Why are some people against Americanization of the world?

Question

Developing nations such as India and China have begun to open up foreign investment and invite powerful companies, most of which happen to be American, invest in their cultural and economical landscape. Though the youth are not against such 'imperialism', the older citizens are.

This is also true in 'Westernized' nations like Britain, where some people resent the Americanization of their country.

Questions: why are some people against Americanization of the world? Do they want to live in poverty?

I think the American way is the best - promoting freedoms, defeating radicals, making it a responsibility to help the poor, never giving up, always coming out number 1. And people are against Americanization because.....

Answer 1

Okay, first of all, as a fellow American, could you please stop saying things like "the American way is the best" and "we're number 1" because it just makes everyone think we're all obnoxious and self-righteous? Thanks.

I agree that America does have a lot of wonderful things. Many Americans are very generous, friendly and compassionate people, and in many ways our government is strong.........................

And in a whole lotta ways it needs some work.

We most certainly are not always Number 1.

Our literacy, crime rates, life expectancy and economy are not the strongest in the world.......at all. We're one of the few "civilized" countries where we still execute prisoners and allow schools and parents to beat their kids.

Other countries do all the things you're patting us on the back for doing but just aren't as showy about doing so. People from around the world have helped with crises like Myanmar, China and Katrina.

Personally, I like diversity in the world. I think it's sad that so much of the United States is generic now. You have Walmart, McDonalds, Holiday Inn and Applebee’s in nearly every city across the land. I was disappointed when I went to Budapest a found Wendy's there, annoyed to see a freaking TGIFridays in Prague, thought it was random that Denny's is in New Zealand, and I thought it was an eye sore and travesty to see McDonald's on the Champs Elysee. I do not want the rest of the world to just look like America.

Unity is great, conformity is not.

Oh, and as far as American companies being so powerful.... Do you think they always use that power for noble purposes?   If so, do a little reading about Texaco (now  Chevron) and how they completely exploited the land and people of Ecuador. http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/featu...

How much have you traveled? How much time have you logged into these other countries you seem to find inferior to our own?

And what youth are you referring to who are fond of imperialism? I'm a youth, and I'm certainly not, nor are most.

Who do you think made Green Day's "American Idiot," Radiohead's "Hail to the Thief" and Peaches's "Impeach my Bush" albums best sellers? We love our country, but we see the flaws.

Your form of patriotism reminds me of a George Bernard Shaw quote:

"Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it."

I more of a fan of Thomas Jefferson's view of patriotism:

“Dissent is the highest form of patriotism.”

We need to take the plank out of our  own eye and fix our problems first rather than standing on soap boxes and telling the rest of the world how they're not doing things the way they're supposed to.

Answer 2

because whats wrong with keeping our own culture and individuality?

Tea & scones all the way!!

Answer 3

It took your government a week to get aid to New Orleans after Katrina! In your own country! You're a joke.

Answer 4

You are Free.................Free to do as we tell you!

Answer 5

Americanization is fine for AMERICA but we founded our country on the right to believe anything you want and live your life as you see fit... yet with that in mind, those rights really only apply to US.  Other nations are perhaps not "mature" enough to handle the things that we have thrown at them. Some cultures are just better off in tee-pee's and being hunters and gatherers... not all civilations are meant for grocery stores and mini vans. We PUSH and we PUSH too much... The middle east is like a toddler (regardless of how long their civilazation has been in existance) and you would NEVER give a toddler a hand grenade... "poverty" is something that america better get pretty used to pretty quickly, because we ourselves are IN MAJOR DEBT. Borrowing money from CHINA because of our own stupidity... we IMPORT everything and EXPORT virtually nothing... leading us to be billions of dollars in debt... so is our country really that great? No, not really... And should we push the rest of the world to be just like our country? Definitly not.. we might be a happier world if less places were like us...

Oh and in case you didnt know, America has its own THIRD WORLD in the Appalachian Mountains, look it up on Wikipedia...

Answer 6

Well, you have a somewhat strange take on reality, don't

know where you're getting it from. Freedom? What freedom?

American has more people behind bars than any other

nation on the face of the earth. Prison and freedom are not

the same thing!

Since when does America invest in another nation's "cultural

landscape?" You mean like McDonald's in Paris or Shangai,

is that investing in cultural landscape?

Maybe countries all over the globe are against "Americanization" because Americans are such

@ss holes, cowboying around the world shooting things up,

killing real human beings, leaving a wake of unbelievable

destruction. They attempt to justify this c**p in the name of

freedom and democracy, but it's based upon fabrications

and perjuries, as in Iraq having WMD, blah, blah, vomit.

Poverty -- we have plenty of it in America -- shouldn't we set

an example to the world and take care of our own? What

radicals have we defeated by what means? You mean like

the CIA selling Stinger missles to Iran and then supplying

weapons to Contra terrorists attempting to overthrow a

legitimately, democratically elected government?

When has or is America coming out no. 1? No. 1 at what?

Our currency is probably flat out last against the Euro,

pound, yen, what have you. Yes, we are number one in being

most like the n***s in the 1930s, but that's hardly anything

to be proud of, do you think?

When has America made it a responsibility to help the poor?

No, America's orientation is the individual against all. You

make it on your own by hook or crook, but s***w any other

poor b*****d if it makes you a dime richer. THAT is the

American way, and if it wasn't, why would Bush & Cheney

be allowing the oil interests to s***w everyone in the @ss

right now, and it will get worse.

I think you are living in some kind of dream world. Maybe

your family has money? Well, you can bet they didn't get

it by practicing the kind of ridiculous notions you have here.

