Archive for the 'Global Politics' Category

The United Nations Window on Racial Diversity for 2010 America

Published on May 10, 2010 in Global Communication, Global Politics, racial diversity and United Nations. 0 Comments

quote: variety’s the very spice of life (William Cowper)

in the news: in (American) political message wars, “race card” has become a salvo fired by all sides (Washington Post, May 6, 2010); (American) tea party groups battling perceptions of racism (ibid, May 5, 2010)

in perspective: Since the inauguration of the western industrialized world’s first non-white leader in January 2009, the conservative mantra in America has been a call to “take our country back.” The vagueness of the term speaks volumes about deep-seated human emotions yet to be understood let alone measured. However, for those wanting to “take the country back” to a pre-non-white American presidential time, the United Nations perspective can serve as a reassuring window onto the future.

The modern world of 200 countries is wholly interdependent at all levels, from economic and social to environmental. Those countries are peopled by an overwhelmingly non-white racial majority. As represented at the United Nations, the mix is a panoply of human potential and splendor, as well as a wild bazaar of the mindboggling challenges to be negotiated across the mix of developmental levels, cultural differences and national priorities.

Since the 2008 election, little attention in the American mainstream media has been devoted to the most basic change in the country. For the first time ever, non-white faces represent the country in newspapers and on television screens.

The sheer novelty demands address. That’s because Michelle Obama may be lauded as a fashion trendsetter, but America is used to Hillary Clinton’s demure pantsuits and the prim attire of Laura Bush.

The American self-perception is guaged through its leaders. The change that came to America through its leader was a radical one that called for acclimation, or simply getting used to a novel development. The United Nations model is the vehicle to fast-track the necessary perceptual change America needs to make.

In essence with the 2008 election, America overthrew the expected paradigm of a white-male President backed by his complementary woman-behind-the-throne. Sixty-plus years after its establishment, the United Nations has long erased such presumptions about power-wielders in the minds of its ranks and staff.

Whatever its handicaps as a bureaucracy, the United Nations has one giant redeeming value. The forum allows for a refreshing level of exchange that enables minority views to impact on the jaded approaches to problem solving that the world’s superpowers bring to the table.

The effect is far from miraculous. The mighty United States still rules at the United Nations, along with the other permanent members of the Security Council, including the European powers of France and Great Britain along with China and Russia.

Nevertheless, the little Solomon Islands manages to sway minds and hearts with its imagistic pleas for environmental control to ease concerns about rising sea levels and increasingly fierce climactic disasters. Little Cuba with its enormous United Nations staff and restricted travel allowance still manages to nettle its powerful northern neighbor.

And complain as it might against bias, perhaps with good reason, Israel makes a good case at the United Nations for why it has to take severe measures against Palestinians in the midst of neighbors still denying the country’s very right to exist. African countries, meanwhile, pursue with utmost confidence the continent’s renaissance through cooperative arrangements with global giants such as China.

In short, the United Nations is a window onto a bustling world. The maverick America that managed to break the racial glass ceiling on power could benefit from its mainstream media making more use of the United Nations web site.

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Metaphors for Racism in 2010 America

Published on March 25, 2010 in Global Communication, Global Politics and Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

quote to tickle thought: the metaphor is probably the most fertile power possessed by man (Jorge Ortega y Gasset)

in the news: Walmart announcer tells black people to leave store; Racial slurs hurled at lawmakers during health reform protests

definitions from Oxford concise dictionary: metaphor, a symbol of an abstraction; racist, one who believes in the superiority of a particular race; bigot, one who has an obstinate and intolerant belief in an idea

in perspective: America broke the global racial barrier on power with its 2008 election. Its new half-black president has wisely chosen to focus on the national crises that got him elected when white strategies no longer worked. A year into the new administration, however, racism screamed to be addressed.

No doubt the shock of the racial breakthrough combined with the sensitivity of the issue prevented direct address. A possible solution would be for the media to approach the subject through the indirectness of the metaphor.

The first step would be to break down the vast block of those opposed to the policies mandated by the election for the creation of a more global and compassionate America. That would be the conservative half of the population having unabashedly declared its commitment to saying no to any progressive proposal.

