America The Most Powerful Nation Media Essay

the States The well-nigh Powerful Nation Media Essaythe States is arguably, the or so properly nation on Earth, having nonp atomic number 18il of the largest military forces and in addition to this, the Statesn culture saturates the market, almost drowning out pagan exports from some other countries, both genuine and developing, this cultural overshadowing of the symmetricalness of the globe in all(a)ows the States to, in effect be the ability house of the replete(p) World. in that respect is not a study urban metropolis on the planet without a McDonalds or a Starbucks. This Globalisation has also helped to cement the Statess position as the most compelling nation on Earth. M any authors pack attempted to identify plainly why and how America achieved this fantastical global command, including Ziauddin Sardar who lists The Ten Laws of Ameri cease Mythology in his text, American Dream/Global Nightmargon.Rather than examine every one of Sardars lawfulnesss of America n Mythology, I have instead decided to merely witness at five compositors cases and see if they fight Sardar claims that every citizen in the organismness is a citizen of America. Sardars first law of American Mythology is that Fear is Essential (Sardar, 2004, pp.21) and active in this advance(a) age of terror, it is hard not to see that law applied across the Globe. Terrorists, so we are told, can strike anywhere, at any era and can be absolutely anyone. This atmosphere of disquietude and distrust, very standardized to that which was created under McCarthy in America in the Nineteen Fifties, or tied(p) ironically under Stalin in Communist Russia. Sardar states that To live in America is to be beset by fear, anxiety and insecurity, to be surrounded by potential harm, enemies and evil intent. (Sardar, 2004, pp.21) This fear of terrorism and general atmosphere of fear is supported by the news media, who spend the entirety of their time any reporting on stupid nonsense, of ab solutely zero interest or significance on anyones life, which is also an American entrance, worship of the cult of celebrity, or alternatively forming a state of fear, creating folk devils and moral panics, much as they did with hoodies in the early course of instructions of the Twenty-First Century, or punks before that in the Nineteen S flushties.Sardars second law of Americana also supports the theory that everyone is a citizen of America Escape is the reason for being (Sardar, 2004, pp.21) Sardar states that America was created for people in hunt club of room to breathe, in search of a place to recreate themselves and pulp a new lifestyle free from constraints. (Sardar, 2004, pp.21) This especially applies in the advance(a) macrocosm where leak seems to be virtually everyones ultimate goal, people can even have entire virtual lives on the internet, generally playing American do games. Even if someone decides to experience some escapism at a lower level, maybe some light recitation or watching a contract, chances are they are American made as well, and will almost undoubtedly portray an American bias, either in the spellings, or the pronunciations or possibly even erect the cultural standards that everyone needs to reference in order to fully appreciate and delight a call on of art. state of war is a requirement (Sardar, 2004, pp.25) America is in all probability the most pro war nation on the planet, having, in the at last twenty years, sent troops into Iraq , Somalia, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, The Philippines, Iraq again and most latterly Libya. As Sardar states Even before 9/11, America had waged war on over half(prenominal) the nations of the globe. Americas economy is a war economy. Its science and technology is deeply fasten in the military machine. (Sardar, 2004, pp.25) Arguably most of the wars in Americas new-fangled history, havent even been waged for ideological reasons, or for any necessary reason, but instead for money, a nd to farther advance or merely enable the atmosphere of terror that Sardar determine in his first law.Sardars seventh and eighth laws, namely that Cinema is the locomotive engine of empire and that Celebrity is the common currency of empire (Sardar, 2004, pp.24) both support his theory The notion that America is the idea of nation, was formalised and made unvarnished in moving-picture show. And this standardised, industrialised, manu positionured product became Americas superior export, the idea of Self it represent to the world, and through which it demonised, appropriated and brought other cultures within its own purview. (Sardar, 2004, pp.24) The dominance of America in the world of Cinema is staggering, as well as owning one of the worlds greatest movie-making and movie exporting locations, Hollywood. In the very early days of cinema almost all films were American made, and this legacy has not gone a air, the film world is incredibly America-centric, and so of course the res publica itself-importance profits greatly from this exportation of film. In addition to being the location of the movie nifty of the world, American films are translated and shipped all over the world. As well as this, more big American films are obviously remade by large foreign studios, such as Bollywood. However, this trend has begun to reverse in recent years, with the apparent lack of original thinking in Hollywood ahead(p) to an exceptional number of remakes of foreign films.It is impossible to speak astir(predicate) American films, without mentioning celebrities, the passengers for whom these vehicles are crafted. American celebrities, and celebrities in general all over the world, execute elfin basic function in the real world but are universally praised regardless of their talent or charisma, and on that point is no shortage of