Answer 7

You are under the impression that the American way is right for every other country in the world yet don't look to your own poor who are in almost as much need as every other poor person around the world. The American poor are effectively an underclass.

And I've noticed that nothing the US does for someone else comes free of charge. The US does nothing that will not benefit the US in some way.

And I'm not particularly against US investment anywhere; the only thing I dislike about the US is your army's acute inability to differentiate friendly troops from enemy ones until AFTER you've started firing. Will someone in your Department of Defense PLEASE implement a policy of ally recognition? Especially for that pr!ck in the A10 who killed a British soldier... after convincing himself that the fluorescent orange Allied unit marking was actually a type of anti air rocket launcher. Ah, but being a US pilot, he wasn't brought to justice either under UK law or even US military law. That's what I don't like about the US. Your military has too many incompetents in it and when someone screws up and kills someone they're placed out of the way somewhere.

Answer 8

People like to retain their own culture. Not all of these countries are in poverty.

And since when do Americans feel a responsibility to the poor?  The last time I checked, the rich were getting richer while more and more people are struggling just to get by.  Most people in America don't give a d**n about the poor, they just consider them a nuisance.

Answer 9

Take a proper  look at your welfare system , health system and justice system and how the wealth is really spread in the US then tell me your numer one in helping the poor. The main problem with the US is that it keeps its populace uneducated. Its a totally ethnocentric culture.

Answer 10

in my opinion american's government is just greedy at the most..they would love to control the world if they could...and because "freedom" is invisibly printed all over the flag does not necessarily means that these people are going to be free, as they are not americans..they would just be controlled. think about and no offense but if every one was to americanize their country the world would be truly corrupt*

americans cannot even do a job job at helping their own in poverty...wake up!! this is the 21st century

Answer 11

Promoting freedoms? Don't make me laugh. This is the same America where the security services are legally allowed to tap your emails, phones, put you under surveillance and search your property without your knowledge.

The same America that promotes freedoms by locking people up in Guantanamo Bay for years without due process, a right guaranteed in the constitution. The same America that illegally transports terror suspects across the world so they can be tortured.

The same America that overthrew democratically elected governments in Panama and Argentina to install American backed dictators.

The same America that seems to invade every country that won't comply with its wishes.

The same America that has created more radicals than it has defeated by waging its "War on Terror" across the Middle East.

The same America that also happens to built on corporate backhanders, corruption and mutual favours between politicians and the government.

The same America that is also spreading all of its bad habits across the globe (junk food and obesity for example).

Answer 12

America companies working in Third World countries do more exacerbate poverty then they do to help anyone, why don't you look up what Monsanto did in India?  What about Coca Cola?  

Look at the poverty in America, land of the free & the home of the brave, where anyone can achieve whatever they want as long as they don't mind being up to their eyes in hock & working all the hours God sends.  Why on Earth would we want their brand of rampant, irresponsible capitalism exported?  The amount of damage they're already doing in the US is beyond a joke

The Chinese & the Indians are more then capable of making a hash of their own nations, they don't need help from the Americans.

Answer 13

America has become what n**i Germany and the Soviet Union used to be… the new EVIL EMPIRE - The number one threat to peace in the world, is now the United States.

Americca has plundered most other countries financially, stealing their utilities and impoverishing their inhabitants. And those nations who resist this financial con game, li, are simply invaded and coerced into servitude. Those nations who play the game, like Russia and Argentina, are reduced to abject poverty with a few pro-Western billionaires owning everything.

And woe to those nations who won't play the game, like Iraq. They are obliterated and turned into permanent war zones. Their people are murdered in their sleep by hopped-up American soldiers who are told by their cynical leaders that they are spreading democracy, when really what they are spreading are endless opportunities for plunder by politically connected corporations.

It's easy money blowing up countries and blaming it on somebody else. Even you might do it if you had the chance. Americans support such an idea. It's capitalism at its best!

United States that is now sweeping the world, scooping up all these other countries in the name of capitalist democracy, and telling lies about why it has to go to war. And instead of railing against the powerful giant stealing freedom from all these hapless victims, as it did in years past, the American press is now cheering it, justifying it in the increasingly ambivalent names of capitalism and democracy. Worse, the American people are cheering it, too, something that's never really happened in U.S. history, when the people support a war that they know is based on lies.

Wake up girl, don't believe everything you watch on the news. The news is completely manipulated.

Answer 14

promoting freedom?america is not a free country...helping the poor?if you dont have money in the US you're F****D,your heath care system is corrupt and it doesn not help anyone.it all based in health insurance cover,meaning if you dont have one you die.come to europe and you will see what really means live in a free continent....come to think...DO NOT COME..stay in your manipulative,brain washer with a cowboy as a president country!!!

......and then you americans ask WHY sept.11 happened....poor you...

Answer 15

Ha ha, an American saying other countries are poor!

Someone needs to learn what "National Debt" means.

Answer 16

Well some of us have a culture and a way of life that is different to that of the American one, and we would like to preserve our heritage and pass it down our children. It's all and well that you love your way of life, but remember that many of us love our own more, but we can appreciate yours nonetheless.

The things which you think represent America are really universally-respected traits. They're not exclusive to America. We, as human beings, ALL want peace and freedom to do what we choose. I believe in the freedom to not subscribe to a religion but I also think that we should respect those who want to follow a religion, without them being seen as crazy or oppressed. Also, many non-Americans will tell to that it's everyone's duty to help those less fortunate than themselves. It's one of the 5 pillars of Islam to give to the poor. So you can't say that American values surpass all other values.

Answer 17

I think the world thinks for America as a massive power changing everything so it's an exact copy of itself.