Long before celluloid and pixels were invented, Plato understood that "those who tell the stories also rule." Philosophers tell us that images rule dreams, and dreams rule actions. --------------------------------- >>soft power<< -------------------------------- Hard power can by defanged by coalitions and alliances. But how do you counter soft power? No confederation of European universities can dethrone Harvard or Stanford; neither can all the subsidies fielded by European governments crack the hegemony of Hollywood. To breach the bastions of American soft power, the Europeans will first have to imitate, then improve on, the American model. Imitation and leapfrogging are part of the oldest game in the history of nations. But competition has barely begun to drive the cultural contest. Europe, mourning the loss of its centuries-old supremacy, either resorts to insulation (by quotas and ?cultural exception? clauses) or seeks solace in the disparagement of American culture as vulgar, inauthentic, or stolen. If we could consult Dr. Freud, he would take a deep drag on his cigar and pontificate about inferiority feelings being compensated for with hauteur and denigration.]