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Notes -
It's a fantasy scenario for sure, but Arjin's point is sound - hell I'd say he doesn't go far enough. They don't get the economy or something else, they can have everything else - the economy, the administration, the military, healthcare, the media, education - if someone else controls culture you are going to be swimming up a waterfall.
I mean, the the logistics of this fantasy scenario are hard to imagine. Is a genie just snapping their fingers here, or do we actually have to think about the logistics of how a society could sustainably keep Culture A with Economic System B, given some starting point close to contemporary American politics?
I'd be happy enough to use a genie, but it is an interesting thought experiment so I started considering how you'd go about it - and instantly realised we already have an example - The West. The US has controlled the culture of the West for the past century, particularly through television and music, and the rest of the west has been becoming more American as a result. That's why everywhere in the west outside of the US has a national media arm producing local content - without it their national myths and memes get replaced with those of the dominant culture (which is also why those media organs have channels or carve outs for their native populations).
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