The remainder of this ongoing web-log consists of this commentary and following Part 4.
They seek to examines and conject upon how the
past, present and futures of what are today world-wide entrenched American media and
automotive interests, through acting symbiotically, will seek to maintain an ongoing
'Californiacation' of relevant world markets. But one which critically, whilst invariably further commercialising foreign cultures, will do so with increased sensitivity and subtlety.
California's 21st
century focus upon the 'post-industrial' (as well as seemingly
simultaneously America's rediscovery of 'mid-value industrial' to
revitalise an internal economy), primarily relates to the immediacy
and so theoretically 'high-value' commercial arenas of: 'info-comms'
access, entertainment (and 'info-tainment') and personal transport.
To better appreciate
what lays behind the 'Californiacation' drive for new era
glocalisation this Part 3 seeks to convey its underlying (heavily
post-modern) concept. Wherein the process of cultural progression and
indeed new culture forming, utilising commercial entities, plays the
critical role.
To do so across the
global space, the learning born from the previous 60 years within the
USA - and concentrated within California specifically – will be
refined and effectively re-run.
Socio-Economics -
In order to maintain a
powerful yet globally accepted soft-power stance, the US will
continue to follow the usual historical practice seen with ancient
world powers. That of adapting and subtly shifting the belief systems
or perspectives which surround socially engrained traditions. So the
re-shaping of cultural norms to create ever more socio-connected
commercial opportunities.
One example was the now
near-fabled adoption of Santa Clause's red and white, fur trimmed
out-fit. Added to Christmas cards and general seasonal advertising,
it was apparently introduced to befit the red and white branding of
the Coca Cola Company. More recently, given the importance of
multi-culturalism and need to span various religions (not just
Christianity), Santa has been replaced by the brilliantly lit Coca
Cola Truck, with reflective overtones of what many faiths call the
“festival of the lights” (diwali etc).
To do so, as
historically seen by the views of Plato, Nietzsche and more recently
Jean Baudrillard, will rely upon the ideology of 'simulacrum' and its
plural 'simulacra'; as pertaining to the perception of an ever more
man-made, self referential, 'reality'.
'Reality' is obviously
an ongoing, but ever more man-made, self-referential construct. The
commentaries of Wittgenstein (on use of language), Barthes (on
semiotics) and Neitzsche (on seeking truth) perhaps the most
pertinent.
Future Belief vs
Disbelief -
Often socially
constructed, and so accepted, schisms exist between perceived reality
and perceived truth. Blurred areas exist from the desire for
inter-relationship harmony, or from a hierarchically derived
acquiescence, whereby obvious and less obvious non-truths are
absorbed. An unwillingness to accept or 'compute' such social norms
(ie perceiving as purely right and wrong) is one supposed sign of
certain 'learning disabilities' (ie prevalent in Downs' Syndrome ).
This especially the case on on moral grounds wherein bad behaviour of
another child/person or indeed the world at large is overlooked by
adults: those with authority and supposedly superior morality to the
child/teenager. (The 1955 James Dean film 'Rebel Without a Cause'
uses this internal conflict as its unstated central plot-line).
It is plausible that in
an ever more created and critically perceptionally manipulated world,
that such a schism becomes greater and so more problematic; as the
supposed reality of screen-based stories and images become in
themselves 'unbelieved', creating an increasingly disaffected society
– the very opposite of social stability.
Whilst no doubt
advantageous to the medical fraternity (therapies and drugs) such
social fragmentation further undermines the already depleted 'grande
narratives' required to unify society and societies.
Under this possible
scenario, people and consumers will seek-out those authentic,
'truth-telling' brands and companies, those with heritage and seen as
socially responsible and positively proactive.
Those for whom CSR
(corporate social responsibility) was a byword long before the phrase
was coined.
It is believed by
investment-auto-motives that such companies – exemplified by The
Walt Disney Company – in decades to come will increasingly be seen
as such social guardians; and though today their appears a conflict
between social influence and commercial opportunism, these two
apparent contradictions will be more harmoniously integrated.
To do so will require
intelligent management of an increasingly globalised society's
'modern hieroglyphs', the semiotic imagery and cognitive associations
that make-up social constructs, their short-hand connections and the
fundamental underlying 'belief maps'.
To do such firms will
inevitably continue to rely upon 'progressive copies' of said
imagery, or 'simulacra', which itself will be based upon selectively
used and indeed combined national. regional and glocal imagery with
its inherent meanings and values.
