American popular culture has a significant impact on my life. I watch American TV shows and American movies, listen to American bands and American artists, and read American blogs and American websites. The USA may be waning as an economic power, but it’s cultural output is as dominant and imperialistic as ever.
Which is not to say I’m not grateful of course. In an age when every second British TV program is either a glorified talent show or a vehicle for Z list celebrities to degrade themselves, the odd injection of Battlestar Galactica, House, or Chuck is a welcome breath of fresh air.
But it is fair to say that American culture is all pervasive. American visitors to my blog often leave comments asking me to clarify an English word or expression that they don’t understand. That never happens when I visit their blogs; a knowledge of American language and culture is ingrained in the British public from a very early age. For example, years of exposure to The Dukes of Hazard has taught me all about Americans insistence on climbing into cars through the windows. And thanks to my eager consumption of Vanilla Ice’s back catalog I have an in-depth and rounded understanding of American dialect and lexicon.
I have managed to retain the majority of my Englishness however. For example, despite temptation I have yet to wander the streets of Huddersfield in my stetson and spurs attempting to lasso people as they come out of WH Smiths. Some things just aren’t done over here you understand.
It may just be a matter of time however. In fact I am convinced that the USA are planning a complete takeover of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland (they will probably leave Wales alone - they speak funny over there and have an unnatural fascination with sheep). The occupation of the UK won’t be performed through invasion however. An aggressive attack on another country, followed by ill advised attempts to impose their own idea of govenment onto a culture to which such ideas are alien would be both naive and arrogant. In fact it would probably result in civil war. Surely not a mistake a respected superpower such as the States would make.
No, America is taking over the United Kingdom not with guns, but with the wavy red lines of the spellchecker. A great man (me) once said “If you control language you control minds’. My spelling is ropey at best and I heavily rely on spellcheckers in order to make what I write intelligible (or is that ineligible). I resisted American English at first, insisting on tyre rather than tire, liquorice instead of licorice, and “Jolly good old bean” rather than “Yeeha! Ride ‘em cowboy!”. But it all got too much effort and I’ve resigned myself to the American way of doing things.
No doubt next week I’ll be calling everything “quaint” and mispronouncing Edinburgh. I have sacrificed my heritage for the convenience of not having to get the big heavy English dictionary down from the shelf. It’s a rather unequal exchange I admit, but it’s one I am happy with.
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