The TNCs Web of Control: excerpt 3

even in culturally conservative societies in what we still call the Third World, the dinner hour is falling victim to the television - in bars, tea houses, and cafes and in living quarters around the world the same absence of conversation and human interaction is noticeable as family members, singly or together, sit riveted in front of a cathode tube - as in the United States, Europe, and Japan, centuries-old ways of life are disappearing under the spell of advanced communication technologies.

the cultural products most widely distributed around the world bear the stamp "Made in the USA" and almost any Hollywood film or video is bound to offend traditional values somewhere - scenes depicting independent women, amorous couples, and kids talking back to parents upset all sorts of people across the globe as assaults on family, religion, and order - because the steady streams of global commercial products in many places, including parts of the United States, are feared as barbarian intrusions, they are provoking local and nationalist backlashes, often carried out in the name of God.

the Global Shopping Mall [2] is a planetary supermarket with a dazzling spread of things to eat, drink, wear, and enjoy - dreams of affluent living are communicated to the farthest reaches of the globe, but only a minority of the people in the world can afford to shop at the Mall - of the 4-5 billion people on earth, almost 3-4 billion have neither cash nor credit to buy much of anything - a majority of people on the planet are at most window-shoppers.

The TNCs Web of Control: excerpt 3