Simulacra: a Definition
-
This term has been
peppered throughout this weblog given its now entrenched global
culture poignancy. Any reader not aware of the term – largely used
as an academic descriptor in specific circles – will have
undertaken a web-dictionary search for its meaning.
But to recap, the
following general definitions are given:
Derived from the Latin
“simulacrum”:
“likeness or
similarity”(initially as ascribed to icons of the gods)
Latterly...
“a representation or
image of something”
“something similar; a
vague, tentative or shadowy resemblance”
Came to be viewed as a
copy of the original and so lacking in original substance/quality
Baudrillard argues that
the copy has become so pervasive in contemporary society that the
simulacrum becomes the “real thing” (to quote the Coca Cola
strapline) and so the hyper-real becomes the truth.
Whereas Plato saw 2
versions of the copy (the faithful and the intentionally distorted
used to 'correct' visual perspective on pillars, tall statues etc),
Baudrillard sees 4 versions:
1. basic reflection of
reality
2. distortion of
reality (in many ways)
3. pretence of reality
(where there is no actual original model, but created as loose
multi-perceptual configuration)
4. simulacrum – which
“bears no relation to any reality whatsoever”
The 1960s Baudrillard,
like the late 19th century Neitzsche and Plato millennia
earlier, sees this as a negative occurrence, and indeed a ploy, used
for effectively 'manufacturing culture' and 'creating new realities',
so instilling an ever bigger divide between (wo)man and the
(enlightened) truth that is nature.
However, the 1960s
Deleuze further describes the process of man-made repetition as
actually unique given its directed progression, instead viewing
nature as the systemic and generalised (the sequence of: sun/moon,
day/night, seasons, etc); so QED the very process of simulacrum a
valid social progression.
Whilst these viewpoints
exist in the echelons of philosophy, over the last half century, the
worlds of commerce and policy-formation have come to absorb the
Baudrillardian description, given the meteoric level of 'Americana'
culture-creation which arose from the late 1940s onward, itself
duplicated across the world.
The Foundations of “The
American Dream” -
The vital elements of
what was once called 'global Americanism', obviously under-pinned by
capitalism, stemmed from the ideology of an ever improving lifestyle;
as per the 'American Dream', was eventually available to all.
Yet, as others well
recognised, that betterment for American society and its individuals
from 1945 onward had (ironically) been enabled by the combination of
specific factors and outcomes: the Federal Reserve, the Bretton Woods
Agreement and the victor's post WW2 inbound global liquidity flows.
The previous creation
of a wholly autonomous Federal Reserve (as today) enabled the ability
to print money at will (so able to win WW2 on both European and
Pacific fronts massive production of munitions and transport). The
Bretton Woods Conference of 1944 ostensibly created the IMF and World
Bank and other systems so robustly conjoining international monetary
transactions. Which in turn enabled the various payments from foreign
governments (lend-lease repayments from allies and reparation
payments made from the new installed authorities of the old 'axis
powers' of Germany and Japan; this partly through immediate currency
but partly by way of industrial agreements.
Thus America's win of
what had ostensibly been for it a global war meant that it could
capture large portions of the associated international wealth
potential, turning that into wealth creation and so liquidity to
trickle-down through its banking sector, through Wall St, through
commerce and industry and through its society of ever increasing
upward consumption.
This formula then, ie
all that went before, was the basis of an envied society; a
technically progressive society formed from education, comfort and
joy (via entertainment). It was what allowed middle class families to
buy the cheap and cheerful import of the VW Beetle for their
children's college years, provided the imported iron-ore for its own
steel-making, a portion of the imported oil for its plastics
industries, both materials under-pinning Detroit's previously far
more aspirational cars, and provided the foreign (Japan at first)
sourced components which went into American branded white goods and
brown goods.
The Social Construct of
the 'American Dream' -
However, ironically
although American consumer success had been built upon cheap inbound
imports (visible and less so), American society itself became ever
more distinctly insular and arguably isolated. Obviously not in a
similar way to the previous cases of China or Japan, (seeking to
avoid what they saw as corrupt internationalism), but obversely.
For most Americans the
rest of the world was a long long way off and any desire to travel
there had been 'cured' by WW2, especially for returned servicemen.
The world beyond American shores was a shattered world of general
deprivation. After the war only the rich, commercially-minded and
culturally-aware, saw opportunities for either cheap import trade or
an American 20th century replication of the European
Grande Tour.
