong position and has demonstrated a reluctance to relinquish any control (Internet governance project 2006). In a position paper released in July 2005 by the project, Mueller et al. states, National interest dictates that the United States government should help lead the further evolution of global Internet governance to meet global needs for transparency, accountability and participation in decision making in a manner consistent with legitimate US policy objectives. We urge the US to forthrightly reaffirm its support for the principles of the 1998 White Paper, which include an expectation that internationalisation and privatisation should supersede top-down, unilateral governmental control, including control by the US government (p.2). Still, the United States has continued to defy attempts at internationalising the Internet as was demonstrated by the recent conference in Tunisia when no agreement was reached on limiting America's influence over the Internet architecture (Ssenyonga 2006). With the structure and the content of the Internet under American control, we can only expect an American cultural spread. The Americanisation of globalisation is most evident in the products that are consumed by the global community. Tennis shoes, Ipods, and blue jeans are all particularly American products that have spread around the globe and captured the imagination of the global community. Often, these goods are marketed to youthful markets and have bred a new consumerist attitude around the globe. Advertising is able to target audiences on a global scale using the Americanised mass media outlets. In India, with a rich tradition of consumer conservatism, has recently been introduced to the new American economy. They have served as a surrogate source of inexpensive labour for many American corporations. This has enriched a new class of young Indians and pulled them into the grip of American culture. According to Lukose (2005), "Recent scholarship on advertising, television, and film in India have highlighted the ways in which globalizing capital operates through the production of specific and various sites of consumer desire and agency, marked by caste, region, community, age, gender, and class" (p.918). This has resulted in what Lukose (2005) calls a "...more aggressive, confident, sexualized, and aggressively public figure" (p.919). American products are transforming the Indian culture from the youth up as they are inundated with advertisement and financial ability supplied by America. The globalization of religion had proceeded modern communications and the Internet. Christian missionaries and others such as Mormon and Seventh Day Adventists from America have spanned out across the globe in recent centuries to spread their faith throughout the world. Indeed, the concept of freedom of religion and the separation of religion and the state has been a basis for America's ideology and is particularly identified as American. The recent war on terrorism and hostilities in Iraq have been linked to globalization and the spread of western capitalism under the guise of religion. North African writer Abd al-Ilah Balqaziz accuses the United States "...of using the pretext of fighting terrorism, fanaticism and intolerance to undermine Islam, because the Arabs and Islam are the only obstacle in the face of today's empire under American hegemony" (cited in Najjar 2005 p.92). This supersedes the casual selling of products and lifestyle and transcends Americanisation into an active political will. America is globalising their point of view on religion to foster a freedom of thought that flies under the banner of democracy as they have for centuries. Some of the most noted and visible forms of Americanisation around the globe is the pop culture food exported by America. Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald's are in every corner of the globe and have transported the mentality of 'fast' food and the hectic lifestyle portrayed in America's movies and pop music. This may be the biggest threat to the youth of the world and the reshaping of traditional heritage and culture. American journalist Thomas Friedman once wrote, "globalization is in so many ways Americanization: globalization wears Mickey Mouse ears, it drinks Pepsi and Coke, eats Big Macs, does its computing on an IBM laptop with Windows 98. Many societies around the world can't get enough of it, but others see it as a fundamental threat" (cited in Ssenyonga 2006). Still most view the invasion as a positive force and have welcomed it while tempering it for their own locale. In fact, A 2004 poll conducted by the University of Maryland involving 19 countries on four continents, "...found that even after five years of massive, worldwide demonstrations against 'corporate globalization', 55 percent of the respondents believed that globalization was positive for them and their families, while only 25 percent said that it was negative" (Steger 2005 p.14). Most of the world, and especially the impoverished countries that have the most to gain from development, once again reluctantly acquiesce to the American invasion through the process of globalization. Others around the globe may be embracing what appears to be Americanisation to fulfil their own personal agendas. Youth