Breaking down that domestic block to progress calls for differentiating the categories making up the conservative element in 2010 America as represented by the Tea Party movement. That includes true conservatives clinging to past values and ideals, elitists holding to pyramidal models of societetal entitlements, racists seeing the present reality of non-white American leadership as an anomaly rather than progress, and downright bigots deserving of no more notice than to be ignored since they’re not open to reasoning.

Once identified, the concerns and needs of each group could be targeted directly. To true conservatives still of the view that the United States can unilaterally impose its will on other countries, the global nature of the modern world and economy could be pointed out. Elitists would be reminded of the shooting-star nature of celebrity and wealth today while racists of every stripe would be bombarded with facts about how blockages to freedom, opportunity and merit are challenged everywhere. Finally, bigots would be left to die out in the discourse about true conservative concerns.

Bolstering those messages with the aid of metaphor would be the second step in garnering support for the agenda America mandated with its 2008 election. The metaphors would concretize today’s reality of just how backward was conservativism in a global world.

For true conservatives holding onto old ways, metaphors would focus on the futility of renewing the worn-out old. Pouring money into a dilapidated house, patching threadbare clothes or resoling outworn shoes would serve as starting images.

Elitists may be swayed by metaphors about the evanescence of status in the media-driven age of Sarah Palins, movie stars and “celebutards,” as the New York Post coins it. By contrast, the lasting influence of those committed to global progress could be stressed, particularly activisists of notable visility such as Bono and Sean Penn.

For racists, metaphors would center on the evidence of history and how bizarre old attitudes about human differences appear in a modern context. Rudyard Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden” about United States involvement in the Philippines during 1899 could serve as a template for an image today of a “Non-white’s Challenge” in a world where China holds the purse strings of the United States.

On the question of racial superiority, the image behind the metaphors would be the Biblical reversal of the first becoming last and the last becoming first in the absence of an attitude shift. Inversely, agreement on equality could turn the global scenario into an endless series of championship play-offs where everyone has a serial shot at coming out the winner.

History bears witness to the futility of movements centered on obstreperousness, elitism and racism. It exposes the glaring reality. Bigots are primitive dinosaurs in the human journey towards progress.

American media has an opportunity to impact on a rapidly changing world in 2010 as the Tea Party movement gets nasty and violent. The challenge calls for innovation and for an update of old journalistic rubrics.

Coverage of hard news today calls for creativity. It also calls for the violation of the sacred American taboo against intellectualism.

A literary device such as the metaphor can make the bitter pill of transition more palatable to the American common man exemplified by the political football who came to light in the 2008 election. “Joe the Plumber” may not like the rest of the world or see any use for it. But without that broader context, he’s nothing more than a laboratory rat caught in a maze.

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Just Say "Yes" to Conservative "No" in 2010 America

Published on March 10, 2010 in Global Communication, Global Politics and Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

quote to tickle thought: Stronger than all the armies is an idea whose time has come (Victor Hugo)

in the news: (American conservative) Rush Limbaugh will move to Costa Rica if health reform passes (in US); (US NY representative) Massa flirts with the right, but (conservative talk show host) Beck isn’t tickled

in perspective: America voted for radical change in the 2008 election. The new president has come under fire for being overly conciliatory with the conservative establishment.

Media reports indicated that independent voters in particular were disillusioned with the new President Obama over his inability to bring about more robust change. But perhaps that inability was less the president’s fault than that of the American public, which has allowed itself since the election to be diluted in its “yes, we can” rallying cry as the conservatives gathered steam with their “no” on the agenda for change.

The pendulum swing was predictable enough. After a historic step forward, the country as a whole took a half step back as the conservative element knocked the country off its victorious feet.

Columnist Frank Rich on Sunday March 7, 2010 was among those questioning President Obama’s ability to lead. The internet that week buzzed with gossip about White House power struggles.

Yet the half-white man who’d won America’s faith in 2008, and with that skill led the country to overturn global history, was not likely to be slow on the draw. That was true regardless of how resoundingly and unprecedently behind the eight-ball he was.

Health care reform was the signature legislative priority of the new administration, no doubt because no other issue cut as sharply into questions about economic, social and racial divides in America. The resolution of no other issue could so decisively determine whether America would go with the agenda chosen in the 2008 election or let the conservative “no” take over and return the country to the simplistic mentality that had led to the global economic crisis that left the country no choice but to vote for radical change.