opportunities to applaud them, such as the Oscars, as Sardar states They are bodied ritual where obeisance is made to the engine of empire. The ritual performance of the Oscar ceremony is a demonstration of global power and domination that will digest headlines, column inches and immense economical rewards around the globe for the year to come. (Sardar, 2004, pp.24-25)There is little doubt that America has a massive effect on the rest of the world and on citizens of all contentities, but especially upon spectacular Britain. America has dragged Britain into many ill-ventured Wars in the last two decades, including Iraq, Afghanistan, and most recently Libya. How many of these military ventures would Great Britain have been involved in if not for America and the special relationship that exists between the two countries. There are many possible reasons for this to have occurred, not least of which, in my opinion, is overdue to fear on the part of British politicians and leaders, fear of America and the power that America can wield, after all fear is essential consort to Sardar.However the War on Terror was not something that purely affected America, while the destruction of the World Trade Centre was undoubtedly a tragedy and spurred America into taking action against virtually the entire of the in-between East and a large portion on the rest of the world, in that respect were also other terrorist attacks on major European capital cities, there was the barrage fire of the London Underground and the number 30 Bus on the Seventh of July 2005, and the bombing of the Cercanias in Madrid on the Eleventh of inch 2004, but it was definitely America that led the charge against the perceived little terror of terrorism. However America did nothing when there were terrorist attacks that did not affect or panicen them, such as the campaign by the Real Irish Republican Army including the Banbridge bombing on the First of August 1998, and the Omagh bombing of the Fifteenth of the same month, even continuing their hands-off attitude towards world security when the Real IRA began their campaign against London in the year 2000. But maybe this carelessness on the part of America was for the exceed as their response to terrorism has been heavy handed at best, War on Terror has already become deeply embedded in laws, policies, and the practices of government agencies, But nearly eight years since the 9/11 attacks, US charities are still treated as a threat to security. Although, the change in administration in Washington gave foretaste that the US government would adopt much measured responses to the threat of terrorism, (Howell, 2009. Pp53) other appearance in which America is slowly but surely wearing away any sense of individuality in any other kingdom is Globalisation and the impact that America has on the rest of the world economically. The recent economic crisis that has plagued the entirety of the world, has its roots in America, on Wall Street, and the rapaciousness of American bankers sending the world economy into a meltdown. Much ilk the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that embraceed it, the economy of the entire world looks to Wall Street for its cues, economically, and when that collapses the entire world follows suit, not just in the United Kingdom, across the entirety of Europe national economies have collapsed completely and require bailing out. This is in contrast to the way in which America affected so many countries before the breakdown, with its material security the approachability and expansion of material security and comfort enabled early American brotherly patterns and culture to expand and solidify, to both delineate and facing pages an American national character. With growth, more people could participate in that distinctive culture more fully and could become more American (Fischer, 2010)This greed of America has other less deep effects, rather than the drastic nature of an economic meltdown, the swear for greater profits means that many American companies subcontract ca-ca abroad, where the y have to pay workers less money for doing the same work Most American computer firms now subcontract basic work to Bangalore, (Wes, 1996, pp.49) The ultimate result of this is that foreign workers have a loyalty to America for providing them work and allowing them to feed their families, and as they have to speak the expression and think about America for the majority of their day. Inevitably American culture and sensibilities work their way into the daily life of these foreign workers.Americas globalisation is not only restrict to high street outlets, as was mentioned in my introduction, but in essential fact goes much deeper than that. The majority of household brands consumed in England are American in origin, such as Mars, and every subsidy of that which comprises most of the java eaten in the country and Coke and Pepsi which together produce the majority of all soft drinks. Even brands which ostensibly appear to be British are in fact American, such as the fact that ASDA i s actually owned by Wal-Mart.Globalization as an economic phenomenon has been the dominant force for economic integration and the main driver of growth oecumenical for many decades, although the secureness of globalization- taken to include trade, finance, flows of information and technology, and offshoring- is unprecedented in modern economic history. The increased economic interconnections between countries are widely credited as one of the driving forces that significantly reduced poverty in chinaware and Vietnam, enabled the poorer nations of Europe to ride the European Union train to higher incomes, and gave hope to some African countries. (Spence, M. 2010. Pp 4)However, as Spence states, Globalisation is not merely a one way system with America pushing its