The 1950s film 'Funny
Face' provides a idealised snapshot of the era.
Starring Audrey
Hepburn, Fred Astaire and Kay Martin, a New York fashion magazine
discovers their 'new face' in a bookish unmaterialistic philosophy
student (Hepburn). An offer to travel to Paris for a fashion
photo-shoot is agreed with her primary objective of meeting a reputed
philosopher. But she herself philosophically returns to 'the American
way' after the European 'high-brow' exhibits himself as little more
than a self-conceited, woman-chasing, “typical” man. She then
enters the arms of Astaire for a presumed “happily ever after”.
Thus the intriguing
world of European high-culture is depicted as sham, in favour of the
materialistic stability and inferred wholesomeness of 'American
Dream'
In an evolved
simulacrum of typical Hollywood self-reference, the opening sequence
of 'The Devil Wears Prada' is literally super-imposed over Funny Face
by plot and location. A similar 'anti-fashion' character (Anne
Hathaway) likewise reluctantly working for a NY fashion magazine is
also transformed to the aspirational norm. The opening sequence shows
her exiting a New York subway station; doing so in front of the
apparent self-same book-store in which the bookish Hepburn was
discovered
This the all too
typical exercise of supposed directorial 'cleverness', wherein
Hollywood cinematic self-reference creates further simulacrum. With
any knowledgeable viewer possibly (and ridiculously) believing they
too are 'in the know' and so somehow special for being so, and very
likely in this camara-phone era, seeking to make art out of their own
everyday life.
One sub-theme of the
plot to 'American Beauty' alludes to this long before the notion of
the cinematically influenced self-directed, pictorially based 'life'
became merged into the norm].
On the Road -
In Part 2
investment-auto-motives demonstrated how today “the car is the
star” of EM aspiration, at the top of the consumption lifestyle
ladder.
This then an obvious
re-run of the previous 'advanced markets' template across the USA and
remainder of the triad regions.
By the time Jack
Kerouac had written his now almost mythical 1951 counter-culture
novel for the 'beat-nik' generation - opposing consumerism in favour
of experentialism - the far more socially powerful fact is that the
automobile had already become wholly engrained within the national
psyche, familial psyche and individual psyche.
Ever more remote
suburban 'satellite' neighbourhoods had been created by virtue of the
automobile (Los Angeles the prime example) which along with extensive
country-side settlements meant that the car was a very necessary
personal travel tool to undertake basic everyday functions, for trips
to the shopping mall or to town, and as a weekend escape mechanism or
for a longer holiday. All the while an ever more prevalent symbol of
achievement and notional social status.
Automobiles and Pop
Culture -
As such an engrained
totem, the car and truck become an ever more important staple element
and instrument within cinema, TV and music from the 1930s onward. Sixty years later the prime components of dedicated and general video games
such as the best known Grand Theft Auto - as personal realities become further
blurred. And revived from grass roots, street level with
productions like 'Fast and the Furious' (and sequels) aswell as retro-flavoured efforts like 'Gone in Sixty Seconds' and now the game inspired 'Need for Speed'.
Yet, the true heyday
for the USA was the booming post-war era, from the mid 1950s to the
'muscle-car' peak by the early 1970s, and a plethora of associated
films by the mid 1970s to re-boost a then flagging US economy.
In Summary:
1950s
Music-wise, initially
'Rockabilly' bands drawing their inspiration from a broad mix of
influences, including 'blue-grass', 'beat-nik' and importantly a
self-created, “built not bought” 'hot-rod' culture.
Car-based films:
'Thunder Road'
1960s
Musical references to
specific vehicles and hot-rod terms becoming intrinsic to
(unsurprisingly) the 'Motown' musical output
of Detroit. The Ford Mustang production line used in one early music
video by Martha Reeves for 'Nowhere to Run'; the pony-car also referred to by Wilson
Pickett in' Mustang Sally' in the same year of 1965. Conversely, the
Californian lifestyle - representing youth and broad 'counter-culture' - offered by likes of The Beach Boys and their "309", Ronny and the Daytonas with a "Little GTO", and the humour of Jan and Dean's "Little Old Lady From Pasadena" in her 'hopped-up' Dodge.
Car-based films:
'Fireball 500'
'The Great Race' (early
auto era retrospective)
'Bullitt'
'Le Mans'
'Winning'
1970s
Musically, the obvious
references to car-culture became diluted as musical influences
broadened with retro, ethnic, heavy rock and classical infusions.
