Import of American culture is harmful

HI you guys, awesome, this is so-ooooo totally amazing! I find this sad more than annoying that our language is so Americanised, yet inevitable as language like most things is fluid.

I say sad but I really mean frightening for I believe that since the marriage of Ronnie and Maggie in the 1980s, American culture and ideology has brought more harm than good to our shores.

The combined forces of Hollywood, marketing and the Holy Grail of the American Dream has led us into a sleepwalk of dreams, illusion and delusion where success, fame and fortune is the only ambition for many.

Strange how these words come without definition and happiness (however this may be defined) is not mentioned but assumed as a natural by-product.

Many appear to embrace all that America sells us, or perhaps we have little choice depending on how much of a grip they have upon us.

We’ve been their missile base, we’ve inherited their litigation practices, oversized cars and trucks too large for our roads, junk food, obesity, diabetes, drive-ins, TV audiences that drown shows with a cacophony of whooping and a’hollering, sport as a purely business investment and sport presentation more razzamataz and hot air than action.

We have career and populist politicians and tickertape elections, billboards and adverts, baseball caps, coffee shops replacing the pub, high fives, gangs and guns. The list is endless.

For me, the worst import is the ideology of as ‘long as it makes a buck’ . Exercised without integrity or thought of consequence this ‘money is god’ belief system has given new life to a dog-eat-dog, social climbing snobbery. Did anyone truly believe that class was dead in this country?

You may be of the opinion that this condemnation of American culture is unjustified and you are free to do so, yet I ask you to consider their foreign policy of the last 100 years. It is one of destabilisation, interference and chicanery all in the pursuit of profit and control and has generally left devastation in its wake.

So you guys, I’ll accept fluidity of language readily in exchange for permission to follow a British dream.

Peter Lawrence

Dursley, Glos