In Defense of Crass American Culture (/pmg)

Even when exploring a new country in the most superficial and cursory of ways, it's tough to avoid American brands in major metropolitan areas.

You may find yourself asking the following:

• "Did I just travel 13 hours over the Pacific Ocean and most of Europe to eat at... KFC?"
• "Are Starbucks stores (which reflects the proper plural form, never "Starbuxes" or "Starbuces") this prevalent everywhere?"
• "Do people really like this stuff here?"

It's easy to decry any of this as the crass intrusion of American staples into the rest of the world, pushing aside the old and venerable for the new and shiny. 

But, consider the following: The degree to which tastemakers in the U.S. are prone to consider a company, brand, or art form droll, crass, pedestrian, suburban, or even unsophisticated is directly proportional to the degree to which it is an aspirational symbol of freedom and choice nearly everywhere else in the world. (Us world-traveling metal fans know this more than most. Face it: Van Cliburn wasn't the sound of freedom behind the iron curtain; Iron Maiden was.) 

Here in Dubai, the KFC sits just a few minutes' walk from the Dubai Museum and even a minaret where the recorded call to prayer is broadcasted over a loudspeaker. I can see why some may look askance at this--a visual and cultural non-sequitur that inelegantly smashes together the sacred and the profane.

I see this as the free market doing its job: Bringing together cultures and ideas in new, strange, and sometimes bizarre ways. Some of these combinations will survive, others not. It's what happens when "ideas start having sex". 

Creative and cultural promiscuity, then, is a powerful cultural force.