Many would say that the U.S. pop culture is, in fact, alive and well, as evidenced by their branding throughout the world and heavy influence in Europe and Asia. But this does not mean that the core values and message being spread is not inherently doomed. Where Americana once stood for cutting-edge, trendy innovation, it now stands for regurgitative flashes of fame for idiocy. Now that the music, film, and television industry have blended into one indistinguishable mess of incoherent and unoriginal thought, it is leaving people like myself wondering to what time period we need set our time machines to get away from this nonsense. But it wasn’t always this way.

American values used to stand for innovation. They broadcast images of their attempts to go to the moon. They had news programs and media devoted to seeking the truth, and holding to account the promises of politicians. Music was based on revolutionary rock and roll, or bands which kept the administration on their toes with political overtones about Vietnam or the civil rights movement. Books were still highly in demand, and some of the greatest writers of the twentieth Century, such as Charles Bukowski, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg. Gloria Steinem began the feminist movement, while Ralph Nader forewarned the dangers of the automobile industry. Pop culture Americana was fresh, cool, and seemed to have it’s mind and heart in the right place most of the time.

And what do we get exported from America to Canada today? What kind of values do we see emerging from south of the border? Let’s look at the cultural mosaic, shall we?

Music: Fluff hiphop like Beyoncé, or Kayne West, does nothing but promote the concept that we are material-driven society, and you should be, too. Hiphop and rap about evoking questions and change in the system are gone, pursued instead by bling and bang for your buck. 50 cent replaces the Public Enemy Malcolm X civil rights mantra, by any means necessary, with “get rich or die trying”.

Film: Remakes of old television shows from the sixties and seventies, or badly remade remakes of remakes define the American movie industry today. Worse yet, film makers are so out of ideas that the video store is comprised of large sections of reality tv shows and dramatic series. Hell, tonight I even rented the “House” series because it was either that or the brutal special effects disaster “Poseiden”. And what is topping the box office charts as we speak? Jackass 2. A movie made by sado-masochists with a penchant for eating urine snow cones, and have an anal and genital fixation.

Television: The lowest of the low. Reality tv shows that should have died years ago (Survivor) continue unabashed next to “Nanny 911″, “Top Model”, and other delightfully humiliating series based on debasing humanity. The values being exported from America today seem to be the prostitution of the soul for money, and the devaluing of intellectualism in favour of shock humour.

So what? I have all the answers just because I point out something so obviously flawed as the modern American pop culture blend of trash and filth? Not at all. But I am renting foreign films more often now, I rarely watch television, and I couldn’t name a single band on MTV right now. If the worshipful attendence of “Jackass 2″ is any indication of the direction of societal values being exported from the South, you can count me out until the next revolution.