America, the cultural capital of the world.
An argument I’ve often heard in the most distilled form is that America is the cultural capital of the modern world and is the best place to live. I’ve heard this both in the US as well as outside of it. For a long time the US has been envied by outsiders as an ideal place where the constitutional rights, freeer markets and derivative business opportunities lent themselves to a huge amount of prosperity. Hollywood pushed the best of American idealism, globalism propagated it, and the internet age sealed the legacy. Sure tiktok originated from the chinese douyen, but it is the westernized american virality that propagated the rest of the world mental markets. Just look at the most viral tiktoks around the world and compare them to the most viral tiktoks from its chinese counterpart and you may start to get an idea of what I mean.
Regarding the popular technological world, basically everyone, young, old, balkan or otherwise knows what youtube is. How many do you think know it well enough to know that there is a personalized recommendation algorithm which recommends the videos to watch? Most of the viewerbase is aware in some faculty that this occurs. Just ask anybody you know and prove me wrong. In the pre-internet world, it was considered almost arcane knowledge to know about the biases of media producers such that any criticism of them made you smell like a conspiratorial nut. Information can travel at the speed of light now, but less talked about is how a derivative of culture does this as well. Cultural hazing of the pre-internet world was just beginning while goods and culture was being distributed to local pockets. Americans for Americans. BBC for Brits, and Americans for the rest of the world. Shows, music, electronic innovations, and whatever other consumer goods came from this route. Fast forward to today, and speaking strictly but not limited to zoomers, most of them take their culture intake by digital IV, watch netflix and youtube, play call of duty and fifa, style their smartphones in some chinese case, make their online profile pictures their favorite anime waifus and enjoy the same happiness via fps per dollar. Girls using social media are all funneled the same korean inspired chinese made clothing from shein, dance on tiktok and perhaps, for the older women, make low bar skit-based short form joke videos that appeal to the new global generation. The point of this post isn’t to get into how it’s impossible to include much nuance or depth in the short form video culture, but rather to highlight that several cultures have positioned themselves into becoming local producers of their own digital consumption now, who once were only able to look on in envious contempt now become the jewel of their own envy. Most cultures have applied some degree of the same degenerate cultural graft of american consumption onto themselves. To be less terse, the exported culture is something like:
- Commodities (Movies, Music, Video Games, Electronics)
- Marketing chain culture
- Business accumen
- Car culture
I don’t know if it’s a rare take that zoomers tend to be more similar in terms of culture to those of the same race than even among those of the same nationalities these days. Noting in large part that was already in effect throughout previous generations, the youth seem to be almost consciously aware of that distinction now, clustering themselves among similar groups in Western society. The most that people tend to agree on is the post 90’s american black gang-banging culture becoming canon for black people around the world. I may be more concise about that in another post, but it’s not the central point of what I’d like to deliberate on here. However this cultural integration is happening with a much wider and subtler scope which is almost inevitable sans some distinct regions. It’s shocking to me how residents of most countries still take jabs at Americans living abroad with the idea that you’re crazy. We are all living in a neo-american sattelite state.
Consider that the population of the developed world in most places have been depopulating in the shape of a reverse population pyramid, and the rate of technological ‘advancement’ by some metrics have continued to increase exponentially. Only a few pockets of the world are vibrant enough to stand stark against the Americanization of the world, but they unfortunately only lend themselves to become like garnish to an already hefty maincourse argument for why living in a traditionally non-trendy place is a very sensible approach.
Shifting targets for a moment, Switzerland has been consistently noted as one of the places in the world with the highest standards of living for the last 50 years. How about a brief table for the quality of life between a couple Swiss people vs a couple Romanian people? Let’s ignore the generational wealth transfer:
| Average Swiss Income Living in Zurich | Average Swiss Income living semi-rural | Average Romanian Income Living in Bucharest | Average Romanian Income living semi-rural |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rents apartment (80sqm) | Rents apartment (80sqm) | Lives in owned Apartment (100sqm) | Lives in owned house (150sqm) |
| Can never buy a decent house from their own income. | May be able to buy a house in 20 years with a mortage. | Can buy a (good) house in 5-10 years with a mortgage | Can buy another property in 5-10 years with a mortgage |
| Cannot afford to eat meat every day | Can afford to eat low quality meat most days | Can afford to eat high quality meat every day | Can afford to eat high quality meat every day |
| No garden to grow own food, no neighbor relations to trade with. | Use of shared or community garden. Small plot, can generally only plant herbs and tomatos | No garden to grow own food. Culture of bountiful farmer markets of high quality produce | Has a garden to grow own food. Large enough for more space greedy crops. |
| Can barely afford to drive a car | Can drive a car or invest in a train pass | Can drive a car and take public transport, including taxis | Can drive a car |
| Cannot see a medical specialist on the same day | Cannot see a medical specialist on the same day | Can see a medical specialist on the same day, albeit expensive | Can see a medical specialist on the same day, albeit expensie, and must travel to the city |
| Daycare necessary but employers somewhat flexible, takes an entire person’s salary for 2 kids. Awful staffing ratio, children statistically develop poor attachment styles | Daycare strictly necessary, takes an entire person’s salary for 2 kids. Awful staffing ratio, children statistically develop poor attachment styles | Daycare seen as lowclass and largely unecessary, despite this, affordable, and high rate of staff/child in daycares | Daycare often necessary, despite this, affordable, and high rate of consistent staff/child in daycares |
| No space for power tools, garden equipment, etc. | Shared space for small tools. | Shared space for some small power tools, and small tools | Does not even comprehend life without a stick welder, table saw, wheelbarrows, and gardening equipment |
| Has an iphone and fast internet | Has an iphone and fast internet | Has an iphone and fast internet | Has an iphone and fast internet |
One could really apply the ‘Swiss’ example to any overly developed urban environment and the romanian rural example to any moderately sensible european semi-rural location and they would still be similar. The table of course doesn’t highlight other reasons people may want to live in either of the above countries, which often is geneology (and let it be so), but any reaction I’ve had from the above gets usually a polarized and triggering response. As soon as I hear one of these responses, I’m no longer suspect to the reasons why people are quick to feel defensive given that they implicitly choose that kind of lifestyle.
The US still has great potential to see itself through, and steer away from the overdeveloped pits of modern cosmopolitan life, although I do see huge challenges for them in regards to city planning/infrastructure which often has degenerative cultural effects on its own when compared to basically anywhere in Europe. There are elements of a natural life that are preserved simply by the economic liberty that one has in general, although no amount of money you would make will cure the influences of living within a suburban sprawl.
Eastern Europe has modeled much of the American way of life currently, without losing connection to much of its more traditional roots. It’s culture is homogenous, its people though tainted by modernity are brutally unchaged and have some sort of builtin resistence.