Interesting article I read today: How American Culture Ate the World: A new book explains why Americans know so little about other countries.

This was a mystery I have been trying to decipher for the longest time. Why do some Americans have such bad geography skills? Why do they know so little of the world outside America?

The article is a review of sorts of the book, A Righteous Smokescreen: Postwar America and the Politics of Cultural Globalization by Sam Lebovic. Something I need to get on my ebook reader stat!

“… just as the U.S. took command as the planetary superpower, it remained surprisingly cut off from the rest of the world. A parochial empire, but with a global reach.”

How American Culture Ate the World

Summary

1. US culture dominates the world. The French called it “coca-colonisation”.
2. While America exports most of its culture to the world, it barely imports the world’s culture, so her people remain largely ignorant of the world.
3. This parochial attitude has its roots in history. A racial quota immigration system and ideas not in line with American ideals are restricted at the borders.
4. While things are better now, this inward-looking behaviour not reversed. (Why, though?)
5. Perhaps it is because its media ecosystem, which is described as “an American echo chamber”, has not changed nor expanded its content to include the world.
6. Also, the world’s Web 2.0 activities is corralled into the platforms of a handful of American companies.
7. American Conservatives long for homogeneity, conformity and racial and social hierarchies.
8. Liberals long for the central role of the US as the world’s “peace police”.

In conclusion…

The American national security state, bulkier than ever, continues to exclude foreigners on ideological grounds. America’s culture industry has not stopped its mercantilist pursuits. And Web 2.0 has corralled a lot of the world’s online activities onto the platforms of a handful of American companies. America’s geopolitical preeminence may slip away in the not-so-distant future, but it’s not clear if Americans will change the channel.

Interestingly, this is the opposite situation in Malaysia. We not only consume American culture, but also from other places. Our cinemas screen American & European, Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Korean movies. Our newspapers have world news from every part of the world. I cannot say that every single Malaysian is informed about every part of the world, but they are exposed to thoughts and ideas from all corners of the world. Except maybe Africa. We really don’t have enough news and content from that continent!

When I was one of the world news editors of a national paper, I’d have to scroll the wires to put together the world news section of the paper. My sources include: Asia News Network (which includes all the major papers in Asia, including South-East Asia), AP, AFP, and Reuters. Our news sources include reputedly “state controlled” outlets such as China Daily and SCMP, and media the US views with suspicion such as Al-Jazeera.

This exposure has given me rich insights on how differently every part of the world thinks about the same issues.

This education has been invaluable for me, and most probably informed my point of view on the current US and China tensions which I wrote in my recent article: “Being Chinese in an anti-China world.”

It has taught me that the world is amazingly complex, and approaching it from a black and white, this is “right and wrong” perspective is limiting and also dangerous.