I am spending yet another Fourth of July overseas this year. I realized that I haven't been in Illinois for the last five July 4ths. However, rather than make me lose touch of America, I have been able to look at the US from many different angles. I don't think the Fourth of July ever meant much to me when I was young, but when I am overseas, I see everything in a different light.
I spent the Fourth of July this year dancing away the night at a Brazilian bar in Roppongi. However, the next day, the only thing on TV was news of the Mars Pathfinder arriving on the red planet. I don't know if it was big news in the States, but the headlines here in Tokyo have been dominated by these large pictures of a brown desert called Mars. The Japan Space Agency is running a mirror site of the Pathfinder Mission Page, and all eyes are on the US, or rather Mars. It was truly an exciting Fourth of July.
However, it seems to me that most Americans don't seem to realize their place in the world. The US rules the world, and everyone knows it but the people in the US. Sure it is obvious that we won (if that is possible) the Cold War. Sure we run the UN and most political affairs. However, unless you go overseas, you don't realize just how far this reach extends. I have studied at a university in Turkey that was paid for by the US government. I have visited the villages in Thailand where the US "war on drugs" is changing lifestyles. I have talked to the US soldiers guarding the border between North and South Korea. I have felt the presence of the US forces here in Japan. I no longer laugh at stories that the US is secretly supporting one of the Kurdish factions in Iraq. However, these military and political influences are only the beginning.
There is almost nowhere in the world that is not within a five minute walk of Coca Cola. MacDonalds is even in India now. CNN is watched by even Saddam Hussein. US copyright laws are enforced worldwide (though I heard you can get a cheap copy of Windows 95 in Russia or China pretty easily). The internet, invented in and ruled by the Americans, is now used worldwide. Most companies have had to adapt to US patent laws, and accounting rules. English is the only international language. US ATM cards (Cirrus and Plus) can be used anywhere in the world, while those of Japanese banks can't even be used in neighboring Korea. The business suit is the preferred (despite lack of comfort) formal dress in nearly every country, and the US dollar gets you a meal in even some of the more remote places. All of these things may seem very natural to us now, but things in the world could have gone a whole different direction.
When I was growing up in Illinois, I watched shows like Alf and X-Files, listened to music like Simon & Garfunkel and Billy Joel, and went to movies like E.T. and Snow White. I assumed that children in other countries enjoyed their own movies and music as well. There was little news of foreign actors or singers (unless they were from the UK) and so I assumed that people in other countries as well had no interest in the entertainment industry in America. NOT TRUE. Disney's Lion King was translated into over a dozen languages and made more money overseas than it did in the States. People in Japan also watch Alf and X-Files, and many countries don't even make movies. Or in the case of Japan, there are Japanese films, but I have yet to find anyone who has seen one. Everyone I know went out to see the Lost World premiere the other night.
Now, I don't see this "cultural colonization" as a bad thing, per se. We don't force people to drink Coke, eat Big Macs, or watch Forrest Gump. People like the image of America, and so they freely choose to consume it. Even in France where strong nationalists condemn the overabundance of English words in their language, their own children are going out to watch Star Wars. Sure it would be sad if all of the cultures of the world melded into one, but that isn't going to happen. And if it does, it is hardly the fault of the USA.
Next time you watch the movie Independence Day, imagine that you are a New Zealander, Japanese, Nepalese, or Mexican. How does it make you feel to know that Area 51 is only an American myth (everyone seems to believe that all aliens visit the western US)? What do you think about the American President single-handedly saving the Earth from the mean aliens? What do you think of the two-second role ("Yes, let's go!") that the Japanese army plays in the "international" rescue effort? I have friends who refuse to watch Hollywood movies because they find them too imperialistic.
I have found that news in other countries as well is filled with reports about the US. When Clinton chose his new cabinet, there were profiles of all members on the second page of Japanese newspapers. When Tyson bites off someone's ear, it makes news all over the world. However, I bet that most Americans could not even name a politician in Japan, or an athlete from Mexico. All eyes in the world are on the US, but US eyes are only inward looking. This is very logical in many ways, but I don't think most people understand the difference between the press in the US and the rest of the world.
Basically anywhere you see the word "international" in some official document or title, you can substitute the word U.S. and the meaning doesn't change. I studied at the International Division at Waseda University where the school year was tailored to US students, the language of instruction was English, and over three fourths of the students and professors were from the USA. The UN position is the same as the US position (despite 182 other member nations). The United States of America rules the world.
So on the Fourth of July, Nineteen Hundred Ninety-seven, I am thinking not about the US escape from the British Empire, but about the US control of the American Empire. Personally, I think that the US is one of the most benevolent rulers the world has ever seen. Like any good leader, she doesn't do anything that would jeopardize her own livelihood, but at the same time she doesn't intentionally harm any of her subjects. Like any other empire, the American one is bound to fall, but in the mean time, I think that not only Americans, but others as well, should take a day to appreciate the USA for what it is.