Essay/Term paper: America

Essay, term paper, research paper:  College Papers

The United Stated is currently the most influential country on the
face of the earth. Not only concerning the issues of money and business
but also our choices of music clothes and recreational activities.
Often times people think of countries such as Japan and China as
being completely different. We think they have strange dress and odd
customs, they are thought to have a completely different culture than
ours. You will find that that is incorrect, the ir cultures are actually
very similar to ours. Because of the amount of clothing, food and other
products that we ship out of this country every day our culture has no
choice but to ooze out of our borders onto foreign soil. For example you
could walk i nto a modern Japanese society expecting a bunch of old people
kneeling on dirt floors wearing kimonos and drinking green tea but
actually find a society of youths wearing Levi jeans, trendy clothes,
listening to American pop-rock music, and eating Big Mac s that they just
bought from down the street at their local McDonalds. You could also find
a group of people watching a football game and gossiping about the new
movie with "that really hot American chick in it". Of course all
countries have different h olidays and traditions, they eat different
foods and have customs that seem strange to us but more and more their
ways seem to be becoming like those of us here in the United States of
America.
The question asks if I think that the influence of our "pop
culture" will continue. I think that that all depends on weather or not
we remain the worlds "super power" in the future. I think that the reason
that we are imitated by other countries is bec ause of our wealth and
power. It is sort of like the United States is the most popular girl in
school. She has a bunch of followers who dress like her, do their hair
like her and claim to like the same music and movies as her. But no
matter how hard th ey try they can never quite keep up to her ever
changing style. Much like the patterns of the countries that try to
imitate the U.S. If you look closely at these cultures you will notice
that the clothes that they wear were the clothes that we wore ten years
ago and I wouldn"t be surprised if they are groovin" to the sounds of the
eighties as we speak.
I often wonder why we haven"t picked up much of any other
countries culture. Sure, there have been fads like the Macarena and the
on going like for foods such as tacos and chop suey, but every thing is
always somehow Americanized. I suppose it"s beca use we are so
preoccupied with our own appearances and our countries image that we don"t
have time to stop and look around. Or maybe its the fact that we are
trying to convince ourselves that everybody wants to be like us and that
is how it will always b e.
No matter what happens though, there is always a new popular girl
that everybody wants to be like. Her power dies down and the followers
find some one else to imitate. I think that sooner or later, maybe not in
my lifetime, that the awe of the United S tates will die down along with
the influence and the power on other countries and they will find someone
else to follow or maybe they will gain the power and self respect to be
their own nation, to not pay attention to what everybody else is doing and
may be people will start to follow them.