However, this decade
saw a generated interest in coast to coast and similar long distance
car sprints, often brash and illegal and so popularly celebrated as
“sticking two fingers up to 'the Man'”. Such filmic story plots
were matched by TV series, with ironically anti-heros playing both
against and for the law; so demonstrating the way in which
'counter-culture' is absorbed into the systemic norm.
Car-based films:
'Vanishing Point'
'American Graffiti (a
hyper-real 1950s simulacra retrospective)
'Two Lane Blacktop'
'Dirty Mary, Crazy
Larry'
'Gone in Sixty Seconds'
(re-made in 2000)
'Moonrunners'
'Cannonball Run (films
1,2,3 and inspiring later events)
'Gumball Rally'
(inspiring the later '3000' event)
Smokey and the Bandit
(films 1,2,3)
Cannonball Run
The Driver
Starsky and Hutch
Dukes of Hazzard
Automotive
'Commodification' of Counter-Culture -
As seen previously with
the predominantly southern black 'Blues' sound, the predominantly
white 'Beat-nik' movement and the later muted rebellion of the white
college-boy Beach Boy's sound, the embodiment of contrast (or the
flip-side in record parlance) is quickly absorbed by commercialism.
Whatever is seen to emerge as potentially popular becomes modified,
packaged and sold.
This is seen by
Starsky's role, his inferred polish immigrant background, his bright
red, white-striped Ford Gran Torino (playing the role of police-car
in the imagined 'Bay City' of S. California), it is typically the
marginalised and often foreign elements which formulate a
'counter-culture' which itself becomes absorbed into the mainstream.
But there is no better
automotive example than the plucky little 1963 VW Beetle 'Herbie'.
“Think Small”
Across the Big Screen -
It seems that Herbie
was the last character created by (the then) Walt Disney Productions
whilst under the watchful eye of Walt Disney himself, the Beetle
chosen because its innate shape and size evoked a pet-like reaction,
it was the anti-thesis of the big boxy American saloons of the
period, and also was itself a worldwide product, from Europe to
Mexico to Brazil to S.Africa to India to Australia. It was the
perfect 'global vehicle' for Disney's and America's soft-power play.
However, ironically,
here was a car which in reality came into being through Hitler and
the Nazis as the 'strength through joy' vehicle for the German
masses. It formed the base of its small lightweight military vehicles
in WW2. It was resurrected as a reliable and critically cheap mode of
mass transport after the war. It was imported into the USA and
perversely publicised by a Jewish advertising firm with the now
famous “Think Small” tag-line. And (again ironically) within
America became a badge of anti-war, eco-friendly, pro-gay left-wing
'socio-intellectualism'. As such the embodiment of a heavily west
coast influenced counter-culture against the east-coast
'establishment'.
[NB For those less
aware, the US political system generally consists of east coat,
mid-west and southern states Republicans (various protestant
churches) verses west-coast and northern Democrats (jews, catholics
and the absorption of other less powerful minorities. This seeming
culture-war has extended throughout the US media for decades.
(However, Lewis Carol's “the Walrus and the Carpenter” is highly
apt regards entwined interests)].
'Herbie' then was seen
by Hollywood's 'champagne left' as the perfect vehicular foil for
national and international distribution, sales and income, offering
an underdog which can become embraced by large sections of the
immigrant derived American public, since 'he' (in an anthropomorphic
manner) represents them.
In the first 1969 film
'the Love Bug' the car is first purchased in San Francisco for the
maid of a socialite; hence with immigrant overtones from the start,
and is victorious against a dastardly, upper-class British
race-driver. In the 1974 film 'Herbie Rides Again' Herbie is owned
by an elderly lady who faces the loss of her home by an unscrupulous
rich developer, wherein the car and his human and vehicular friends
come to her aid. The 1977 film 'Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo' sees the
race format re-appear in France, this time against a German 'baddie'
and involving a diamond theft. The 1980 film 'Herbie Goes Bananas' is
set in Mexico wherein the car and a young boy experience different
adventures, posing as various locals from taxi-service to farmers,
using bananas to avoid the escape of criminals seeking to steal an
antique golden disc. A 1997 television-film was made also called 'The
Love Bug'. In 2005 'Herbie Re-loaded' was distributed, this time with
a female lead and using the familiar regeneration of a previously
scrapped Herbie and good vs evil plot on the race-track; commercially
synergising NASCAR with VW then new Beetle.
