American Culture In The Middle East

The Middle East has the same stuff over there that the rest of the Western world has, but (in some cases) it’s different. They change it, adapt it, and make it their own. In some cases they don’t alter it at all, and keep it in its purest unadulterated form. They value the authenticity of western culture: the good, the bad, and the ugly. An appreciation for American gluttony and beauty at the same time. That’s not to say they won’t vehemently defend their own culture when the two worlds collide. When it comes to American culture in the Middle East, it’s been integrated, it’s been segregated, but what it hasn’t been is ignored. American culture is too pervasive, and sickeningly addictive. Billions of people all over the world enjoy the fruits …show more content…
The wealthy and powerful sought to pursue the lap of luxury. The elites were and are enamored with the prestige that Western culture has brought to the ruling class over the years. This first illustration of how the elite further empower themselves with Western culture is the example of Muammar Gaddafi; he prescribes the title of “Colonel” to himself. Colonel, an English title used in the British and American militaries, is an odd choice of a dictator that would appear to be so thoroughly anti-American. While Gaddafi is anti-American in his words, his actions and possessions say otherwise. The golden AK-47s, luxury cars, and designer clothes gaudily scream a desire to emulate Western …show more content…
Like any form of digital media, video games can be considered “light”, that is to say they can traverse thousands of miles with ease. Though unlike Stewart’s luxury cars, video games are quite often seen as less innocuous. They can be viewed as a medium “that would turn a generation of tech-savvy Arabs into terrorists” as described in the case of Radwan Kasmiya. While being as technologically literate as Radwan is would normally put him in a well to do tech job with a substantive salary (if he lived in Silicon Valley), in reality he is faced with death threats and allegations of inciting terrorism. It doesn’t take much investigating to see why. As Poplak points out, so many video games are set in the Middle East and involve the killing of what can be seen as cultural relatives. When Arabs play what can only be described as “a series of playable reactions of real events in the War on Terror” it becomes clear that not all media translates well or at all. This only furthers the divisions between the East and West; it is an entirely unreasonable expectation to believe that Arabs that have lived through the atrocities depicted in some video games would want to play through them and experience them