h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I've been taking part in a debate on the USA, and its influence across the globe. I was wondering if anyone had any views on this? I'd like to explore both positive and negative impacts, and particularly in relation to developing countries such as those in Africa and Latin America.

Any opinions will be welcomed.

PS. Also - I meant to ask - are there any previous conversations about this? I tried the 'search' facility, but surprisingly it returned no results for 'America' or 'USA', which I find hard to believe?!

Hi FunkyP

I believe the conversation search is borked, but there are some "...where's that thread?" threads where people will help dig, as has happened with discussions about Americans (and everyone else).

These are the two I found:

F19585?thread=84337
F19585?thread=405431

Hope they're of use to you.

Brilliant, thank you very much!

PS Where's that "Where's that thread?" thread?

F19585?thread=612457

Ooh, I'm putting that 'where's the thread... thread' on my favourites list, thank you!

I've looked at the two threads you suggested, and read 5 or 6 pages from the beginning and end of the first one(it covers seven years, wow!) and the whole of the second one.

Although they are of some help and I am grateful to you for providing links, I'm not sure it completely answers my question. Those threads are more about 'what do people think of Americans'? rather than the country's impact elsewhere in the world.

So, I'm still interested if anyone has any views on the following...

1. Has the USA had a big impact on the world? Any specific examples?
2. Has any impact they have had been positive or negative, particularly where it relates to Developing countries?
3. Could the USA have a claim to being 'the greatest country or culture in the world?' Why / why not?


If anyone cares (which you probably don't!), I myself am British.

Shouldn't any discussion about the colonies be in a "Benefits of the British Empire" thread?

LOL, Eddie Izzard has quite a lot of informative things to say about the British Empire! Hopefully I haven't given any indication of my own views on the questions I asked though. Just because I am British, don't assume I'm anti-American! I'm not after a 'Britain v. America' debate!

ok, without panning all americans everywhere, you specifically asked about culture. IMO amreican culture has spread rapidly, certainly in the UK and in other countries too. Different parts of the culture, admittedly. My concern being that there's very little, if anything, to be commended about exported american culture. It's seems so material, selfish, profit-based. If I may anthropomorphise a country for a moment, I see america as a young child. Demanding high levels of praise and recognition, loudly proclaiming it's knowledge and opinions, insisting it must be right, but without the life experience and hardships that temper these impulses in an older child or an adult...

And what does the working class twenty-something do when faced with an over-confident spoiled brat? Suck up to it in the hope they can glean some benefits and perhaps calm down some of the wilder leaps of imagination and self righteousness? Or directly oppose it and stand in the firing line of this child who seems to have limitless resources but no regard for sensible, mature advice?

I am biased. I cannot get over a country that hasn't been around as long as some of our furniture throwing it's weight around, and while I normally say new things can be good and I love change, when you look at the deeply irresponsible and bloody founding of the place, at the attitudes that created the united states, at the ideals that are upheld (land of the free? If you're a white christian perhaps..) and the, to me, deeply insincere feel of most things that come out of america, I cant accept that this is what we should aspire to.

All the americans I've personally met have been fantastic people on some level or other, but I dont like the collective mob effect of so many people, so divided, so diverse, so high-opinioned and so self-righteous... Where does this imagined authority come from? On what basis are they looked up to? Seems to me if it werent for capitalism, the USA wouldnt be such a rich and influential place.

"Could the USA have a claim to being 'the greatest country or culture in the world?' "

I've enjoyed reading works by historian and cultural critic Christopher Lasch (1932-1994), here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on him:

QUOTE

Lasch posited that social developments in the 20th century (e.g., World War II and the rise of consumer culture in the years following) gave rise to a narcissistic personality structure, in which individuals’ fragile self-concepts had led, among other things, to a fear of commitment and lasting relationships (including religion), a dread of aging (i.e., the 1960s and 1970s "youth culture") and a boundless admiration for fame and celebrity (nurtured initially by the motion picture industry and furthered principally by television). He claimed, further, that this personality type conformed to structural changes in the world of work (e.g., the decline of agriculture and manufacturing in the U.S. and the emergence of the "information age"). With those developments, he charged, inevitably there arose a certain therapeutic sensibility (and thus dependence) that, inadvertently or not, undermined older notions of self-help and individual initiative.

END QUOTE

I've never lived outside the US, so I can't comment from a developing country standpoint. But the above seems pretty close to the mark for the domestic side.

Ooh, thank you both!

Robyn - your analogy of the US as a child is interesting. And in my opinion you're right about not all elements of American culture being 'desirable' exports.

I also empathise with what you're saying about being biased, I think it's pretty much impossible to give a completely unbiased opinion, it's bound to be swayed by factors such as where someone lives, and by media portrayal too.

glad I could help... gave me a chance to try and sort my thoughts and feelings about it into something legible too!

