Cultural imperisalism

"Since the time of Homer every European, in what he could say about the Orient, was a racist, an imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric." Edward Said.

What Said used to call "orientalism" refers to the view of Orient by the occidental world, for exemple the painting representing the woman laying down is an orientalist paiting, because it reprensents what the occidentals where assuming the Orient was.

Nowadays cultural imperialism expresses itself through new ways: Internet, cinema, television, comics ... Most of the website are in English, most of the movies which comes out on cinemas are americans, and comics for children are representing capitalistic values. The problem of this phenomenon is that it slowly kills national cultures.

For example; in France, 30 years ago, hungry people were going to eat at the bistrot (typical cheap french restaurant) but now, everyone is going to eat at mc Donald or KFC. It is faster, cheaper, therefore much more convenient if you do not have time or if you are broke.

Now the criteria to choose movies is what are their box office? It is completely irrelevant, the number of entrances never made a movie any good! It is an indicator, but if Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie are playing in a movie, it will clearly be viewed more, and it does not mean that the movie is good.

We should pay more attention on this, and try to escape this imperialism as much as we can because our national cultures have as much to offer as any american or western culture.