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The spread of US commercial culture has more pervasive effects than any earlier forms of imperialism. It can provoke the destruction of third world cultures, including modern ones. This cultural diffusion goes hand in hand with a drive for economic expansion, carried out in the name of an equation between consumption and freedom. Yet the relationship between culture and globalization is complex, for the cultural productions of some Third World countries have become competitive in the world market. Resistance against domination can involve either the "activation of a grassroots culture of multiplicities and differences" or an appropriation of transnational mass culture.