What is an interdependent culture?

So what culture do you think will have the biggest impact in changing America's culture as time goes on?

• We all know that what we call American culture is actually an amalgam of several world cultures since we're a melting pot, and that different cultures have been thrown in at different times effecting subtle social changes. Well what culture do you think is going to make the strongest impact on American culture in say the next 50 years? Will it be the Japanese anime subculture, the Arabic Islamic influence, neo Paganism, the Jewish culture, new wave Christianity or other? What do current social trends suggest to you?

• Answer:

  None of those, it will be the Enlightenment traditions of rationalism and empiricism from the scientific revolution which will have the biggest influence. Why? Because surveys show that every decade the number of non-religious people increases, and so does the number of open-minded rational people. Simultaneously, prejudices are going slowly down although they'll by no means completely disappear. The next 50 years will see a continuing erosion of parochial world-views and an embrace of a cosmopolitan understanding that the other guys are not so different from you after all. Cultural boundaries like those you outline will start to blur and the cultural landscape will become like a colorful tapestry of different sub-cultures not so much restricted by geographical location. At the same time, all of these cultures will come a bit closer to each other due to the ease of communication and exchange that the continuing expansion in the prevalence of the Enligsh language. It will not be all rosy, significant hurdles stand in the way and we will face a huge influx of authoritarian people from third world countries. When they really start to get connected to the Internet, it will upset the balance of opinions that you hear in the Internet. Expect to hear a lot more traditional and parochial comments and that's why it's possible it will get worse before it gets better. After that, well we'll see what happens.