Growing up overseas and attending American Embassy schools, I have been exposed to Americana in a rather strange way. Through my American-style education and having snippets of American culture presented to me through my American friends and the occasional videotapes of football games and popular sit-coms, I grew up watching America from a distance. I must admit that although this gave me a rather partial and distorted view of what America was really like, it has enabled me to see to the heart of America. Through my basic American education and the freedom of not growing up a slave to the media monster called television, I have been able to see this country rather soberly, and I can fully appreciate just what it is that this country is all about.

The function of this essay is to examine what it means to be "American," and to consider what must be done in order to prepare this country for the future. America has little that even resembles culture. This is caused not only by its youth but by the fact that the culture presented to Americans today through the medium of television is cheap, simple and is created with the maximum effect over the shortest period of time in mind. This lends itself to little that can be consistent or can be branched from into a deeper and more defined culture.

America is in a state of ideological turmoil. Still recovering from the political tidal wave of civil rights legislation and with the memories of Korea and Vietnam still in the minds of most Americans old enough to remember it, the contradictions inherent in this "melting pot" society are still widely exposed, and America has been left scrambling to formulate a socioeconomic policy that will work and actually provide "justice for all" in being identified as an American. Although America prides itself on the diversity and complexity of its population, the truth is that a lot of what is wrong with America can be attributed to this very basic foundation of American society. While a multitude of ethnic origins can bring about a variety of cultures and viewpoints, what it has actually done is force all those willing to embrace it to surrender their own identity in favor of the homogenized end-product called America.

Although it may seem reasonable to the standard white citizen in the street, the ramifications of such an ideology are far less reasonable. Apart from Native Americans, there are no groups currently represented in the mainstream population that can truly consider themselves "American." While any white American will be quick to identify himself as a "red-blooded" true American, the reality of the matter is that he is probably the third-generation descendant of an Irish or Italian immigrant who came to America at the turn of the century in search of a prosperous life. While the enthusiasm immigrants showed in assimilating themselves with the American mainstream has endured and has made it relatively easy to become "American", this has not applied to everyone. Even in this day and age, those who do not fit the standard American bill of being white and Christian have found it difficult to be accepted as Americans. Asians, Blacks and Latinos have been in America as long as anyone else, and yet the physical attributes that separated their ancestors from the white upper-class at the outset of America's history have still hindered their acceptance by the majority as being part of the same culture.

Although they have been as willing to accept American culture in favor of their own for the sake of becoming American, they have been met with derision as well as a general reluctance by the mainstream to accept them as representatives or participants in the creation and maintenance of American culture. While members of these ethnicities attempt to hurl themselves into American culture, it is important to try and define what it means to be American. Although the relative youth of America has enabled it to stay at the fringe of social thought and to be willing to advance and adapt to the times, the lack of actual history has made it difficult for any permanence to exist in American culture. The main reason for this is how transitory and watered-down the sources of American culture seems to be. While other nations possess thousands of years of history as well as a sense of permanence for all that their respective identities seem to encompass, America has been left as a country whose morals seem to be questioned and rehashed every time the need arises.

Economically, Capitalism has worked for America. The material wealth as well as the political and social reach of American influence lay testament to this fact. And yet, it is this obsession with money that America has inherited from all who came to the "land of opportunity" that is exactly what is wrong. The content of television, the most influential medium of our age, is not dictated by a responsibility to provide the masses with a good source of information, but by the wishes of advertisers who wish to find suitable vehicles by which to sell their products. The Super Bowl, the most watched event in America, is the culmination of hundreds of football games and is preceded by weeks of hype and advertisements. While I believe that sports is a very positive social outlet, the representation of sports in the U.S. has, in my opinion, been perverted by the forces that move it, namely the advertisers. Watching the Super Bowl, it almost seems as if the clash of beer bottles in the Bud Bowl and the latest potato chip commercials are as important to the viewers as the outcome of the actual contest.

There is no question that the content of television is mainstreamed, and so it must cater to the lowest common denominator. Television programs are simplistic in their style and content and almost seem childish to one who can compare the redundant comedies that have enjoyed staggering popularity in America with the more intelligent and sophisticated comedy that is presented on British television. Although America arguably holds the largest group of artists and intellectuals in the world today, too many have been forced to compromise the artistic merit of their work in order to make it more accessible to the masses. Rarely has a talented musical group in the nineties put out a second album that wasn't undermined by the cheesy and marketable sound of their music in order to give it more "air-play" on television and radio, which in turn would give them greater success. While certain mainstream artists have embraced this ideal as their style, good music has been unable to flourish or prosper because of its lack of representation on the radio, on the television, or in general society. Television dictates the choices of consumers, and only the most widely appealing products in the marketplace receive representation, generally owing to the amount of money its producer invests into convincing the consumer to choose it through advertisement and product placement.

However, probably the most striking aspect of this system of media domination is that those who exist under it are unaware of its influence on every choice they make in their life. From a person's choice of consumer products to his basic ideology and morals, nothing is beyond the reach of television and its architects. It is a sad sign of the times when an entire nation can be moved by the whims of a few businessmen, but this is where America stands. The growing disillusionment I feel with my generation is felt by our parents, and there is little we can do about it. The simplicity of television and the mental conditioning it has given the American youths of my generation has rendered them incapable of appreciating quality art of any sort. With the exception of some work that has managed to penetrate the thick skulls of those around me, people cannot appreciate anything unless they are told to, and that is very sad, indeed. Another saddening casualty of our generation is our general apathy towards the world around us. Most children my age are virtually unaware of the geography of the world outside the United States, and seem to take a sort of childish pride in their ignorance. To them, whatever doesn't concern America doesn't even matter.

However, on another level, the explosion of information available to the man on the street has done little to slow the loss of concern with the administration of the American government. While politicians sit around and bicker about marginal issues, the youth of America have been pushed to the backburner of most political debates. Our futures are being pawned by people who will be dead by the time we have children, and most of my peers are virtually unaware of this fact, and those who are seem unwilling to even vote and make a difference. The saddest part is not that the children of today are so unaware of what lies beyond the plastic world of television, but that we will inherit this country in ten years and not know what to do with it. When my generation's children turn to us for knowledge or guidance, we will be unable to do anything but sigh and try to pass on our feelings of apathy and ignorance that will be the death of us. By then, the media will have enveloped us entirely and few will be able to think clearly enough to see past their influence.

Looking forward to the future, I predict a country of drones who are still slaves to the system, although the World Wide Web will be the new medium of choice. Its technology and strucutre as an interactive medium are far superior to television, and the virtually unlimited amounts of information that are currently available will render television obsolete by the end of my generation, . However, those who control television and in turn control America's minds are aware of this, and they will be ready to dominate the next medium of culture. America is motivated by money, and money is what has enabled this country to advance and force the world to adapt to it at such an alarming rate. It has given a young country wealth and prosperity unimaginable to most, and it has all been accomplished through Capitalism, and the desire for greater material wealth. This vision has been distorted through television, and those who control have conveniently manipulated it in order to suit their own ends. We are slaves to that which made this country great, and that is a sad thing.