However watered down and imperfect, passage of the health care plan would be a signal for the new President Obama to continue implementing the 2008 mandate for a more humane United States in a global world where it was reeling. Enemies such as terrorists and how to deal with them remained on the forefront. But of equal concern for the country and its economic future were competitors such as the European Union, Russia and China.

Dissatisfied as President Obama’s constituents may have been in 2010, there was no mistaking the change in the country’s tenor since the last days of the previous conservative administration. Through actions such as stabilizing the global economy and instituting its own financial reforms, creating jobs and changing policy on issues such as climate and energy, the new America in 2010 had become a world-friendly participant in a global world instead of a pariah.

That big step forward was accomplished in just one short year and acheiving it was crucial for the country regardless of conservative clamor for continuing to harp on the rubric of America’s greatness devoid of acknowleging global neighbors. As economists and diplomats well know regardless of the American public being slow to be informed by its mainstream media, the growth of the American economy in the 2010 global world depended on the behavior of 200 other countries.

If all that could be accomplished by America’s new President Obama despite the heels-dug-in position of “no” to change among America’s conservatives, progressives could take heart. The bigger picture showed that they needed only to send up a resoundingly united “yes” to change so as to prove out the wisdom of their 2008 choice and enable the new President Obama to be the intermediary between the old and new America in the role for which America had elected him to be.

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The Battle for an American Identity in a 2010 Global World

Published on March 2, 2010 in Global Communication, Global Politics and Politics. 0 Comments

quote to tickle thought: divide and rule (ancient political maxim cited by Machiavelli)

in the headlines: energized conservatives pound on Democrats at CPAC; lawyers cleared over 9/11 memos (condoning torture); majority say Obama hasn’t accomplished much in first year; anti-government groups show surge, watchdog warns

in perspective: Coverage of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)in Washington ended on February 20 with the message that the conservative spirit in America had rallied. A contrast was drawn between this year’s optimism and the demoralization of last year a month after the inauguration of the western industrialized world’s first non-white leader. The 800 pound gorilla in 2010 America that nobody seemed able to address was a realistic sense of the forces driving the conservatism.

A year into the new administration, tea partiers bickered among themselves and fought for a rebel identity separate from mainstream Republicans. Meanwhile, the Southern Poverty Law Center on March 2 said it counted 512 militia-related groups in the country in 2009, up from 149 the previous year. The common element between all these groups was the word “no” to the 2008 election mandate, with the “divide and rule” tactic reenforcing it.

Seemingly forgotten was the mandate itself. That mandate was to bring radical change into a great country that had brought on a global economic crisis with eight years of a greed-driven, unregulated conservative policy. Licence for indulging a strategy of denial about that mandate was a product of the “divide and conquer” tactic practiced by conservatives upon the country’s progressives.

A year into the new administration, conservative euphoria over expected gains in 2010 midterm elections was fueled by falling support for the new President’s policies. Public opinion polls indicated that blame for failure to achieve the promised electoral campaign change was leveled at the new president for his inability to break an increasingly fierce Washington gridlock between conservatives and progressives.

Independents were said to be most disillusioned with the new president’s performance, perhaps in a demonstration of just how impatient were the country’s progressives to get the country onto the global highway where cooperation was the operative word rather than the flexing of muscle to achieve aims. In the 2010 global world of 200 countries all interconnected through travel, communication and trade, alliances created the basis for power, not the single factor of military or economic primacy.

The 2008 election showed that America’s progressives were well aware of the global shift in which emerging countries from South America to Africa and from China to India were intent on gaining an equal say in how the world was run. America’s conservatives, on the other hand, held onto old rubrics about the value of America remaining the world’s schoolyard bully.

Personal experience can serve to show that change is a complex and frightening process before a breakthrough occurs. That personal experience can be extrapolated to the local, national and global levels.

By contrast, the harping of a single note to hold onto old virtues based on past successes is a message that is simple, loud and clear. In 2010 America, a year into its new progressive administration, that conservative message was dividing and conquering the progressive agenda mandated by the 2008 election.