The crux of the matter
here is that the counter-culture object – in this case the loveable
car – becomes engrained into the norm through the layering of
applied emotionality, and so influence, via the story itself.
As regards
Baudrillard's posited theory of simulacrum and the hyper-real, the
successive Herbie sequels (which each demonstrate various subtle
sub-plots) demonstrates the seemingly similar – but actually often
subtly visually changed – icon.
In doing so, The Disney
Corporation, effectively created an embedded cultural short-hand (by
way of that icon) in which the modest good overcomes brash evil, and
critically implicitly: “all roads lead to America”.
The Dream as The Real -
Thus we can see that
film – the primary vehicle of the 'American Dream' – has seeped
so deeply into an American consciousness, and increasingly worldwide
consciousness, through its unifying impact, that the publicly
consumed 'image object' (as theoreticians might say) has become a
substantial portion of a personal reality for many millions, if not
some billions, of the world's 7.2 billion people.
The American Dream
then, is both a distant lifestyle expectation for the global masses,
and ironically simultaneously through immediate visual absorption, a
created 'alternative reality which people already populate to
differing degrees.
From creating immediate
consumer desires amongst the masses, to the belief by supposedly
intellectual others that 'one is aware' of the depth of the
socio-cinematic impact, to now the smart-phone extolled as an
instrument of public good via citizen reporting whilst in actuality
eroding privacy.
The fact remains that
today 99.9% of society is image-immersed, those images accompanied by
apparent 'truths'.
Far Earlier “Merged
Constructs” -
“The Wonderful World
of Disney”
The merging of belief
and created worlds could be said to have arrived with religion, but
in the televisual sense, truly came to being with the advent of
manipulated photography (eg the Victorian fairies at the bottom of
the garden created through double exposure) and specifically with
cinematography (ie the seemingly very threatening head-on advancing
steam locomotive).
At this point by the
1880s, the power of the image upon a naïve public was irrefutable,
but obviously by the 1950s image, whilst still very influential, had
lost that merging of two worlds.
To once again mesh both
image and real worlds, the cartoonist and film-maker Walt Disney
sought to furthering the escapist fantasy aspect of amusement parks
(eg Colney Island etc) in his own created image. Achieved fifty-nine
years ago, when Walt Disney's cartoon creations were brought to life
via the development of Disneyland, in Anaheim, south of Los Angeles,
California.
During a pre-screen age
the commercial imperative to connect the general public with famous
yet remote figures through entertainment was arguably best
established by Madam Tussauds via her waxwork museum. But as soon as
the 'silver screen' arrived, a new set of intriguing characters were
born. Yet whilst Tussauds would go on to replicate the human and
non-human film stars of those early times through to today, it would
be Walt Disney (and his brother Roy) that truly brought the screen to
life.
Walt doing so literally
through the now legendary group of theme-parks, originating from
Disneyland in 1955.
A Snapshot of 20th
Century Disney -
Given its social impact
upon the world, a detailed history of Disney's activities and the
emergent Disney Corporation is hardly required, but a snap-shot
worthwhile. Simply because, for most of the public (American and
otherwise) and the majority of the investment community, the history
of the company which forms a cornerstone of popular culture remains
patchy.
Animation began in the
“pre-talkies” era with 'Alice's Wonderland', followed by 'Oswold
the Lucky Rabbit'. From this came Mortimer Mouse (in 'Steamboat
Willie' etc) which in turn gave fully formed Mickey Mouse. Soon
joined by Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto etc.
The success of Mickey
and 'Snow White' distributed via two powerful 'lot studios' provided
expansion funds. In 1939 these monies built a new production centre
in Burbank (still the HQ) for a new raft of releases, whilst in early
1940 the company undertook an IPO to re-supply production funding for
new releases with infusing overtones: 'Pinocchio' (moralistic),
'Fantasia' (educational), 'Dumbo' (family) and Bambi (family).
Perhaps more
importantly Disney sought to effectively create new American-made
folk-tales (which could be seen as stemmed from 'old-country'
European folk-tales) but 're-imprinting' the critical American
identity and an early eco-consciousness, through regional stories on
what was an diffuse and often uneducated public. So 'Song of the
South' (a prototype mixed live-animation effort), 'So Dear to My
Heart', 'Seal Island' and 'The Vanishing Prarie' were made.
