Essey: How does the United States influence Estonia
It guides the way we create
documents, send e-mail and exchange information in a multitude of different ways. But what we
should not forget while reaping benefits of this easy information is that no source is neutral and
when we digest on daily basis information that comes with a mentality of a certain country, we also
digest that mentality.
And speaking of the mentality, then I'd like to draw attention to the everspanning "you can
be anybody" (also known as "turning slumdogs into millionairs" – "ajalehepoisist miljonäriks").
Since I myself belong to an older age group not so much influenced by this philosophy, I can mostly
take note of what I've heard from my ten years younger friends. They do complain, that many of
them were brought up with some quite impossible expectations, with believing the "American
dream", which in Estonian translated solely into "you can be anybody if you want to". Of course, it