“Popular culture” is a phrase often used to denote American and other Western mass media — film, television, music, the internet, etc. The intention of denoting it “popular” may be to lessen the vexation over the plain fact that “popular culture” is real American culture. Describing it as “popular” makes it the domain of EVERYONE ELSE, as if one is voicing tacit disapproval of it.

“Culture” is a big word. At once it may encompass nearly everything we do, say, think, and perhaps even feel. I am not an anthropologist (though I hope to one day be a sociologist) but I would argue that any society’s culture is defined by the behavior and thoughts most commonly shared. In the United States, whether or not you prefer to label it as “outside” your personal domain, our most commonly shared behavior revolves around our media — and the products we buy as a result. It is at the heart of western hypermodernism that our culture is not something we DO, but something we WATCH. And it is what people talk about and what people think about. That makes it culture.

Popular culture is American culture. It is perhaps the most technologically-advanced culture since the dawn of civilization (except for the wheel-, fire-, and dog-worshippers of Mesopotamia), and this may preclude many from putting Project Runway, Hummer H2’s, Superbowl commercials, Fallout Boy, Taco Bell, and films starring Will Ferrell in the same league as Elizabethan literature, african dance, Bushido, and sanskrit opera (I think I may have just made that up) but they are all one in the same.

It hurts when one realizes that his culture is so petty, wasteful, and ridiculous, but the sooner we face up to it, the sooner we can change it by murdering everyone in California. I’m pretty sure it’s totally their fault.