Thursday, November 7, 2013
A Deeper Cold War
It's interesting to look at the Cold War and the concurrent relations between the US and the USSR as more than the military arms race that dominates contemporary historical narratives. This was of course an extremely significant affair in the lives of American and Russian citizens, but there were various other layers to the conflict. One that we examined in the readings this week was the apparent competitiveness between the two countries in issues besides military dominance, including the assertion of cultural and societal superiority by both nations. This seems to be one of the objectives of "Glimpses of the USA" as it demonstrates a hard-working and virtuous American populace. This is also demonstrated in the so-called Kitchen Debate, in which two prominent world leaders bickered over the state of modern home appliances. Most of what we have studied in this course so far has looked at the way Americans see the US, but it is also significant to our studies to learn how foreign nations view us, and historically how we have wished to be perceived.
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True. I believe perception is important because it is represents national identity. Historically, it seems that America has always wanted to be seen as the nation that was the place for new opportunities, expansion, technological advancement, and a better tomorrow. When the Eamses developed a technique to present the American culture to other nations, they used images to tell a story. The images not only created a space for people to make connections and learn about the America’s identity, but began the start of how to regulate the flow of information. “Their highly controlled flows of simultaneous images provided an enclosure”(Colomina 25).
ReplyDeleteAs a non-American I find this way of presenting a nation very interesting. There are a lot of different ways to do so but I have never “experienced” one like this. Usually, those self-portrayals seem too excessive and unreal but “Glimpses of the USA” tries to convince with real life images. By showing different pictures simultaneously, even though each set depicts more or less the same content, it becomes more real. I can imagine that it was a successful way of demonstrating American “superiority” when it came to the everyday life. Those images are very convincing and I would say that someone who has never been able to experience the American lifestyle on their own would absolutely believe everything they see to be true. It is also a new way compared to representing a nation’s identity through a map. Instead of showing the whole from a distant angle it zooms in on the lives of Americans. Interestingly enough, those images only show the positive aspects. Therefore, it tends to be more a mean of propaganda than a sincere self-reflection.
ReplyDeleteGlimpses of America was truly a way of representing America is such a way that it makes the Soviet Union believe that it is better in every possible way. United States and Russia were both competing on who was better in terms of technology and unlike the Russians who mainly only focused on 'complicated' technological advances, the US focused on the little things like the appliances in our kitchen. And at one point in time, the US was in tie with the Soviet Union with all the technology that both sides possessed, but it was nothing like the simple things that the US valued. The simple things indeed helped the general public directly unlike the other more complicated resources which made Americans have a closer relationship with what was going on rather than with the Soviets where it was impersonal.
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