America's Gas Station Thomas Friedman Analysis

The export of American culture has had undeniable impacts on other cultures and societies, but whether they are positive or negative is not a black and white issue. The spread of culture has provided opportunities to individuals who may not have been exposed to them otherwise, but has also forced traditional livelihoods to the back-burner.

According to Thomas Friedman’s essay, the countries of the world are being pressured into becoming more like the United States whether they are ready for it or not. In “America’s gas station” the customer is king, and a “flexible labor market” will provide the would-be employees of this theoretic gas station a different, and dare say better, place to work. But not all countries can provide this flexible

The occasion? The opening ceremony of the very first McDonald’s in Jerusalem. Under the misconception that he was the ambassador of McDonald’s, a young Israeli man asked Indyk for his autograph. Indyk had to explain his position, and his autograph was no longer requested. This idea that, in other countries, McDonald’s holds a higher level of importance than the United States government only goes to show that a capitalist world holds consumerism higher than citizenship. Friedman paints this in a negative light, and it quite possibly should be, however Deirdre Straughan states in her essay that American media (and, in a much broader sect, culture) is not being forced upon other countries by “those evil capitalists in Hollywood.” This is also correct. American culture is not being forced upon other societies, however it is spreading at the rate of an invasive species that has not yet completely driven out the flora or fauna. Western culture presents itself in almost every aspect of life throughout the world, as Western culture is simply a melting pot of other cultures from other, older societies. Straughan makes the point that in many parts of the world, American culture shows up alongside the native cultures in a way that is not negative because it is not all-consuming. It falls into the “foreign stuff” category of culture - also known as whatever is adopted into other countries/societies because the population thinks that it is