Western culture, and especially the United States is known world wide for two things.

These are pop culture and independence of personal freedoms. It is easy to say one of these is horrible, and the other is great. It is much more complex than that, however. The truth is that besides exporting jobs, something more talked about today than ever before, some people feel the United States is also diminishing its ‘can do’ attitude, as fewer innovative projects emerge, and more manufacturing pride is lost. Many people of a certain age, remember the moon shot. Then the United States led the world in science, technology and sheer enthusiasm for discovery.

Now the nation is seeing its infrastructure crumble, its economy outsourced, its pride in a more disheveled state than any time in recent memory. To the rest of the world, the United States is still thought of as the beacon of freedom and independence. But many are concerned this could change. It is also known that what we export most, which influences other regions, is trashy pop culture.

Before the fall of the Roman Empire, there was an increase in shallow and sensational trash culture. There were also underfunded wars on many fronts. Contrary to old Rome, today we more often see sports scandals, and celebrity gossip, which is at least in theory, less objectionable than public executions in the circus of gladiators and pre-starved beasts. Nevertheless, we do export death. With cigarette and other addictions, the influence of alcoholism, consumer culture, violence, reality television, and celebrity scandal come, also, a greater perception of the nation as being depraved and shallow.

Most of us live quiet and even boring lives. We would not know a Snooki, or Kardashian, if we tripped over it in the alley, but we would likely assume it was nursing some kind of hangover, or sex tape regret. Yet, our cultural ignorance of bad girls gone everywhere, does not travel much outside the United States. A quick flip through most television channels, or the internet, leads one to truly conclude there is little depth, reasoning, or high art available in western culture.

Music, too, has become more vapid and less revolutionary. During the 1960’s a strong counter-culture movement explored all depths of new ideas. This was explored not only in popular music, but in art, media, food ways, and spirituality, and even sexuality. Among these were the idea of human rights for women and minorities, investigation of the mind and mind alteration for spiritual growth, the idea that the earth and the ecology of living things matter, the idea that war should be more carefully considered, and movements for peace, such as the Peace Corp., made as least as much sense, the idea that the oppressed should gain some control over their jobs, their lifestyles, their personal appearance, and their choices of expression. 

Granted, a few hippies were just on board the VW busload of new values for the sex and drugs, yet, there were many more regular people from every walk of life who, slowly, over time came to value these ideas until they were no longer revolutionary, but the norm of an open and tolerant society. Also in science and technology the United States, in part due to the Cold War, but also in part due to national sense of American exceptionalism, the nation seemed unstoppable.

Still, the counter-culture of any nation usually has some kind of backlash, and there is a continuing backlash against personal freedoms for all, on the part of the political extremists who see rebuilding the more conservative values of the forties and fifties as being more in line with decency. The backlash also brought us political extremism, both in radical Muslim movements, but also in reactionary right wing Christian movements.

Fundamental and radical agendas of both fanatical Islam and fanatical Christianity usually result in political grappling for power, and people to be pressed into service. In the middle, it seems most working people just seek escapism from the fray.

What is unleashed are torrents of mediocre movies, shows, music, and entertainment which is really little more than watching choreographed cat fights between housewives of____, (almost anywhere,) and mommies of toddlers in “prosti-tot” pageants. For the macho men we have truckers, fishermen, junk dealers, dirty jobbers, snake grabbers. As if that were still not enough we have parolees and single parents, and much more.

What is needed for more balanced cultural imports and exports is a bigger slice of reality about the true costs of promoting shallow values, and a disposable world.

Creating a throwaway world results in nothing being appreciated and valued that has real worth. This would include our natural resources, and protecting rather than land-filling them. We would take steps to use American determination and drive to fund green jobs and green energy, all the while promoting a robust infrastructure where we value our public servants such as teachers, cops, engineers, and postal workers. It would also include reclaiming our home-grown independence, thirst for justice and liberty, as well as a respectable standing in our cultural values.