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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (142957)	8/11/2004 7:35:03 AM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 281500

The apparent mechanism of Stockholm syndrome is the urgent desire to bond with one's captor, in order to remove the threat of death. It is not, in fact, merely a response to bossiness, and soldiers cannot be made to do pretty much anything. That is why the rate at which American infantrymen during WWII aimed directly at enemy troops was about 25%; why the primary motivating factor in combat is unit cohesion, in other words, covering your buddies; and why morale is a constant concern. The only candidate for a world culture is that of the United States, as I said, partially because it is already "international". I do not mean that other cultures will be wholly trumped, or will have no influence elsewhere, I just mean that what commonality there is is likely to derive from American culture. If you have another candidate, I would be interested to hear it. How many Americans are discussing New Zealand politics right now? How many New Zealanders are discussing American politics? Yes, things other than politics will be discussed. But people will still be prone to staying on sites which use the language they are most comforable in, or English, which is the most common second language throughout the world. Also, the most affluent nations, having greater Internet penetration, will continue to dominate discussions. This also puts the English speaking world at a disproportionate advantage. Of course, the English speaking world, including those with English as a second language, is not equivalent to America. But America, not Britain, is its cultural epicenter, despite the sentimental attachment to the Commonwealth. As soon as they can, people like Judy Davis, Sam Neill, and Toni Collette emigrate to America to find work in our film industry, and singers around the world use English lyrics in the hopes of breaking into the American market, where they will know they have made it. If current trends are any indication (they may not be), cyberspace is more nationalistic, not less, than the 3D world, insofar as conservatives and libertarians are more prevalent than other persuasions on political sites. Regardless, my thought on this matter has less to do with what is discussed, such as politics, than with the language, cultural products, references, and attitudes dominating the Web.