Standard-Bearer

"Less like Beijing, and more like Southern California." - A local TV reporter during pre-Olympic coverage last week.

"Great!" I sarcastically yelled back at the TV.

I love how within the U.S. we (well, a lot of us) start feeling great about a country when it starts looking a lot like ours. Whether it's a country's form of government, its rites of passage, its values, or its shopping malls, it doesn't matter. When any or all of those things become more western the excitement becomes too much to contain for many. Some people suddenly feel like they can now safely travel to this country. Others might merely make a mental note that this country is now "acceptable" or "safe."

I don't really think many Americans would admit to doing this, but we are definitely prone to it. I am prone to it. I'm not saying that becoming more western is a terrible thing. There are western traditions and practices that I would love some regions of the world to adopt. But this post isn't about that.

This post is about how after I heard that TV reporter say that about Beijing, I hung my head in sorrow, sad for the country that is becoming more like Southern California. I'm sad for the country that is well on its way to establishing materialism as their national religion, just like America. I'm sad that when a country builds a strip mall or a Wal-Mart they are coming out to the world.

Most of all, it bums me out that America, America has become the standard-bearer. The standard-bearer of the shopping mall.