ABSTRACT
In a comparative study of features of mass culture between the Middle East, particularly Egypt, and Western societies, the author argues that in Third World countries, there exist less structural resistances to change than in the 'traditionally' developed countries of the West. As an example the author points to the relative easiness with which Arab countries have shifted their alliences, while European countries are doomed to structural longterm relations. There also exists a higher flexibility and souvereignity of decision making in Third World countries. These features have until recently been counted for as disadvantages and as being underdeveloped. Within the new patters of internationalization, however, they might be jugded as favourable conditions.
The author points then to the problem of the new consumer culture in Egypt. While it is suggested that in Western societies the consumer in one way or another maintains certain values conjuncted with knowledge, work and imagination, the Egyptian consumer is seen to experience a divorce between doing and having within the consumption process. The fascinating phenomenon of the American model is that it offers to Egyptians a feeling of possession and of knowledge of commodities without the need of reading the modes and instructions of use.
The author's critique of the process of Americanization of the Egyptian society then shifts to state that Americanization appears to be universalizing and generalizing, while in fact, it merely diffuses a narrow pattern of white–anglo–saxion and protestant taste.
