What if the world stops appropriating the american way?
The american way, the american dream, the american identity is a culture of freedom, cowboys, feet raised on the desk, cigar and whiskey, brash dreaming and freedom to build fences, the cult of the property, pioneers, innovation and competition as social medicine, the English language as a lingua franca, the music and movies, the global corporate propaganda about high profile values, like choice, rebellion, democracy, individualism, the damn flag itself as a branding item of this planet.
The american identity is lubricated into no friction appropriation, in every corner of the world. In renewed democracies, in poor countries, in developing nations, in rich countries with systemic tidal forces of population import, in the east as the white man, in the west as the prototypical Yankee or the lone ranger.
A culture built on top of the melting pot, a culture which is constructed, and serves as the sealed cover that helps the pressure build in the pot, a culture pushed relentlessly to be appropriated as a means of cultural conquest, the true empire based on promoting the U.S.A. brand’s unique selling proposition:
Earth’s most advanced nation, army and economy
Which we know is a story, like any USP, but we still want it to be true. Except for the army part, which compensates the inflated nation concept.
How to respond to this invitation to appropriation and what role does identity politics have in geopolitical strategies?
Addendum:
I am a pro american, pro-european citizen of an E.U. member state. I voted for a close relationship with the U.S. whenever I was presented with the chance to do so. For my country the unrestrained mingling of the US influencers with how we run the place is a good thing, a thing keeping us infused in checks against the other brand: the Russian world domination vanity. So this is in no way an anti american idea. It is a valid dilemma on this joke:
— OMG, the Russians went to the Moon and they painted it red!
— No worries, the Americans went there too and wrote Coca-Cola on it.
The world politics continues to present itself as a duopoly, while we all know it really is an oligopoly filled with souls sold to the devil and hard choices and many odd friends. But to the market made of people’s motivation the duopoly of Russian Federation and U.S.A. is a good enough communication plan.
If this sounds a bit simplistic, it is. To quote Nassim Taleb, which is just as right logically even though he supports Trump raising doubts on his personality:
It is as irrational to reject all conspiracy theories as it is to accept them.
Therefore my dilemma on identity politics is valid as for centuries countries used cultural infection as a means to control the market share of people’s motivation.
How will the containment of culture inside identity groups face the larger game played far beyond the daily life of people?
Will the policing of fiction, such as the current problem with Lionel Shriver’s speech, be of any good while specialized communicators construct propaganda and shove crafted desirable identities into societies by means of a zillion channels, from advertising to PR, from lobby to patronage of arts, from trade to market consolidation effects?
Food for thought,
Love me, I dare you,
A