[the lack of] American Culture

From my sociology journal: 7/9/07

Today was the first day of my Up With People training (and I realize that these aren't necessarily in chronological order, but I write them down first and then type them up just whenever I get the chance).
The most interesting aspect of my experience so far has definitely been meeting people in the cast from various locations around the world. I think there are eighteen countries being represented in our cast altogether. One especially interesting thing about this is noticing the similarities that so many of us have in common. The marks of globalization are evident in such things as simply discussing favorite movies or talking about American culture.
I was certainly surprised by the amount of knowledge so many of the international cast members possessed about American pop culture. In fact, my Canadian roommate, Raine, is more able to discuss American movies and TV shows with our host dad than I am. I mean, I knew that Canada and the U.S. have a lot in common, but I didn't realize that we are quite that similar.
Another similarity that a shocking number of cast members shared was a severe fondness for the Harry Potter series. During one of the seminars today, the speaker mentioned that the new Harry Potter movie comes out tomorrow, and nearly the whole cast started cheering and hollering (which reminds me - it was very interesting to see how enthusiastic people from various countries became during such moments - it seems that some cultures applaud for nearly everything, whereas other countries save it for things that really move them). But anyway, I think that the Harry Potter series is one of the few series of such popularity that is actually worthy of all the hype it gets, and it's amazing that one story can affect so many lives from all over the world.
I think that there are some very polar pros and cons when it comes to the issue of globalization. On the positive side, the interconnection between societies due to the internet and other such technology allows people to communicate easily with members of other cultures, and therefore leads to better understanding of those cultures, and can even create a sense of solidarity between diverse groups of people. However, on the other hand, it also causes these same cultures to blend together and therefore causes a tendency for some cultures to lose their uniqueness and diversity, and can even lead to cultures being completely submerged in the more dominant culture. I have yet to come to any stable conclusions about such matters, but I am sure that the next five and a half months will offer me an extravagant amount of food for thought on the subject.
On a somewhat different note, we also had a seminar today providing a [somewhat] objective outlook on American culture. We will be having a seminar similar to this prior to arriving in every new country we'll be visiting along the way. In this seminar, we started out with people giving their opinions on what they thought about American culture. It was very interesting to hear the opinions of those from other countries. We heard things such as:

"Americans are happy all the time".
"Americans are a very wealthy people".
and
"If there is a separation of church and state, why do so many American politicians say things such as 'God Bless America'?" which I thought was a very valid question. I strongly dislike that cliche for several reasons, the main reason being that it is such an ethnocentric statement. I mean, theological arguments aside, why is it that only America deserves to be blessed? What about the rest of the world?
Several Americans, including myself, expressed our own opinions on trying to define our culture, and we found that there were numerous points of view that were rather contradictory to each other. Many people pointed out that the U.S. is so big that it's impossible to have just one culture, and many illustrated the differences in culture throughout the different regions of the country. I pointed out that the various subcultures in our society are certainly not limited to being defined geographically, such as the Jewish, GLBT, Amish, and hip-hop subcultures, just to name a few.
Over all, there were some very good discussions that ensued, and the main conclusion we came to was that the USA offers such diversity and freedom (now that is one word that has often been misinterpreted) that it is impossible to describe just one culture to be fitting for it.