Message-ID: <s392b695.081@crs.loc.gov> Date: Mon, 2 Jun 1997 12:00:44 -0500 From: Jonathan Sanford <mailto:JSANFORD@CRS.LOC.GOV> Subject: Re: American Cultural Empire Building To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Dear FlorinPersonally, I agree with you. I'm not very happy with the kind of culture the United States produces in its films, music, etc. I think it is too violent, too superficial, and too little concerned with human values. I don't think it really represents the United States or American values very well. But lots of people like it and want to see the films and buy the music. If we passed a constitutional amendment in the United States and appointed a board of censors to root out this stuff, I'm sure the producers would shift their centers of production to another countries and bring the tapes into the United States hidden in shipments of cocaine. I suppose the best solution would be to make sure young people have no money to spend for a couple decades. That would dry it up. But that would be very hard to do.
If people in Eastern Europe and elsewhere don't like American music and American films, then they certainly should not listen to it or view it. I don't believe the United States is going to invade countries or seize their cultural outlets in order to force purchase of its cultural products. People abroad can emphasize local culture and continue to enjoy the same styles and pastimes they enjoyed before the industrial age started this process of homogenization of culture, if they want to and if they are willing to pay the cost. If they want something different but not American, they can buy French or Mexican or Indian or Japanese cinema and music and hire people from those places to design their clothes and buildings. However, I think they are likely to get products from those sources that are similar to those the Americans produce and they are as likely to overwhelm local culture as are American products.
I think that, if you want to preserve your local culture and keep out the importation of foreign culture, you are going to need to persuade young people not to listen to rock music, children not to like Disney cartoons, and others not to want to see and hear the products of foreign culture. Blaming the foreign producers or enacting legal prohibitions against the consumption of products of foreign culture will not be very effective if your own people still think that foreign films and foreign music and foregin styles are attractive. It's like the American drug problem--we blame the foreigners for producing and selling us the stuff, but it's really our fault for wanting to buy it.
Jon Sanford