will often identify with a product or a trend out of a sense of rebellion rather than an affinity for the product itself. In Tom O'Dell's book Culture Unbound: Americanization and Everyday Life in Sweden (1997) the author points out the working class youth in Sweden that would disrupt the activities of the middle class by driving American cars and waving American flags. However, the author points out that this was not a demonstrative interest in American ideology or even products, but was a way to "...mark their identity as oppositional to that of the elitist middle-class youth" (cited in McCormick 1999 p.579). This same phenomenon is seen in music where American music has been worn as a badge of rebellion in Japan and China. The freedom of expression and variety in American pop art makes it easily adaptable as an instrument of rebellion. However, this is no indication that the youth of China and Japan are embracing America's economic, political, social, or environmental policies. It is simply an instrument of their own self-expression. It is possible to accept American culture and products while rejecting Americanisation. The flow of culture goes both ways. Indian food is more popular in Britain than hamburgers where curry take out outsells hamburgers by a margin of six to one (Legrain 2003). Chinese restaurants are as prolific as Mexican grills in America. Though the world may be being Americanised, America is also being globalised. Some of the most popular pop culture consumed in America has come from outside its borders. Abba, the Beatles, and Santana are only a few of the global influences on America's culture. Even the fabled blue jeans were designed by a German, Levi Strauss. Hollywood movies were popularised around the world because they were technical and expensive to make. Today, Europe, India, and Japan are rivalling Hollywood in style and quality in the film making business. Television broadcasts, once the domain of America, has fallen prey to worldwide satellite broadcasting. This has led to the rise of such moguls as Al-jazeera and the Spanish speaking Univision Network. America has no total dominance in these areas. Globalization is a flow of what works for individual tastes and desires. Culture is shared and preserved across borders where people value its importance, strive to protect it, and pass it down from generation to generation. In conclusion, the common idea of globalisation being the same as Americanisation is a mischaracterisation and generalised misinterpretation. No culture can conquer or dominate another simply by being available. American music has been popular, not because it is American, but because it has been available to be used as a symbol of rebellion. American movies, once the only ones available, have been usurped by other motion pictures from new entries around the world. Food, one of the most identifiable aspects of culture, flows across borders as people around the world develop sophisticated tastes for new and inventive products. Ideas and technology expand and spread around the globe and are put to local use such as Al-jazeera and Univision. Americanisation is not about culture or products, but about ideology. It is the spread of free market economies that bring with it a freedom of choice. As this choice is exercised, we see the proliferation of local culture as we have seen in India. This is not an unwanted invasion of American ideas. It is a way to improve the standard of living for people around the globe and to escape political or religious tyranny. A century after 'Americanisation' was first conceived, people may still become Americanised, but they won't be eating hamburgers, drinking Coke, or maybe not speaking English. They will be free to choose their culture, traditions, and values while eating local cuisine and watching a movie produced in their home country. References Bruff, I. (2005). Making sense of the globalisation debate when engaging in political economy analysis. British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 7, 261-280. Internet governance project (2006). Retrieved May 14, 2007, from http://www.internetgovernance.org/ Legrain, P. (2003). Cultural globalization is not Americanization. Chronicle of Higher Education, 49(35). Lukose, R. (2005). Consuming globalization: Youth and gender in Kerala, India. Journal of Social History, 915-935. McCormick, C. (1999). No Title [Review of the book Culture unbound: Americanization and everyday life in Sweden]. The Journal of American Folklore, 112(446), 578-580. Mueller, M. et al. (2005). The future US role in Internet governance: 7 points in response to the US Commerce Dept.'s "Statement of principles". Syracuse, NY: Internet Governance Project. Najjir, F. (2005). The Arabs, Islam, and globalization. Middle East Policy, 12(3), 91-106. Pokorny, D. (2005). Society and market in the era of globalization. Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, 4(3-4), 305-355. Ssenyonga, A. B. (2006, October 2). Americanization or globalization Global Envision. Retrieved May 13, 2007, from http://globalenvision.org/index.phpcategory=46&fuseaction=library.print&itemid=1273&printerfriendly=1 Steger, M. B. (2005). Ideologies of globalization. Journal of Political Ideologies, 10(1), 11-30. Read More