The cure for the tyranny of the conservative stranglehold of “no” to American progress in the 2010 global world was for progressives to take the advice of Benjamin Franklin. At the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, that great forefather said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

Independents may be disappointed by the performance of America’s new leader as he negotiates the slippery slope of instituting change by relying on those adept at working the system to help him in that task. But with America’s identity in a global world at stake, progressives of every bent would best serve their country by resisting the conservative tactic of allowing themselves to be divided and ruled.

Imperialists and colonialists throughout the world’s history had practiced and perfected the tactic of divide and rule. As the beacon of democracy for the 2010 global world, America was eminently positioned to overthrow that policy, not only for the global good but also for its own.

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Black David Up Against White Goliath in 2010 America

Published on January 29, 2010 in Global Communication and Global Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , .

quote to tickle thought: Genius does what it must and talent does what it can (Owen Meredith)

in the news: Obama’s State of the Union a moment of truth; US economy grows at fastest pace since 2003; Senate republicans have one word for democrats: no; squabbles erupt over national Tea Party event

in perspective: A year into his first term, America’s new non-white President gave his first State of the Union address just as the United Kingdom conducted the Chilcot inquiry into the country’s role in the Iraq invasion. From the start, the new President has repeatedly stated that he wants to move forward rather than look back at the country’s actions during the previous eight-year conservative administration. However noble the attitude and however desirable the ideal, the reality of the Main Street fight against a Wall Street monopoly demands an accounting on a period that led to America being reviled in the world to the point that it sparked a global economic crisis.

America broke the racial glass ceiling on power to elect the man who could lead it in the humane and world-friendly direction a global world demanded. He has done the job he was mandated to carry out and yet has received little acknowledgement for gargantuan efforts in reversing the global economic, moral and security declines resulting from previous policies.

One benefit to derive from the opportunity to meet new challenges is that of learning. To have achieved his place in history, America’s new President is undoubtedly at the “genius” level as defined by “an infinite capacity for patience,” according to a number of sources in Bartlett’s Quotations.

On the other hand, however admirable their skills, the President’s colleagues in Congress and beyond are at the “talent” level of doing what they can to stay in power or make a profit. The historical thrust of both that power and profit is white, moneyed and privileged.

America elected a black “David” against a white “Goliath” in 2008. The new black David just may need to readjust his thinking during his second year in office to get across the mandate the American people entrusted to him. He just may need to put the power of the past behind the stones he flings at white Goliath with his slingshot.

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America at the Crossroads of a Global World

Published on November 23, 2009 in Global Politics. 0 Comments

quotes to tickle thought: You can’t create a monster, then whine when it stomps on a few buildings (Lisa Simpson in Matt Goering’s The Simpsons); We live in a world that has narrowed into a neighborhood before it has broadened into a brotherhood (Lyndon Baines Johnson)

in the news: Thousands line up in Michigan for Palin; Hundreds Cheer Palin in Michigan book tour; McCain defends campaign team against Palin; New poll shows Americans like Obama as a person but aren’t too fond of his policies

in perspective: A global economic crisis in 2008 shocked America out of its complaisance as a blessed country when core financial institutions themselves were threatened. America responded by making a radical break with conservative isolationism and electing a world savvy leader.

By then, conservatives had formulated their response. That was to promote self-reliance, primitivism and nuclear family values in which a fierce female held the clan together against a hostile world.

The man who won America’s faith for leading it forward in a global world was exceptionally charismatic, in part because of his own personal experience. His breadth of vision was reflected by his nod to convention at the same time that he implemented new policy, holding his ground against critics on both left and right who viewed him as a sell-out.

By contrast, the other star of the 2008 American election was a provincial female conservative who magnetized a large portion of the near-half of the country that had voted against the progressive leader. She continued to make her “rogue” mark long after defeat, so intent on pursuing her own course that she resigned her elected office.

Thus, the 2008 American election really took America to the crossroads of a global world. The country stood there at the crossroads in 2009 as its two sides waged an indecisive battle. At issue were questions of substance weighed against glitz, generosity against selfishness, compassion against meanness and “bigness” against “pettiness.” In short, the dilemma was to choose between growth or stagnation.

