Cultures

The war [World War 1] launched the destruction of American cultures - for we once had distinct regional cultures - through mass communication. It would turn consumption into an inner compulsion and eradicate difference. Old values of thrift, regional identity that had its own iconography, aesthetic expression and history, diverse immigrant traditions, self-sufficiency, and a press that was decentralized to provide citizens with a voice in their communities, were destroyed by corporate culture. New desires and habits were implanted by corporate advertisers to replace the old. Individual frustrations and discontents could be solved, corporate culture assured the populace, through the wonders of consumerism and cultural homogenization. American culture, or cultures, were replaced with junk culture and junk politics And now, standing on the cultural ash heap, we survey the ruin.  The slogans of advertising and mass culture have become the common idiom, robbing citizens of the language to make sense of the destruction.

--Chris Hedges, "Death Of The Liberal Class", page 82