Culture Clashing - a different take.

During the presentations that we saw on Thursday, it struck me that there is one area of clashing culture that really isn't mentioned so often, and that is of Britain and the USA. It might be a British tradition to sit around at dinner parties and bemoan the undermining of the British language by 'Americanisms', but you don't really hear public outcry that British culture is seriously being affected by the intrusion of those across the Atlantic.

The reason, I think, is because U.S and British culture share so much, and that therefore we fail to acknowledge significant cultural differences - after all, all we really have to consume is their media and their fashions and their food - so we can draw the line, if we want to, at the rather wide body of water that separates us.

The American constitution enshrines the right to bear Arms. It is a county many times the size of our own, and therefore its people have a naturally different view of the world than we do in our small, condense country. It is, in many ways, a vastly different place. Can foreign fashion, taste and media really influence culture? Well, many opponents to multiculturalism would clearly say that not only is the answer yes, but that that is a 'bad thing'. The cultural difference present in the shaping of 'foreign' ideas will filter down through our consumption of them and slowly alter our own culture.

The debate surrounding whether this is a good thing or not has been discussed, and I think I’ve made it clear in my previous posts that people who reject any 'foreign' influence on whatever it is they see British culture to be can quite frankly bugger off and live on the moon for all I care.
But it does interest me why these people seem to fail to pick up on U.S cultural 'intrusion', if they're happy to pick up others.

I don't want to jump to conclusions, but it does strike me that U.S culture is considered, on the whole, a 'white' culture, but just as importantly, vaguely 'English' (in the sense that they speak the language. Australia seems to be viewed in the same way). All of the cultures that are demonized in Britain, as far as I can see, are almost all 'non-white' cultures, and those that are, certainly not English speaking. For why?

That whole ramble is not a fully formed thought, I’ll admit that. It doesn’t hold together completely. But it does pose questions that almost certainly need answering by the people of Britain. What is it that we really have a problem with?