All Quiet on the Western Front

Western culture — the American Way of Life — dominates the world less today than one might think. Let’s not kid ourselves: It means absolutely nothing that there may still be billions of people in the Third World who have yet to see their first Coca-Cola billboard or buy their first Mickey Mouse t-shirt. At least, it no longer means anything. These are rear-guard battles, the final twitches of a culture that made the West the natural yardstick for everything during the last 50 years: pop-culture. Western culture was synonymous with pop-culture during that era because everything else — opera, theater, literature, ballet — was only on the program for appearances’ sake.

Now, the appearance is all that remains; pop-culture is gone. That has ramifications. Goethe Institutes all over the world will keep the moribund culture from Swan Lake to William Tell alive, but without the slightest effect. Non-Western society no longer orients itself toward the latest American television series, British musical groups or mad German painters. There are no such things any more, or at least there will not be shortly.

It was just five or 10 years ago that pop music ceased to exist. The industry collapsed because people no longer had to pay to hear songs. However, pop music is still chart music, i.e., the musical expression of millions of people for a week or so — sort of like a Bild Newspaper for sound. Personally, I have never been interested in any music other than the current Top 10, but since the death of both the chart and music industries, the only thing available is old music, or as the radio stations blare, “KISS FM, the biggest hits of the 70s, 80s and 90s — plus the best of today’s hits!” Although, the “today” is always suppressed and there are really no songs because there is no such thing as hits from today.

There is no longer a musical expression of the present; all one finds is music canned in the past. Buyers and markets no longer determine what is good and what is bad. It is much like our old, dead culture: Government grants go to those people skilled in negotiating with bureaucrats. Anyone capable of creating anything can feel like an artist, even if they lack the first bit of talent. The worst (because they are the most unsuspecting) may be found on the jazz scene. These people have not grasped the notion that just playing someone else’s notes written in the past is not art. Blues and soul or other disguised retro-movements make the same mistake. That is why you no longer hear Western music being played in Jakarta, Sydney or São Paulo. The fact that the lamest dumps are still playing Michael Jackson and Madonna hits only comes off as counterproductive.

The next victim will be the television industry, killed off by the internet. Meanwhile, cheap local soap operas are the order of the day. Our way of life is no longer being disseminated to the world. It has been replaced in India by 30 religious channels. The goddess Lakshmi and her 76 miracles have replaced Eva Longoria’s last one-night stand. Well, that’s great. Next after that will be the publishing industry. Almost every book title has now been scanned, so people will soon stop spending money on books. Millions of authors will have to go on the dole. By then, it won’t be just the rest of the world that rejects the Western lifestyle; we will reject it, too. The fact that this rejection is coming can already be seen in our young people aged 25 or under. They are already that way.