MOST INFLUENTIAL CULTURE

Most Influential Culture

Most Influential Culture

Culture

Adaptation and adoption from one culture to the next is prevalent within any culture and country. When examining the effects of this, finding its original root is key. Oftentimes a country will adapt an aspect of another culture; however it won't be preserved and practiced identically given only a few years to be fostered in its new civilization.

American Culture

It is a curious paradox in American history that a nation whose cultural transfers became so controversial started out with little interest in the export of culture. Historically, Americans have found their distinctiveness primarily in their political system rather than in their poets, artists, and novelists. They generally view their popular culture as a source of private entertainment rather than as an instrument of foreign policy. They have never seriously contemplated establishing a department of culture in the federal government. In 1938, the State Department established the Division for Cultural Relations, but many U.S. officials criticized the use of culture as a diplomatic tool. Even today, most Americans believe that culture belongs to the realm of creativity, public taste, and free enterprise, not government.

But following World War II, the situation was different. During the Cold War, American diplomats decided that the United States needed to make the case for the American way of life abroad. At a time when the Soviet Union sought to export communism, public figures as well as policymakers sought to exert more influence through culture around the world. In the years following VE-Day, the U.S. government created a number of organizations and programs, such as the United States Information Agency and the Fulbright exchange program, which promoted the transmission of information on American culture.

America in itself is a prime example. During our germination we were known as the melting pot of every heritage—each immigrant internally packed his or her previously known culture. Although that was over two-hundred years ago, our country really hasn't changed much in relation to mixing a little of this and a little of that.

Even if we as Americans tried to avoid dabbling in the cultures of countries abroad or even right next door, it couldn't be possible to preserve any type of “American Culture”. The most significant of reasons preventing this is due to the foundation our country was settled upon, that being of a melting pot. This concept of an American culture or way of life is created only because each one of our ancestors arrived with their own religious practices, holiday traditions, and even recipes to our favorite dishes we Americans so commonly deem as our own.

Relating this on a more contemporary level beyond the original inhabitants arriving from places abroad on boats, our country is still as dynamic as ever. With modern technology enabling travel, communication, and information from one place to the next, it creates an accessible means to share ideas, beliefs, and values between places on opposite ends of the earth. On an even broader perspective, due to the economic structure ...