Airbrushed America

After I posted last night's entry, I thought I'd do a Google search on the Argentinean variant of my name. There were some interesting results, like this one:

Is globalization an inevitable occurrence? Or is it simply a contemporary breed of imperialism? Either way, the prevailing preoccupation is globalization's potential to destroy the diversity of cultures around the world.

The author of the above excerpt is a young woman named Natalia Cherjovsky; it's from the 3rd International Conference on Globalisation and Resistance, at the University of Brighton, UK, March 2005. I haven't checked with the subject matter experts, but I think she is my third cousin once removed (great-great grandfather's great-great-great granddaughter). I thought this abstract was interesting because my last posting vaguely touched on how certain aspects of different cultures -- such as language -- are being lost. But then there's this:

How can a country that is morally bankrupt, politically corrupt, economically dysfunctional and culturally barren successfully presents [sic] itself as the epitome of civilization? What is it that is being fed to these captive audiences? It's a mirage; a collage of airbrushed pictures and romanticized memories of a time when the US was the country it still purports to be. They are exporting the American Nightmare.

Damn. That's harsh.

Now, I will grant that the presence of the American Empire around the world has often been destructive. But morally bankrupt? Nah, just deeply in debt.