BEIJING, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Since World War II, particularly following the end of the Cold War, the United States, with all its economic and military might, has been trying to export its ideology-based values like so-called "democracy" and "human rights" by cultural infiltration, seeking to dominate the minds of people in other countries.
Such practice of cultural hegemony undertaken by Washington is undermining the independence of other cultures, impeding inter-cultural exchanges worldwide, and posing a severe threat to world peace and development.
"Cultural imperialism is the most subtle and, if it were ever to succeed by itself alone, the most successful of imperialistic policies. It aims not at the conquest of territory or at the control of economic life, but at the conquest and control of the minds of men as an instrument for changing the power relations between two nations," German-born American political scientist and historian Hans J. Morgenthau once commented, illustrating the underlying logic of the United States being a fanatic about cultural expansion.
The United States always tries to sell its values and lifestyles to other cultures through media, books, movies and other publications, as well as funding so-called non-profit cultural organizations, so as to form a public opinion and narrative dominated by the American culture.
U.S. scholar John Yemma has summarized that America's real weapon is the dream machine of Hollywood, the image factory of Madison Avenue, and the production lines of Mattel and Coca-Cola.
While promoting its values and pursuing cultural hegemony, Uncle Sam has also been demonizing histories, cultures and social systems of non-Western countries in a bid to crush their self-confidence in their own cultures.
For example, during the "color revolutions" that occured in some Eurasian countries over the past years, Washington manipulated local media to hype up the social and economic difficulties in those countries in order to make young people lose confidence in their societies, and turn to embrace American values.
In order to spread pro-American values, the United States has been bent on pursuing global domination in political, economic, military and other fields.
The critical question for the United States now is not whether it has started the 21st century "as the superpower with the largest supply of resources, but to what extent it will be able to control the political environment and get other countries to do what it wants," U.S. political scientist Joseph Nye argued in an article published in Foreign Policy back in 1990.
Nowadays, with the rapid development of the Internet, the U.S. strategy of cultural hegemonism has grown more dangerous and destructive, and the world should be even more vigilant.
Countries around the world should sober up to the fact that the nature of Washington's promotion of the American-style democracy and freedom is its obsession to dominate the world.
Ultimately, nations worldwide need to build up their own cultural self-confidence and boost international cultural interactions so as to defeat Washington's plot of cultural hegemony and let the spirit of mutual respect and mutual learning prevail. Enditem
