This week’s reading was one of those pieces that really make you consider your ego. What Ang’s work (though her methodology was a little sketchy) really says to the Western world is get off your high horse. Western intellectuals overstating the influence of western capitalist culture on the rest of the world shows that even among those who are concerned about the extent of western influence (and ultimately exploitation) on other cultural ideologies are placing Western culture in a place of dominance, singling it out as somehow different in nature than other cultures. The fact that we assume people of non-western cultures will drop their own cultural beliefs shows the underlying beliefs that:
- We do not conceive non-western society as having convictions that run deeper than western ideologies
- We alone are able to see and combat Western imperialism in mass media.
The question of what the spread of the reach of Western culture really means in terms of changing the nature of other cultures then needs to be reconsidered. What is really going on here? Is it a lost of identity, authenticity, or something much more complex that requires much more research and study before we place all responsibility beside ourselves on our Western high horse.
