US culture permeating Copenhagen

Had a conversation tonight with Jesse James Garrett and Thomas Madsen-Mygdal about how it is that Jesse and his wife Rebecca can just show up at a dinner in Copenhagen, and we all speak English, and we can all just join in on a conversation. The American culture has really taken over this place.

Well, on my way home, it struck me how much this resembles another world I used to inhabit, namely the world of jazz music. It’s not so much the American culture, as it’s the fact that we’re all part of a surprisingly small community wold-wide. So when you travel here, and meet up with people who are part of the same community, well, you will find that you speak the same language and share a cultural background, not in the sense of what you watched on TV as you were growing up, but as in what books and articles you’ve read, and what web sites you’ve listened to, or - in the case of jazz - albums you’ve listened to.

Once a community gets big enough, that feeling disappears. When car drivers was a small enough group, they also felt a sense of belongingness. Now it’s just the truck drivers that make the secret hand gesture as they pass each other on the turnpike.