Hello, I hope you don't mind me weighing in as well. I'm an American (sadly) and I have to say that you're spot on, Robyn. The US is like a young spoiled child. I can recite several examples of ignorance, hypocrisy, greed, sloth, envy...all seven sins and more...which, in all fairness, is common for any culture and/or race. But it seems most prevalent in the American people.
However, my biggest beef is that this is supposedly the land of the free, the home of the brave, where each person should have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We wrote a bill of rights and a list of constitutional freedoms that are ignored every single day. And yet we are "the greatest country in the world"?
Perhaps. If you're a 35+ Caucasian heterosexual republican Christian male, it certainly is. Otherwise you are second class. Well, I take that back. If you're in this country illegally you're second class. Legal citizens are third class. (These days you have to be bilingual in Espanol just to get a job at a restaurant.)
Alright...there's my rant for the day. Time to finish laundry!

All (at least most) of what's been said chimes with me - and many people who's opinions have emerged in conversation, and yet...

We shouldn't lose sight of what we've grown out of ('we' includes most, if not all, of the 'old' world).

Nations seem to have a life of their own: birth through similar stages to individuals to decline and... All of which stages seem to involve some degree and variety of violence.

Allowing for global changes (technology, communications and the slow - albeit patchy - maturing of our species as a whole), is the US so very different to what we were - and weren't we following the paths of the Romans, Greeks... Egyptians...? Isn't the US? Won't China and India? Then who?

----

I feel that the above applies to the treatment of other nations, too, in similar ways that children, youths, adults and grey sages (like me?) tend to treat others who live in different places, look different, think differently.

I get a little irritated at the intellectual laziness inherent in describing the USA as a small child. So, it's a young country. Does age imbue wisdom? In which case Somalia & Ethiopia are the most advanced cultures in the world by jist of their antiquity?

American culture is imo in advance of Europe. It has encountered and overcome the same challenges as faced Europe in a fraction of the time. The Roman Empire took centuries to expand and did so by fire and sword. The British Empire followed a not dissimilar course. The American Empire achieved greater heights in fifty with little recourse to war.

In truth, criticism of America is not based upon comparisons with culture. The US dominates the popular culture of film and music because it is simply better. Show me a critically acclaimed European film and I'll show you a box office failure. The greatest unversities in the world are in America. The collegiate system produces confident, articulate and educated young people in a way that European equivalents simply do not. Around 90% of all the patents ever registered are American. It has more Nobel Prize winners than any other country by far. They put a man on the moon whilst Britain was struggling to build a car worthy of the name. It produces more grain and foodstuffs than any other nation and is by far the biggest contributor to world charities. Next time you see sacks of grain being handed out in Africa, a pound will get you ten it has "USAID" stamped on the side.

By every measure you care to use, the USA is the success story of human civilisation.

And that really pisses some people off. Because the US is built upon individualism and capitalism whilst Europe clings to collectivism and socialism. With nothing of substance to crow about, Europeans cling to past glories while secretly praying for America, (and by extension, capitalism) to fall.

>>>I get a little irritated at the intellectual laziness inherent in describing the USA as a small child. So, it's a young country. Does age imbue wisdom? In which case Somalia & Ethiopia are the most advanced cultures in the world by jist of their antiquity?<<<

I took the 'young child' metaphor to mean the attitudes and culture, rather than the literal age of the country? Maybe I misunderstood it though, I'm not sure?

so what is so ''positive'' about USA's influence other than major disasters...just joined...so sorry i did not reply anything relevant, i find the topic '''USA's influence on the world''...absolutely negative...do we really need to dig and argue and prove how shitty usa was and always is ???

eye2eye

>>>so what is so ''positive'' about USA's influence other than major disasters...just joined...so sorry i did not reply anything relevant, i find the topic '''USA's influence on the world''...absolutely negative...do we really need to dig and argue and prove how shitty usa was and always is ???<<<

Actually, this is exactly the sort of info I'm interested in! Do you have any specific examples of where the USA has had a negative impact abroad? Why do you feel that the question is negative?

The young child metaphor is, imo, needlessly condescending and inaccurate.

Who says there culture and attitudes are young? Was it not founded by people who were themselves the product of other cultures with all the wisdom and experience that gives? Did the founding fathers not have books? Indeed, did Americans just pop into existence unaffected by other cultures?

The US Constitution, though imperfect, was centuries ahead of anything in Europe at the time (with the exception of France). Indeed, US social systems are a quantum leap forward from the destructive and introspective European models.

But back to the original question. What influence has the USA had on the world?

Well, it ended two World Wars started by the supposedly more mature European cultures. How's that for starters?