American Goy shows you: The cultural isolation of the USofA

As an immigrant from Europe, one of the things that irks me is the incredible isolation of this country from the rest of the world. This feature of America is one of the main differences between United States and any other country in the world. Let me explain...

In Europe, one can go to McDonald's, Pizza Hut, go to a cinema watch an American movie, watch American shows on TV, listen to American music on the mainstream radio and buy that music in a store. As well as listen to French rap, watch French sitcoms and eat at a restaurant staffed by French chefs. Also listen to German pop rock, watch German movies... Same thing with Spanish, Balkan and other influences.

The same can be said of Latin America and Asia. American movies and music and influence is there for all to partake in.

You can watch the Simpsons in France, Lost in Germany and House in Poland.

Slightly different situation in USA.

In Yoo Ess of Ey, we have a gazillion TV channels. On all of them there are ONLY American movies, ONLY American sitcoms, ONLY american shows. On History channel, the shows are in about 90% about America and Americans (American Eats, Modern Marvels: Walt Disney World, History Rocks: the 80's (apparently Reagan was great), Dogfights (a show about fighter air combat. Apparently only Americans are worthy enough to be considered ace pilots to be highlighted in the show... oh, and Israelis also). To get one of them 'funny, furriner' movies with subtitles (GASP!), you must order and pay for a special, snobbish channel. And it won't be something recent, like a movie from this decade. No, think 1950's new wave French cinema. Or one of those 'artsy fartsy' movies. Something that makes us Europeans puke. Seriously.

Let's turn on the radio here in wonderful capitalist paradise. What do we have? American rap. American pop. American hard rock. Oldies from 1950's and 60's, all American. And of course let's not forget talk radio on the AM dial. Funnily enough, all talk radio is extremely pro republican party, and it is certainly not due to the fact Clear Channel Communication owns the majority of radio stations in this country, and they just happen to be BIG fans of bush.

In fact, I will do a post for all of yah about American talk radio, because what exists in this country as talk radio is simply shocking. There is no equivalent in the world that I can give to you, since the Hutu radio station went off the air in Rwanda. Stay tuned.

Where was I? Ah yes. AM dial radio. Well, there is also sport talk (all American football, baseball and basketball only), and news stations (news from USA only, of course). What did you expect? Variety?

It got to the point that what we know about France we got from the Simpsons' episode. Apparently the French talk in English in bad accents, smoke a lot and wear berets. Oh, and enslave Americans.

In the theatres here there is an undercurrent of 'beware of foreign countries!'. Seriously. The horror movies now are about innocent American kids stupid enough to backpack in European (or Latin American) countries, and they get trapped and tortured by those eeeeeevil non-Americans. See, they deserve this for leaving Yoo Ess of Ey for furriner shores. Just rewards.

So what is my point?

My beef here is that we, Americans, do not have any real mainstream exposure to the culture of other countries. We are listening, watching, eating American. While ALL other countries are exposed to not just their culture, but American, European and possibly even Asian.

We are not curious about the rest of the world, we live in our own little (or big, actually) world. We talk about world issues like Islam or world markets or politics in France as if we were informed about the nuances that make up the big picture.

Because of this isolation, it is very easy for the media (owned by 5 companies), to bash France for not supporting USA's invasion and occupation of Iraq, which reached ridiculous proportions. I mean really, this is a over the top, don't you think so? And this little gem - renaming French Fries to Freedom Fries - do Americans realize how STUPID this made us look to the world?

This is all a result of our cultural isolation, folks.

And no, eating at a Chinese buffet does not equate to a cultural experience.

Neither does seeing the Eiffel Tower in ...Las Vegas, makes you experience Parisian or French culture.

And riding a plastic Viking Boat does not make you an expert in Norway's culture.


But of course, there is one GIGANTIC exception to all this cultural exceptionalism. And if you are a true WASPy Anglo Saxon white American, you were probably screaming at the screen about Latino influences in the USA. There are whole TV channels, radio stations, residential districts, shops, cinemas, stores, coffee houses, restaurants, hell, states (FLA) where no one speaks English.

But that, my dear Americans, is not cultural exposure.

That, my pretties, is a full blown invasion.

Bonus material: PBS the bastion of the (slightly) educated.
The public television (and radio) channels operating in the American market is a bright shining light in a sea of American (corporate) force fed pap of mediocrity. We get a full half hour of BBC News as well as European Journal from DeutcheWelle. I must qualify this though as not every PBS station carries these programes, and hardly any American will deign to watch them.

Props (street yo!) also go to Fox Soccer Channel, which brings us Americans UK, Italian and Argentinian football leagues. The popularity of this (true) world sport is fought tooth and nail by sports pundits on TV and on radio, with any reference to this sport qualified by laughter and snide comments. Yes, seriously. See here, here and here.

Apparently soccer is boring. And slow paced. And has lack of scoring.

I will now watch a 5 hour game of baseball, which will end in a 2-1 result. Looking at the fans, who seem more interested in their burgers, peanuts and beer than watching the actual game... Check out the action!