Cultural wasteland

I've argued this with a friend of mine. Mind you, she has a degree in international marketing, so the smart money is on her, but I say that America is a cultural wasteland, with little to offer in terms of fashion, literature, politics, or the arts. That isn't to say it doesn't offer it anyway, only that the rest of the world isn't buying.

In fact, what the rest of the world has adopted -- that America would like to take credit for -- is European, and in particular French and British, due in part to their colonial prowess, but primarily because the rest of the world embraced them. They didn't want to be controlled by them, but they wanted to be like them.

The historical analogy is Greece and Rome. Greece offered the world its culture, and the rest of the world became Hellenized. Many cultures were subsumed not by physical force, but by a compelling culture.

Then Rome ascended through military superiority, and while many countries fell under their dominion, no one followed them, and when their empire collapsed from within (as all empires do), the other countries immediately reverted to their pre-Roman cultures.

My friend argues that commercialism is a form of culture, and that while other countries may be adapting it differently, they are all adopting it. The idea that you can 'spend' your way out of a recession is American, which unfortunately even the Europeans have adopted. McDonald's isn't exporting hamburgers to the world, but a model of cheap, mass produced food that the world has embraced. Walmart isn't exporting clothes, but the idea that at the right price, quantity always trumps quality.  And Hollywood is the worst of all, exporting American culture and thus commercializing commercialism!

Perhaps she is right, and America is a cultural leader; I will still deny it because I don't want to accept that this is all my country has to offer.  In the long run, though, I don't  think it matters much. America has already passed its zenith, and will soon be surpassed by other empires, who will export their own culture. And I expect Americans will be the first to follow, finding their way out of their own cultural wasteland.