Today's featured talk "The Ugly Americans: How Not to Lose the Global Culture War" by Martha Bayles provides a good introduction to how the loud voice of American pop culture has influenced the views of America throughout the world often in a negative light. Bayles points out that between the years 1980 to 2000 the amount of movies and TV exported from the United States increased 500%, and that America has always exported more entertainment than it imports which has been a major economic success. She then gives a brief history of the collaboration between Washington and Hollywood and how they cooperated throughout World War I and World War II, but then how this relatioship went sour in the 1960s over McCarthyism, the Vietnam War, and the rising counter-culture.
And while popular TV and movies and rock 'n roll music had often been an inspiration for youthful anti-Communist groups through the end of the Cold War, the current trend of cynical TV shows, vulgar hip hop, and violent movies and video games has not aided the view of American culture and our promotion of democracy throughout the Middle East. Bayles argues that the reason for this degradtion in our pop culture exports is due to the "gate keepers" in Hollywood no longer maintaining a sense of taste, quality, and public decency that formally had existed. This talk is sure to get you thinking about the views of American culture throughout the globe, and what, if anything, can be done to improve them. The talk is available on streaming video through FORA.tv.