culture onto the rest of the world, there are many other cultures with a huge square off over the worldwide ethos, such as Japan and the huge influence Manga and Anime have over the fields of western animation and dive rting books, or the influence of J-Pop and J-Rock on music or the fashion sensibilities of Japans juvenility subcultures.It certainly appears that America has a far greater influence on other cultures than any other country, but I believe that this is simply because America is, comparatively, a newer country, having only existed independently for two-hundred and thirty-five years, and rather than in stages coming into being like most other countries, America came into being with a bang with the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July fourth 1776. Therefore, rather than gradually affecting neighbouring countries through occupation or the bypass of changing languages, the use of foreign words in the incline language is not seen as dominance of other cultures, American culture has had a much more sudden influence on the rest of the world.In regards to language, American words sidewalk instead of pavement and American spellings of side words color instead of colour for e xample have for the most part completely failed to influence the English language in any way. However there are many words in the English language which are actually foreign words in origin, for example french, abandon, abattoir and abbreviation, and German words such as, zeitgeist. However this may be due to historical concerns, the American language is essentially a discount variation on the English language which would explain why there has been little influence, and the fact that approximately thirty percent of the words in a standard English dictionary have a French origin is due to the Norman conquest in the 11th Century.Another reason for the dominance of American culture is the fact that, as a nation, America has entered the Empire structure stage of their development during a time in which Empire building is strongly discouraged by the external community, all other countries that have had extensive Empires Rome, Great Britain and Mongolia, greatly spread their culture ar ound the Globe through sheer force and domination of the natives. Whereas America has to be more subtle in the ways in which American culture is spread, it is no longer acceptable to conquer a country and force the local populace to speak your language and follow your customs, so America has to make itself seem like the ideal, Sardar in fact refers to this with the title of his essay American Dream/ Global Nightmare The American Dream in many ways, is the ultimate goal of every someone on the globe, regardless of nationality or creed, to be allowed to support yourself and live how you desire to live, but by naming it The American Dream gives the impression that to be American is in itself the ultimate goal, this dream can only be achieved in America, The Land of the Free supposedly.However I do not believe that this submission to American cultural dominance is a necessity as Sardar claims it is, while it would undoubtedly be difficult to remove all American influences from your li fe, it would not be impossible. American culture is not as essential to life as oxygen or food or water, but the influence it has, both directly such as the aftermath of American brands and culture, like books and films, and also indirectly such as the influences that American culture has had on books and films created in other countries, for example, as was mentioned earlier in this essay, the news media now reports either stupid nonsense of terrifying stories of offensive violence. This has come from an American influence, the cult of the celebrity is definitely American in origin, and possibly serves to fill the void left by the lack of a monarchy.In conclusion I believe that while America undoubtedly has a massive influence on the rest of the world and that the conflict between American and non-American citizens is rapidly decreasing, but that doesnt mean that everyone is becoming an American citizen, it merely means that everyone is a citizen of the World. The increase avail ability and dominance of technology means that communication across the world is now incredibly fair and the dominance of the internet means that practically anyone can interact with anyone else on the globe without actually having to meet them.In addition to this, Nietzsches Death of God, and the increasing redundancy of National Identity means that there is very little loyalty to either country or religion, only loyalty to ones self and ones family, this in itself is Americas greatest influence over the rest of the world. This combination of ungodliness and almost a self loathing of your country of origin, is what is cause many people to seem like American citizens, even when they are not.Americas worldwide domination is undoubtedly on the decline, the rising powers of India and China are threatening Americas hold over the culture of the world, in addition to this, Americas military imperialism is causing many people, both in America and throughout the World, to question the wa y in which the country is run, the torture committed at Guantanamo Bay and the fault of civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism is causing America to be painted as the real villain of the World building on the image sketched out by the war in Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. The blind, good patriotism of Americans who willingly went to die on foreign soil in the Second World War for Uncle Sam and Moms Apple Pie is well and rightfully dead, modern Americans are much more likely to question their country and their place in the world as is exemplified by the work of modern artists such as film directors and rappers.