[NB This also coincided
with true mass motoring, inspiring people to buy cars and buy
gas/petrol so as to take road trip holidays to see “the real (ie
natural) America' whilst staying at motor-hotels (mo'tels) and
roadside eateries, so distributing city-made money into poorer
country communities. Hence the car as a vehicle for economic good].
[NB As will be seen in
Part 4, the plot of the original film 'Cars' (2006) alluded to the
loss of these self-induced intra-state sub-economies].
The 1950s saw a mix of
animation and live-action features, taken from disparate sources
reflecting literary popular culture to that point. The former being
'Cinderella', 'Alice in Wonderland' and 'Peter Pan', the latter being
'Treasure Island', 'Robin Hood', 'The Sword and the |Rose', '20,000
Leagues Under the Sea'.
Coca-Cola sponsored
Disney's first TV show in 1950.
But it was in 1954 that
a TV series name 'Disneyland' came into being run on the ABC network.
Obviously pre-cursing the physical opening of the same-name
theme-park in 1955 – in which ABC had an interest - deployed as an
obvious televisual conveyor and entry-point.
The TV series also
called “Walt Disney Presents” and “The Wonderful World of
Disney” went on to be the longest running weekly broadcast TV
series until 2008, when it transferred to Disney's own cable channel
Thus, Disney's output
has been consistently absorbed by 3 or 4 generations of Americans.
So much so that through
TV, film and theme-park that it has now come to represents a form of
hyper-real (ie truly tangible) escapism from the ills of American
society and thus the modern world.
The corporation's long
back-catalogue means that it has virtually engrained feel-good
'social antidote' into the minds of many.
So much so, that the
strength of its associated brand values – arguably reflecting those
same values of America's own 'founding fathers' – has allowed it to
create what may be described as an alternative, preferred reality.
Not just on screen or in a theme-park, but in the wider world by way
of the Florida town (near DisneyWorld) named 'Celebration'.
Thus arguably, fact has
indeed come to follow fiction, in which through community based
rules, Disney has indeed created the experience of an improved
society.
The Cult of Walt Reborn
-
Whilst the Disney brand
and its hand-written script name is known by millions the world over,
for many decades the connection to the originator, Walt Disney
himself, had been lost. Whilst invariably the case at corporate board
level (given the pitch battle for control, especially through Michael
Eisner period 1984-2005), what had become apparent was that not only
today's children but also their parents and previous generation knew
little of Disney's origins. And that problem would only grow as
Disney sought to both draw from, and sell to, foreign cultures.
That dilemma of a lost
connection to 'the spiritual father' thus required mending.
Hence the production of
the recent Disney film 'Saving Mr Banks'. The film's mission to
demonstrate how Walt Disney (and thus America) sought to retell in
yet a more popularist manner the created middle-class children's
stories of yesteryear. In this instance using the renowned children's
favourite 'Mary Poppins' from the 1960s; a specific 'behind the
scenes' story retold given the pinnacle of Walt's influence at the
time. He himself a powerful soft-power actor on the heavily American
induced worldwide stage, with Mary Poppins the outcome of a
notionally American-British-Australian cultural marriage.
[NB Infact another
political aspect of the film presumably seeks to maintain Australia
as a strong friend of America, and conduit for US soft-power
influence, given Australia's own Asian geo-political sphere].
In effect the
re-telling of the Walt story, from the different corporate angle,
seeks to reflect today's Walt Disney Company in Walt's own perceived
image: as paternal to the world's children.
Thus very
interestingly, yet another phase (or over-layed 'map' to quote
theorists) of self-perpetuating and subtly evolving simulacrum.
To Follow -
Part 4 will speculate
from the premis thus far provided, as to how corporate America and
The Walt Disney Company in particular will seeks to once again
reach-out across the world.
Yet, although still by
far the greatest military super-power, it also recognises that future
cultural conquests throughout much of the remaining 21st
century will need to be based upon truly socio-economic grounds, as
opposed to those previously seen in the geo-political sphere.
This in turn requires a
local cultural filtration and re-application of the learning captured
over the last 60 years or so, both from the social laboratory that
was post WW2 California, and from the more culturally progressive
foreign commercial out-posts which have served as the early ports of
call for modern American corporate minds.
As seen throughout this
web-log, given the immense psychological consumer attraction and
broad economic traction of the automobile, it will remain
centre-stage depicted in many forms, representing many characters and
undertaking many roles: helping to weave McLuhan's 'global village'
together, even in this supposed age of all invasive, meta-physical,
cyber-space.
