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Exporting Degradation With U.S. Pop Culture

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Steve Lopez’s dead-on observations about the perils of rearing a child in an environment of thickening cultural pollution struck a special chord with me (Oct. 26). I have just returned from a conference in Croatia that was focused on the subject of cultural diversity. As one of two Americans at the conference, I served as a lightning rod for expressions of concern over the American cultural tsunami that is engulfing underdeveloped nations. One delegate mourned that because his country was too poor to generate its own television and film programming, his children were adopting the coarse jargon, fashions and values found in American imports. His sentiment was reiterated, with minor variation, by many of the other 120 delegates.

The problem described by Lopez is not simply a domestic one; it is the cultural equivalent of an international epidemic.

Mark Steinberg

Los Angeles

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