But while it is a necessary condition, it is by no means a sufficient one. In the case of the United States, for example, the undeniable edge of American media techniques has played a decisive role in the apparently unchecked expansion of American culture to all parts of the world. Indeed, there appears to be negligible resistance to what is virtually an American cultural invasion. On the other hand, Japanese culture remains very circumscribed despite Japan's overwhelming technological prowess. Nor can it be said that political and economic success are any guarantee of cultural excellence.
Culture is very much a function of human suffering.
A case in point is the prominent position that Blacks, drawing on centuries of suffering under slavery, have come to occupy in American music. So technology alone does not ensure cultural excellence, and neither does wealth or economic advantage. Although the United States, a nation the size of a continent, is the most powerful state on earth, it is far from being the most sophisticated culturally. The market laws of supply and demand seem to prevail, not only in the field of economic exchange, but also in the field of inter-ethnic relations and politics in general. However, America's relative cultural uniformity, encapsulated in the expression, the American way of life, is in clear contrast to the European cultural landscape, which is marked by a diversity that is not expected to disappear with the emergence of the European Union and its political, economic and monetary integration.