“Can American culture make Muslims love us?”
November 16, 2007 by Max
Continuing on my previous theme of Arab-American relations, I’d like to direct you all to two of Fred Kaplan’s recent columns in Slate. The first is about the potential for American pop culture to affect global opinions of the US. Kaplan writes about how jazz and American films were part of the Cold War propoganda campaign, spreading the spirit of America across Eastern Europe. Can Beyonce do the same thing in the Arab world today? Of course not. The second column summarizes the opinions of some of Kaplan’s readers about what could help improve foreigners’ opinions of Americans. (Yes, I am quoted.) It’s interesting to hear other people’s thoughts. If you have your own ideas that aren’t mentioned in Kaplan’s column please send them to me! max.j.strasser(at)gmail(dot)com.
You can expect more from me on this topic, as I believe it really gets to the heart of what I am doing here in the Middle East.
Man, Mike Boyer on Passport ripped into the Kaplan reader suggestion piece. I don’t know why people feel like they need to jump on a piece like that as if it were being suggested by the highest level foreign policy makers, just seems shrill to me. We’ll miss you at Thanksgiving.