Post class, 3/5 Ann

In the current era of globalization nations of the world are becoming more and more connected. Politics, economics as well as social and cultural practices that were once contained to one nation are now affected the whole world. Seeing that globalization is a fairly new concept that took off around the same time as the internet, the world is still trying to figure out how to react to this phenomenon. The world does not have a unified set of laws, beliefs or cultural practices. As discussed in class on Thursday, however, the concept of Disney is known universally. Dr. Casey talked about his time spent in Laos and how although people there did not know the English word for something as basic as shirt they all knew the names of Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. This goes to show how globally recognized Disney is. In class we also talked about how due to the worldwide recognition of Disney characters, Disney is one of the first things that comes to mind when foreigners think of America. Personally when I think of other countries the first thing I think of is a famous landmark, type of food or type of person associated with that country. I can’t think of any country where the first thing that comes to mind is something commercial. I think it can be argued that America is the only, or one of the only, countries in the world whose main representation is a corporation. The fact that Disney is one of the most well known commercial enterprises known worldwide as well as it’s strong association with America as quite interesting. What does this say about America? I believe that America has so many other great things to offer but it is represented by something Baudrillard would argue is not even real.