Given the reality that America’s moral and financial mortgages are held by foreigners, America would be wise to mend its internal divisions and go forward as one unified personality. Interacting with other countries as equals would benefit America. In that broader context for self-perception, America could learn to tell the difference between real gold and fool’s gold.

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the face of change in the 2009 global Obama era

Published on November 10, 2009 in Global Communication and Global Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

quote to tickle thought: I’m convinced that every boy, in his heart, would rather steal second base than an automobile (Thomas Clark)

in the news: (filly) Zenyatta races into history books by beating the boys in classic (Breeder’s Cup race); the shame of the 2009 U-17 World Cup (in Nigeria); Obama draws criticism for sitting out Berlin Wall anniversary; unemployment in US reaches 10.2 per cent; teen boys drink, fight more, girls less, when playing sports; hunger is Afghanistan’s biggest killer

in perspective: The western world’s first non-white leader was elected to bring about change a year ago in the midst of a global economic crisis brought on by a “pale male” ethic dominating human interaction throughout modern history. The specifics and the dire level of the threat were quickly diffused in the typical American attention span of short duration. Griping and blaming the new administration took over the headlines in the arguments over what “change” actually met, which obscured the fact that the change had been accomplished simply by the election.

The change that election of a non-white leader brought to America and to the world was simply a change in values. Paradoxically, that is the most difficult undertaking to accomplish at any level, whether by an individual, a family, a community or nation. Change at all those levels must now be nurtured if America is to cure itself and all its woes, from moral, social and cultural to economic and political.

That task may seem daunting on the surface, given America’s violent disagreements over issues such as health care and fiscal reform. At heart, however, the way forward is straight-forward. That is to make a platform out of America’s strengths and then project them out onto the world so as to put the modern America into a solid perspective for its people.

Damned Yankees was the title of a Sunday op ed piece by Ari Flreischer, the former George W. Bush press secretary, pointing out that his beloved Yankees hadn’t won the World Series under a Republican administration since 1958. The study on teen jocks being more aggressive than non-athletes may say more about American high school culture than about serious sports players. The 2009 U-17 World Cup played in Nigeria was handicapped by structural weaknesses in the arena that could use the help of American industry to improve.

Addressing the hunger and poverty in Afghanistan could also use American help, not on the small scale of organizations such as Doctors without Borders, however large and important they are, but at the level of American national policy. That was the way to open doors for American industries to partner with others who could help implement programmes for delivery of products.

Finally, the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of Communism should be the ultimate message that America’s values are rapidly changing. After all, there really was little to celebrate about the world having allowed half its population to live under totalitarian tyranny until the system self-imploded.

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The new family of America with 2009

Published on November 5, 2009 in Global Communication and Global Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

quote to tickle thought: None so blind as those that will not see (Matthew Henry)

in the news: Danish PM optimistic on climate deal; Kilimangaro’s famous icy peaks are thawing fast (may disappear in 25 years); US Senate panel approves climate change bill despite GOP boycott; US Republicans try to rally resistance to health care bill as House vote nears; US Democrats downplay election losses as GOP celebrates

in perspective: As with any issue on a global scale, a December climate summit in Copenhagen needs US backing for an agreement on how the world can deal with unnatural climate change after 150 years of uncontrolled industrialization. America, however, cannot commit to working with the world because its conservatives will not give up an Ameri-centric reality as mythical as Pilgrims and Indians at the first Thanksgiving.

Yes, America is blessed by geography, history and ideology to the point that it broke the global glass ceiling on race with its 2008 election. Yet the predictable pendulum swing of conservative reactionism obscured the central point of the 2008 election. America had acknowledged the world was global.

By definition, a global world is governed by a different set of values than a fragmented one, just as a family leads a different lifestyle than a lonely single. On large scale or small, the difference is social consciousness and conscience.

In essence with the 2008 election, America grew up, got married and accepted adult responsibilities toward family at every level. Moreover, America did that as a statement of policy, proclaiming it had married its better half, the one with a conscience.

Conservatives may continue to deny the permanence of America’s new character. They may continue to insist that the 2008 election was a mere dalliance with virtue.

