[Gloominary]

I think the USA itself could be said to have an ideology, and gradually, perhaps inevitably, it's becoming the ideology of the world, for better, but mostly for worse.
There's few individuals, nations and countries that aren't fully or partly on board.

Is it humanism, science and technology?
Politically is it representative, liberal democracy?
Economically is it capitalism?
Socially is it progressivism, or multiculturalism and feminism?
It's probably all of the above.
Perhaps more than anything thou, it's consumerism, the notion society is improving if people are taking more from the earth, turning more of it into things people think they need and/or like, and giving it to them at whatever price they'll pay.

Now there're many casualties and consequences of this ideology, to the environment and to ourselves, and society is slowly awakening to them, but it's probably too little too late.
endless growth is not an option for the USA and its cronies, it's compulsory.
There may be a few bumps, and if absolutely necessary, we might have to occasionally slow down a little on our road to a consumer's paradise, where everything we could ever possibly imagine or wish for is a mere click, or thought away, but only temporarily, until we can find a way to resume or increase the pace of change without annihilating ourselves and everything on ball earth in the process, but we should never, ever have to come to a halt, or, dare I even say, reverse course in any way, perish the thought.

I believe that you could do away with everything, democracy, capitalism, freedom of speech, perhaps even feminism and it'd still be the USA so long as there's Coca Cola, McDick's, Walgreens and the Gap, so long as there's haves and have nots, so long as people, or at least some people have loads more than they need, know what do with or use, and the promise of everlasting shit to come if we all just work hard enough, or at least work hard enough at cheating or better yet rigging the system.
We may have to sell some of our rights and freedoms along the way to get there, we may even have to sell our souls to Satan, it doesn't matter, by God, Satan or Mohammed we'll get there.
It's what we consume now that defines us, makes us Americans, or Amerophiles: coke or pepsi, Chrysler, GM, Ford, Bentley or BMW?

But of course, it won't last, every civilization that has ever existed has come to an end, and the bigger they are...and never have we been more big for our britches, figuratively and literally.
While I think civilization, at the very least as we know it is doomed, perhaps some individuals and small groups can survive, and do their part, however futile, in changing course, if not for civilization/culture as a whole, than at least for themselves and their friends.

I am an anti-consumerist needless to say, not only should growth slow down and stop, but it should recede decades or even centuries in many regards.
We need to localize, not globalize, and work on being greener, not just, or even primarily for the sake of the environment and unborn generations, but for our own health and well being.
Rampant, reckless, unbridled and unchecked consumption is making us all a hell of a lot sicker.
I think asceticism is the answer, and minimalism-moderation, reducing what we produce/consume down to what is essential, and little else, being more appreciative and content with less.
If you're already off the grid, that's great, I'm still fully connected, but I may not be someday.

Anyway we live in interesting times, and with resource shortages and wars looming, times are sure to get a whole lot more interesting before the end of the century, but where there is disaster there is usually also opportunity, at least for some with the resourcefulness to look for and seize it.
I really don't believe life as we know it will survive this century, I mean after two world wars and the cold war, we should be counting our lucky stars we're here at all, right now.

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

I suggest you do some reading on neoliberalism. It addresses your concerns about destructive consumerism, the subordination of US politics to business interests, globalization, war, etc.

[One Degree]

@Gloominary
Enjoyed your post. Localization is the answer, or at least the means for some to survive. It appears globalization is winning, but this is an illusion. The number of autonomous areas is continually increasing. It is the unrecognized revolt that the mainstream ignores. It is silently driven world wide by the same types of people who surprised the mainstream with Trump and Brexit. There really is a 'silent majority ' in the world that brings about corrections when things go too far.

[Gloominary]

I suggest you do some reading on neoliberalism. It addresses your concerns about destructive consumerism, the subordination of US politics to business interests, globalization, war, etc.

Sure, I'll look further into that.

[Gloominary]

@Gloominary
Enjoyed your post. Localization is the answer, or at least the means for some to survive. It appears globalization is winning, but this is an illusion. The number of autonomous areas is continually increasing. It is the unrecognized revolt that the mainstream ignores. It is silently driven world wide by the same types of people who surprised the mainstream with Trump and Brexit. There really is a 'silent majority ' in the world that brings about corrections when things go too far.

Thanks, interesting, didn't realize the number of autonomous areas was growing, I'll have to look further into that as well.

[mikema63]

I think it's mostly incorrect to view it as "American" ideology that's taking over the west. For historical reasons we've ended up at the forefront of it in many ways but it's more of the economic and historical forces of the world that have put us where we are.

Certainly it's fair to point out the problems that this general ideological, historical, and economic force has brought us but we should always be clear that people are better off with it than what came before just as much as what comes next should ideally be better than now.

We should always pause and be careful to not accidentally reject what is valuable in the prevailing ideology before we move to next steps. If what we have seen in modern history is any indication it's easy to lose that and destroy progress by forgetting the value of past progress.

At least that's my view.

[B0ycey]

Finally a post worthy of Agora.

@Gloominary, from my understanding you are attributing today's consumerism to the US. Perhaps you could argue that it began from the birth of capitalism from 16th century The Netherlands/Britain or perhaps the industrial revolution or digital technology advancement in Japan. Either way, consumerism appears to be a human instinct rather than an ideology.

I salute your comments that you think that the world economy should retract to preserve the planet. Being someone who is a self acclaimed non-consumerist I hope you practice what you preach. If so, I respect your view and accept your beliefs. However unfortunately people are hypocrites on this very issue. Al Gore talks about global warming but flys in planes and lives in a massive house with a swimming pool. Environmentalists have gone to protests after parking up their 4/4s and nobody seems to be giving up their gas and electric in their homes after calling for the end of fracking.

I suppose my point is that we all enjoy our luxuries. To survive we need little more than food and water. Perhaps shelter too. But while the person next to us has something we don't, envy to have such and item remains. Take this very forum as an example. I have lost count how many times a US citizen has claimed poverty but forgets what true poverty is. Like somehow they are poor because they don't own a second car or afford Maccie D's every single day. They look at the immensely wealthy and assume that to be real wealth but they never look at the third world and their struggle to just eat or drink clean water and say actually that's poverty.

Also another point i'd like to make is that the Capitalism model seems to be the human instinct and desire model. It is a reward based system that the majority of people want - even though it is admittedly unfair. And the efficiency of the Capitalist model means it is very difficult to be destroyed - even in the long run. As money has no true value it can reset itself everytime a crash occurs. As long as your nation can create it's own resources those resources will always have a value within your currency and the labour wage values will have to increase to fight off inflation to buy those goods. The only real losers in a crash (after years of recession) is people who have savings. A person in debt (with such currency) will actually benefit with a decrease in currency value.

But one final question. What is your political beliefs?