Guest Blog: The Americanization of Space Begins at Home

GUEST BLOG

by Walter Knight

Author of the

Science-Fiction Military Humor series

AMERICA'S GALACTIC FOREIGN LEGION

My America’s Galactic Foreign Legion series is about the Americanization of space. America uses it’s culture to defeat the evil aliens. Once you get an alien addicted to Starbucks, they’re yours. I draw parallels with contemporary world events for my science fiction books. Americanization is just another word for globalization.

For example, American consumerism has global reach. The Libyan people are clamoring for iPhones, Nikes, Ford Mustangs, and Eminem CDs. Cubans and Iranians are erecting illegal satellite dishes to catch a glimpse of U.S. Television. Thanks to Yao Ming, some of the NBA’s biggest fans are in China. Beijing honored the now-retired basketball star as its 2005 ‘vanguard worker,’ an award once reserved for Maoist revolutionaries. Seventy percent of Coke drinkers live outside North America. Half of all McDonald’s restaurants are somewhere other than the United States. Walmart has 2,700 stores outside the United States. Ninety percent of all PCs Run Microsoft software. The United States claims six of the world’s top ten universities. The United States accounts for more than one-third of all international patent filings.

On the political front, the US military provides a security umbrella to about half the world’s landmasses, polices the world’s toughest neighborhoods, and serves as the world’s first responder and last line of defense. Because of our restraint, foreign governments invite us onto their territory. Kosovo, Korea, and Kuwait want US troops to maintain regional stability. From Germany to Georgia, those who remember a Europe of concrete walls and iron curtains want US forces on their soil as a hedge against Russia. Those who fear China seek to strengthen ties with the US

America could have conquered the world with its military long ago, but we don’t want to. Many don’t care what happens overseas. It doesn’t matter. Our culture will dominate the world. Like the internet, freedom cannot be contained. Mickey Mouse rolled over Europe and Asia long ago. There are some who feel America is in decline, but they are wrong. America is just hitting its stride on the world stage. Resistance is futile.

Find Walter Knight’s books at Amazon.com and PenumbraPublishing.com!