Marco Polo and Walt Disney

Tourists speak reverently, sometimes jealously, about pristine places, sites that have yet to be corrupted by modernity and the globalization of western culture. It is an entirely false notion. Progress is always progressing, everywhere all the time. People are always moving and trading, and always have been. It is absurd that we romanticize Marco Polo and the spice trade yet despise modern global corporations. Why is ok that salt and pepper have covered the planet but not ok that Coca Cola and Mickey Mouse have?