McDonaldization and US hegemony

 

  A typical day of an urbanite youngster starts with fitting into jeans, putting on Crocs to Taylor Swift, sipping Coca-Cola, flipping through the internet, walking into McDonald’s, and ending up aspiring to pursue an MBA! Ain’t it ‘Cool!?’

The so-called cool lifestyle is nothing but a trial to adopt American culture. It may sound overwhelming, but we live alive, realising very little about how the American hegemony has been shaping our habits and opinions right from the blue jeans, Crocs, pop music, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, to MBA, all of which are products of American hegemony. Even if America contains both the North American and South American continents, we usually use America to refer to a single country, the USA, which in itself validates the hegemony.

Hegemony is the influence of a country to dominate the rest in terms of military dominance, economic power, political clout, and cultural superiority.

The two worlds ended, leaving behind a bipolar world with two superpowers, namely the USA and the USSR. What followed was a cold war between the two, dividing the world into two major factions.

Around the late 1990s, the USSR saw a decline, leaving the USA as the only superpower. US hegemony has been a dominant factor affecting global economy, politics, and society ever since.

The earliest effects of US military dominance were felt during the first Gulf War, which revealed a huge divide and a vast technological gap with the US.

In global politics, the US acts as a major influencer with stunning involvement, like in the vision of 2003 and support for Ukraine against much more powerful Russia. It is a master with power in most of the major international organisations. The institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are seen as direct products of US hegemony.

Economically, the USA is the largest economy and the dollar, the strongest currency. It is evident from the recent tariff policies that a step like the imposition of tariffs by the USA cannot just shake the central government across the globe and drop the stock market, but also affect a common man living in the far corners of the world. Right from the establishment of the Bretton Woods system in 1944, theUS economy has been governing the global economy so far. The capitalist model of economy has been popularised by the USA, acting as a support for the creation and existence of a free economy.

The US hegemony is largely reflected in its hard powers, US maintains the largest and strongest military. The USA spends more on military capability than the next 12 powers combined. This hard power has been a strong tool to gain obedience from nations.

Above all, what affects the life of common people, making McDonaldization of our lives possible, is the soft power.

Soft power means the ability to persuade rather than coerce. The USA, directly or indirectly, controls our social and digital life. The biggest tool being the internet. All the major social media platforms and service providers, from X, Facebook to Apple and Google, being US-based. From the major ideologies of liberal democracy to our daily choice of brands is a direct result of the unipolar world we live in. Where wearing jeans is associated with freedom and putting on Crocs is considered cool. The brands like Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, which have become part and parcel of urban life, are all American. Even one of the most popular degrees of MBA is an American concept.

And entertainment!? Well, pop music and Bollywood are the world of making America great again!’

US has been in the dominant position all along, but there have been certain alternative centres of bar coming up in contemporary times with the rise of China and the European Union, taking their turn. India is trying to emerge as a rising voice of the global East, which is developing part of the set.

Also, certain internal constraints like institutional architecture of American state with horizontal division of power, moderates, direct use of heart power by USA. Also, the open nature of American society rises scepticism about government’s political culture.

In the more or less changing global order, India being the most populous country with three lakh Indians in silicon Valley and growing ties with USA has to maintain diplomatic balance being found a member of NAM (non-alignment movement) India had shown non-interference and mutual respect.

With becoming a global village, USA is like the village headman. If the head man becomes a neighbourhood trouble, the multipolar worldwould be rising dawn. But also concerns about hegemony, getting intolerable stands, for we have not known any alternative village to move to!