American dream, made to order

Militarily stretched and economically strained. That's America, superpower with its hard power dented. But there's yet-unmatched American soft power, right? Democracy and Disneyland, Madonna and McDonald's, American ideals and American idols. The 'Land of God's Plenty' - from the moral virtue it makes of pursued happiness to the amoral hyperreality of its sin cities - is more than territory geographically delimited.America is an Idea, grand and luminous as human aspiration itself. The dollar sign or New York's skyline, America bends all to its will because it beckons Siren-like, the torch of liberty in its raised hand.
So, it seems, the world says: lead, kindly light. Else, why would the US presidential election in a sense be a global election? Recall Joseph Nye's famous definition of soft power as exercise of clout "through attraction rather than coercion or payment": the lure of "culture, political ideals, and policies". With Obama softening the hard power of the Bush years with a message of reconciliation, even the White House exudes it.
US cultural hegemony in terms of ideas or lifestyles, embraced willingly or grudgingly, can't be disputed. But can it be taken for granted? Copies aren't as good as the original, we say. What if the copy sells such that the original risks fading from view? When the world increasingly becomes an extended American village through self-serving appropriation rather than imitation as obeisance, how will soft power remain America's USP?
America has striven to mould the world in its image, torpedoing democracy to Iraq or via business expansion. Countries have traditionally resisted by holding up native value systems and life choices as alternative models. But there's another, subtler, means of resistance and competition: the 'American Dream' itself in its myriad forms manipulated to counter its pre-eminence. For instance, embrace of democracy shows attendant risks, as in Egypt minus Hosni Mubarak. The US has faced a tough choice in the region: should it dump Mideast allies who're autocrats but back its policies, or rejoice at an Arab spring on principle even if it hits US interests?
Are there cultural parallels here? Take 'casino capitalism' grafted in alien soil. In 2004, China's special region of Macau saw its first Las Vegas-style casino, Sands-Macao. A new Singapore venture also turned out a money-churner for its US owner-entrepreneur. Today, the fast-developing Cotai Strip in the Chinese enclave rivals the original Strip in Vegas. With proliferating casino-resorts, Macau raised a record $23.5 billion last year. Outstripping Las Vegas as the world's biggest gaming hub, it draws deep-pocketed Asian gamblers earlier thronging America's neon-lit Sin City. Tourists still want to go down gambling in Vegas. But will it remain the global entertainment capital when its experience can be had cheaper and in more familiar settings elsewhere?
Just think: Nevada's casino runners make bigger bucks from China than America, where unabashed pursuit of riches and pleasure is a reigning credo! With global financial muscle seeming to shift to Asia, will we see a future scenario where 'casino capitalism' gets re-exported to America and - to grab market share - offers services at cut-throat prices to undercut US business, recalling if not mirroring the way US investment eyeing both low- and high-end consumers broke an old native gambling monopoly in Macau?
Or take cinema. Hollywood-inspired Indian or Chinese filmmakers are raising production quality and/or experimenting more, which ironically aids domestic industry in facing Hollywood's challenge. The multiplex boom helps, along with embrace of hi-tech. James Cameron's Avatar made a splash here and in China where alone it grossed nearly 10% of worldwide earnings. The Asians are now adopting 3D: Bollywood will see its debut in horror and romance genres; China's gearing it to folk epic, martial arts and animation films. Once 3D conversion adapts to popular themes and uses, will it be a cakewalk for Hollywood's Avatars?
Bollywood-style production values now have overseas takers not limited to NRIs. That explains the success of, say, Slumdog Millionaire, made by a British filmmaker but with an Indian story, cast and music composer. Only, Indians aren't just acting in foreign films. Who would have thought digital image processing for the technically superb Avatar would be done by an Indian firm?
Last year, Hollywood and Bollywood representatives agreed to promote co-productions, commercial cooperation and technical collaboration. India having the world's biggest film viewership, global players want to cash in. But funds can also flow in reverse, as the Reliance Entertainment-DreamWorks deal showed. Nor has the prospect of an Indian takeover been unthinkable for Hollywood's iconic MGM. Then, Indian art films were once subtitled to reach festival circuits. Today, English movies are being subtitled and even dubbed to acquire the mass reach of commercial host country productions!
Name it, TV shows, music videos or food, all imports of popular culture face indigenisation, with copies rivalling originals. So, American Idol gets upstaged by Indian Idol and US soaps by desi varieties. The novelty of their gigantism and uniformity dimming, even US fast food giants cater to local palates to take on local competition.
Is US cultural heft, long exercised on its own terms, being interrogated by grassroots adaptation, innovation and (re)export? Is globalisation at an inflection point where cultural change becomes a bottoms-up, not top-down, process? Is global now becoming glocal? It appears so. The future seems to be about partnerships, not one-way tickets; cross-currents, not hegemonies. In the information age, cultural influence is a diffused radiance. Not an American soft power that tells the world what its tastes should be. But one that adapts to the very world it shapes, by itself becoming made-to-order.