In truth, however, the global economic crisis that had led America to elect the first non-white leader of the western industrialized world had also snapped America out of its self-absorbed extended adolescence. America had settled down, as judged by outrage over the family budget used to pay big bonuses to failed financial institution family members. Compared to the volume of those outcries, the din of tea-party conservatives is barely a whisper. Shrieks of panic about socialism are as laughable as the family dog hiding a bone in the back yard for safekeeping from other family members.

America’s blessings are its assurance that it will not devolve into a dysfunctional family and that it can start living by the true family values of warmth, friendliness, curiosity, healthy competition, generosity and compassion. It can also start to truly thrive by turning a deaf ear to the curmudgeony old bachelor uncles of the family who gripe about missing the old days when children and women were seen and not heard.

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A Climate for Sport

Published on October 22, 2009 in Global Politics. 0 Comments

quote to tickle thought: sport builds bridges (Wilfred Lemke, UN Special Advisor on Sport for Development and Peace

in the news: UK warns of lack of urgency over (December) Copenhagen (climate) talks; 18th typhoon of the season set to hit Philippines; US hunters, anglers lobby for climate change

Reuters reported on October 18 that 20 national hunting and fishing groups had written to their senators to urge them to support climate change legislation. That normally conservative set of sportsplayers took that action because they were concerned about changing migratory patterns they had observed.

“If you go out and hunt at the same time in the same seaon and the same place every year, then you understand the changes that are happening,” a National Wildlife Federation official was quoted as saying.

Also stated in the article was the fact that hunting and global-warming activitism usually mixed about as well as oil and water. But a 2008 survey of 1,000 hunters and fishers found over half classifying themselves as conservative and yet holding the view that the environment could be improved and the economy strengthened by investing in renewable energy technologies.

Recently, a conservative southern senator teamed with a liberal northern one to write a New York Times op ed piece outlining a compromise on limiting carbon emissions. The action was praised in his state, which had a “robust outdoor sports culture woven into its rural fabric”.

On October 19, the United Nations General Assembly gave observer status to the International Olympic Committee, the first organization with a non-state membership to be given that standing. The Assembly on that day also called for an Olympic truce during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games in February and March in Vancouver, Canada. And finally, the Assembly welcomed the holding of the 2010 International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) World Cup tournament in South Africa, a first for the continent in hosting a major sporting event.

On Octber 22, the Olympic torch left Greece to make its way across the world to Canada. Its message will be greatly strengthened by the right decisions in Copenhagen as led by America on behalf of sportspeople everywhere in the world, whether as players, observers or even as just bettors.

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Daily Life with Banks in Charge

Published on October 14, 2009 in Global Politics. 0 Comments

quotes to tickle thought: A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain (Robert Frost)

It is easier to rob by setting up a bank than by holding up a bank clerk (Bertolt Brecht)

A bank is a place that will lend you money if you can prove you don’t need it (Bob Hope)

news flashes: The 50-year-old Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) of 118 developing countries out of the world’s 200 calls for using the global economic crisis as a springboard for redistributing the world’s wealth now concentrated in the hands of the upper 20 percent; the first non-white leader of a western industrialized country addresses America’s National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) on its 200th anniversary as the world celebrates South African icon Nelson Mandela’s 91st birthday; banking giant Citigroup delivers surprise $4.3 billion profit but admits much work remains to be done in consumer-related businesses; the New York Times reports on windfall for bankers and resentment for the rest

In perspective: New banking regulations were to go into effect in 2010 while a report on the causes of the 2007/2008 global economic crisis were to be released by the end of 2009. In the meantime, banks raised interest rates on consumers without notice, they cancelled accounts for non-use or overuse, they disabled cards without prior notice and they did all that by seemingly capricious rules.

The upshot was that consumers protested by refusing to shop. They demonstrated their awareness of the absurdity of practices that would make chaos in the world if applied to other spheres of human interaction.

Examples include two people making a date for lunch and one cancelling without letting the other know. Or, two people meet for lunch and the one offering to pay leaves once dessert is ordered. Or, three people meet for lunch and one who is a minute late is penalized by having to pick up the tab.

The bottom line in the Obama era was the need to establish justice in the world’s economic order. Making banks humane and accountable to clients was not equivalent to turning America into a socialized country. Free enterprise was the American way. It was not the equivalent of a license for unbridled greed.

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