McDomination: America VS. the World.
""...globalization is in so many ways Americanization: globalization wears Mickey Mouse ears, it drinks Pepsi and Coke, eats Big Macs, does its computing on an IBM laptop with Windows 98. Many societies around the world can't get enough of it, but others see it as a fundamental threat." - Thomas Friedman.
Once upon a time, 'Americanisation' referred to the process of assimilating immigrants. They were forced to abandon their own cultural identities and adopt the 'American way of life'. In essence, the word still means the same thing. Nowadays, however, it is being seen on a massive scale: it is not the United States that is being Americanised, but the entire world. What many refer to as 'globalisation' is simply a euphemism for the cultural, social, and political imperialism that the U.S.A imposes on the rest of the globe.
Economically America is the superpower of the world. Their multinational corporations sit at the top of Forbes' list of most valuable companies on Earth: Exxon Mobil, JP Morgan Chase, and General Electric. Corporations like these are able to spread to other countries because of globalisation (or Americanisation). Locally, we can see the influence of American brands on our lives. Fast food, films, music, television, clothing, social networking, and software: these are all areas in which American products dominate our market. McDonalds has over 33,000 stores worldwide, and serves an average of 68 million customers per day. The franchise is rapidly replacing traditional restaurants across the world due to the fact that it offers fast, cheap food. In Australia alone there are 811 McDonalds stores. They populate most streets in the city, and their infamous 'golden arches' are familiar to most. American entertainment also dominates our society. Only a very select few songs are allowed to make it onto our charts, which are overrun with American pop. Hollywood movies are the only ones that can be found in mainstream movie theaters. Our prime time television is made up of either American sitcoms or adaptions of American reality television shows. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are all of American creation, and they our one of the most common forms of communication that we use. How can we claim to be a global community that 'shares' products and services? Instead, we are becoming a carbon-copy of America: our city streets are filled with their retailers and their products fill our shopping baskets. Once this happens, it means that our own products and stores can no longer compete. They run out of money and eventually close down, and are soon replaced with MNCs. Entertainment, clothing, technology and food are all a part of our cultural identity. Once we lose this, we begin to lose what makes us Australian. Therefore, by allowing the Americanisation of businesses, we are also allowing our culture to be stripped from us.
Globalisation is not the phenomena that we see unfolding before us, Americanisation is. We are not experiencing different cultures or ideas and instead the varied ways of life once held by nations are being replaced by a homogeneous lifestyle: the American one.
Once upon a time, 'Americanisation' referred to the process of assimilating immigrants. They were forced to abandon their own cultural identities and adopt the 'American way of life'. In essence, the word still means the same thing. Nowadays, however, it is being seen on a massive scale: it is not the United States that is being Americanised, but the entire world. What many refer to as 'globalisation' is simply a euphemism for the cultural, social, and political imperialism that the U.S.A imposes on the rest of the globe.
Economically America is the superpower of the world. Their multinational corporations sit at the top of Forbes' list of most valuable companies on Earth: Exxon Mobil, JP Morgan Chase, and General Electric. Corporations like these are able to spread to other countries because of globalisation (or Americanisation). Locally, we can see the influence of American brands on our lives. Fast food, films, music, television, clothing, social networking, and software: these are all areas in which American products dominate our market. McDonalds has over 33,000 stores worldwide, and serves an average of 68 million customers per day. The franchise is rapidly replacing traditional restaurants across the world due to the fact that it offers fast, cheap food. In Australia alone there are 811 McDonalds stores. They populate most streets in the city, and their infamous 'golden arches' are familiar to most. American entertainment also dominates our society. Only a very select few songs are allowed to make it onto our charts, which are overrun with American pop. Hollywood movies are the only ones that can be found in mainstream movie theaters. Our prime time television is made up of either American sitcoms or adaptions of American reality television shows. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are all of American creation, and they our one of the most common forms of communication that we use. How can we claim to be a global community that 'shares' products and services? Instead, we are becoming a carbon-copy of America: our city streets are filled with their retailers and their products fill our shopping baskets. Once this happens, it means that our own products and stores can no longer compete. They run out of money and eventually close down, and are soon replaced with MNCs. Entertainment, clothing, technology and food are all a part of our cultural identity. Once we lose this, we begin to lose what makes us Australian. Therefore, by allowing the Americanisation of businesses, we are also allowing our culture to be stripped from us.
Globalisation is not the phenomena that we see unfolding before us, Americanisation is. We are not experiencing different cultures or ideas and instead the varied ways of life once held by nations are being replaced by a homogeneous lifestyle: the American one.