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Or, it could simply be a rational reaction to the pop culture America has flooded the planet with since emerging from WWII as the only one left standing.

"Pop" culture, meaning "popular" culture, is only the lowest common denominator of what people throughout the world will watch.

It is no more "American" than ABBA was "Swedish".

Once upon a time, Hollywood made quality movies with true American themes such as "Gone With the Wind". Unfortunately, such movies do not bring in very much money outside of the USA. So, Hollywood has dumbed down it's product to be able to sell to a worldwide market.

A friend of mine that had sailed around the world told me how, in a remote South Pacific island, the natives who could not speak English were happily watching a Rambo movie projected on a bed sheet hung outdoors in the village. Such people would not sit through 5 minutes of "Gone With the Wind" or "Citizen Kane" but they gladly sat through 1 1/2 hours of mind candy to watch cars, planes and trains being blown up.

The same can be said for the other foreigners from France to China who will flock to the movie theatres to watch the same "Pop" culture trash.

Maybe America should be the one complaining that the rest of the world is responsible for the "Pop" culture trash that Hollywood now puts out to cater to the foreign world market.

Y, si, yo he viajado a Francia. Mientras que estaba en Paris, una sen~ora Francesa me explico que el idioma Frances era "el refinamiento" del Latin mientras que el idioma Castellano era "la corrupcion" del Latin. Me parece que la actitud de superioridad que tienen los Franceses no la tienen solamente con los Americanos.

I believe that happened--just as you describe. And she delivered the enlightening linguistic lecture in, no doubt, a very matter-of-fact manner It's so....so very French. They are never more chauvinistic than when describing the superiority of the language. And this may be another aspect of the culture rumbles between us--that American English is conquering the world. That must be especially galling to them.

Your points about the nature of our pop culture may have been valid a few years ago--but no longer, I think. You will find adolescent males gallumphing along with their baggy pants hanging down past their butt-crack and their inverted baseball cap listening to lyrics about ravaging girls and destroying whitey in any small town in Rockwell-land.

But you are correct that corporate hollywood produces for the visual appetites of the global masses. Which tells a rather ghastly truth about the dear "People"--don't you think? (You will notice that many on this forum think "conservatism" means defending corporations from criticism--at all costs; an interesting interpretation of "conservatism".)