There are two routes to choose when it comes to having power and influence.  The first route is through “hard power,” where one attempts to gain control over someone or something and rule it through domination.  The second way is through the soft power of cultural influence, through the appealing nature of personal example.  Though most examinations of power seek to uncover the first form of power (because, being more direct, it is easier to see in action), I would like to discuss the second form of power today.

The soft power of influence is everywhere around us.  When I visited Santiago, Chile in the spring of 2009, I went on a double date and watched Underworld 3.  I’m not a huge fan of vampire movies personally, though I find them fascinating as a study of aristocratic culture, just as werewolves seem to indicate the savage beast within man, making the whole vampires versus werewolves struggle a representation of the struggle between the refined and cultured cruelty of a vampire with the savage hostility of a werewolf.  This movie was in English with Spanish subtitles, though I was the only person in the theater who spoke English as a first language, and despite not being a very good movie (though I’ve seen plenty worse), it was striking that it had made it all the way to Chile (a fairly minor market as far as movies go).

Nor was this the only sort of cultural influence there.  The movie theater itself was one where an American would feel totally at home, aside from the use of the Spanish language.  The decor was immediately familiar, the same Coca Cola products were on sale, the same movie posters were everywhere (with the phrases and film titles translated, of course), despite being 4000 miles away from Hollywood.  Without any sort of attempt by the United States to muscle in and dominate the culture of Chile, the cultural influence was still there.

Wherever I have traveled in the world, even to some of the most remote areas, the cultural influence of the West has been present.  Whether one goes to the remotest parts of Africa where every single little ship shows a Coca Cola logo and sells Sprite or orange Fanta (my usual sodas of choice around the world, since root beer is unavailable), or one visits the Kentucky Fried Chicken or Gold Star Chili restaurants present in the Middle East, watch MTV in your hotel room in Jerusalem, watch Rotana music videos in Arabic in your hotel room in Aqaba, Jordan, or examine the odd phenomenon of rock musicians being kings in Japan while not being all that big elsewhere, one sees the spread of culture and influence from the West to other parts of the world.

But this influence is not only one way.  It works the other way just as easily.  For example, my own historical research and personal writing has been greatly influenced by my interest in Japanese drama as well as the history and people of Latin America.  My interest in “tribal” Sabbatarianism after visiting Ghana led me to an examination of ‘common grace’ and the work of missionaries in trying to transmit the culture of true Christianity in a form that can be understood by others to build a bridge across cultures [1].  We are all strongly influenced by the culture around us, and that culture is not merely our own indigenous culture but also the hybrids and imports and mixtures we have made from the culture of others.  Rock & Roll music, for example, is a cultural hybrid between the folk traditions of Appalachia taken originally from Europe and the rhythm-based music of Africa.  Gospel music merges Protestant hymns with the more ecstatic African style of worship.

Influence is a particularly important sort of power because its role is much more subtle than hard power.  With hard power, one knows one is being controlled or ruled (and most of the time, one does not like it).  The subtlety of influence makes it both particularly important and particularly insidious.  We are often far too unconscious about what we lete influence us.  Our vigilance does not extend far enough into the culture in which we are around to make sure that we are taking in good and wholesome things, whether we are dealing with food, entertainment, or knowledge.  If we cannot discern between propaganda and lies and truth, we will be unable to make informed judgments.  If we cannot discern between worthwhile culture and filth, our own imaginations will be corrupted by evil.  If we cannot differentiate between good food and junk, we will pollute our own bodies.  We bear responsibility for what we take in.

One of the reasons I ponder and reflect so much upon culture is because it is so important and so often unrecognized.  Even those parts of the world that completely reject the “hard power” of America have music videos where lovely young women sing about their beloveds or seek out to be respected, or where men try to win the hearts of a young a lady, or fight for their dignity.  Even those parts of the world that thumb their noses at the West watch satellite tv and enjoy the finer aspects of conspicuous consumption.  These insidious aspects of culture spread far more widely than those which are easily recognized and seek as being “imperialistic.”

Influence need not be insidious or cancerous, though.  One of the more light and fluffy books in my fairly grim and serious library deals with the impact of the influence of one 19th century author as the founder of an entire genre of women’s literature, “chick-lit,” namely one Jane Austen.  Here was a woman who had no children, never married, and was not widely recognized or known in her own lifetime, who only wrote a handful of novels, and yet she is credited as the founder of a popular genre of literature and her work has been reimagined and reinterpreted in such diverse environments as Mormon Utah and a Bollywood musical from India.  No one forced Pride & Prejudice on anyone with the barrel of a machine gun.  Instead, she owes her lasting fame to influence, an influence born out of her own God-given abilities to write, a certain sarcastic and snarky view of the world, and an elegant touch of understatement that keeps her writing from coming across as overly heavy handed (most of the time).

What makes influence a particularly interesting form of power is it is a power in which we wield also.  We have choice in what we let influence us.  If we choose to be cosmopolitan, aware of the world around us, seeking to plunder the treasures of the heathen while keeping a very distinct and strong worldview of our own, we can do so.  If we choose to either uncritically accept or reject whole cultural traditions, we can do so.  We are free to ignore or pay close attention, accept or reject, and therefore we are responsible for what we let influence others, and to what extent.  That which we let influence us we grant power to instruct and guide us, thus increasing their power, even long after they are gone.  This is a great source of power, so let us use it wisely, for we cannot help but be influenced in some fashion by what we see around us and experience in our lives.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/the-missionary-approach-of-the-heliand/