Galileo's Crime and Social Justice

In 2001, Robert gave his presidential address to the Society for the Study of Social Problems at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington DC. He called upon the members of SSSP to join him in committing Galileo's crime. What exactly was that crime? Drawing upon the writings of the historian Santillana, Robert pointed out that the crime was not really about whether the earth or sun was at the center of the universe, but the fact that Galileo presented his findings not in Latin, the language of the elites, but in Italian, the language of the people. Thus, Galileo was doing public science, and Robert called upon SSSP to commit the crime of public sociology by finding ways to get their research findings before the larger public.

Addendum: As an historical oddity, Robert's father drove a cab in DC for 35 years and his favorite cab stand was the one outside the Mayflower Hotel. Why?  Because he believed that the Doorman of the Mayflower followed the cabbies "fair rules" of never letting new passengers enter a cab that was discharging riders. Instead, the doorman always called for one of the cabs in line at the cabstand.

Diversity in New Administration

The current flap in the media over the absence of diversity in choices of those who will work in the Trump administration reminded us of a letter to the editor written during the previous administration. This is not meant to be a partisan comment, but a statement about the normal operation of how things work in any administration.

Obama and Diversity

We are troubled by the recent attacks on the Obama administration for the lack of diversity in the President's cabinet and other high level appointments. We believe that the criticism is unfair, as a cursory examination of Obama's high-level appointments reveals the following.

Overall: 7 rich males and 5 rich females.

Of these 12 rich males and rich females, 2 are rich Roman Catholics, 2 are rich Jews, 3 are rich Protestants, 1 rich Portaguese American, 1 rich Japanese American, 1 rich Dominican American, 1 rich African American, 1 rich mixed northern European American.

Now we ask, is this not diversity?

Infrastructure Projects: Create New Jobs

In our 2009 book America At Risk we proposed the creation of national plan to rebuild America's crumbling infrastructure that would be a jobs creator and a unifying public-private national project. The idea for our proposal was based on a 2005 report by the American Society of Civil Engineers in which they evaluated the condition of public infrastructure in fifteen areas and assigned a grade to each (A=Exceptional, B=Good, C=Mediocre, D=Poor, F=Failure, I=Incomplete. The reported grades were not good: ten areas received grades of D, D+, or D-; four areas received grades in the C range; one area was an Incomplete. No area of roads, bridges, public parks, schools, and so on, received a grade of A or B. When the Society repeated their study in 2013, there were 9 areas with a D grade, 3 Cs, and one B. So there is slight improvement in the condition of public infrastructure, but nothing that would make one cheerful.

These reports on the quality of America's infrastructure are not good, and all Americans would be potential beneficiaries from bringing our aging and deteriorating infrastructure into the twenty-first century.The cost to rebuild infrastructure is very high and it is probably one of the barriers to getting it on the agenda for Congress and the President. The Obama administration frequently talked about the need for a national infrastructure project, but it never moved beyond the talking stage. It has resurfaced as item in the new Trump administration and it has been discussed as a public-private initiative that might make the costs more manageable. We think it is time for a new moon mission project, but this time we need to land on earth!

Residues, Derivations, and a Fig Leaf

This post is a continuation of the discussion that we started in "Scripts" and is an effort to understand some of the things that might guide human action in the Black Lives Matter movement, or in the public demonstrations against the election of Donald Trump. We draw upon some of the ideas presented by a classical sociologist, Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923). The essay was first published by us in May, 2005. Here goes.

No matter how we tried to concentrate on the book reviews and essays for this issue of Contemporary Sociology, high profile events reported in the main stream media distracted us as we prepared work for publication. The first distraction was the Congressional hearings on the nomination of Alberto Gonzalez for U.S. Attorney General. Mr. Gonzalez was questioned about his views of the Geneva Convention agreement and whether the war on terror renders those Conventions as "quaint" and "obsolete." Many members of Congress expressed their beliefs that Gonzalez's legal reasoning on these matters paved the way for the Abu Ghraib abuses.

The second distraction was the U.S. media coverage of U.S. Marine Corps Lieut. General James Mattis' remarks on a panel discussion hosted by the Armed forces Communications and Electronics Association. The General is reported to have said:

             Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot...It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront with you. I like brawling...You go into Afghanistan. You got guys who slap women around for five years because they don't wear a veil...you know guys who ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.

Distraction number three was provided by Professor Ward Churchill and the media's discovery of an academic paper he wrote soon after 9/11 in 2001.The essay was entitled "Some People Push Back: On the justice of Roosting Chickens." Professor Churchill had the temerity to identify some of the roosting chickens: (1) the deaths of civilians in Iraq during the ten year period of sanctions and bombings following Gulf War I; (2) the existence of a CIA office in the world Trade Center that made the building a military target. He suggested that terrorists mimicked the logic of target selection by military commanders in Baghdad, which means striking a legitimate target and regrettably accepting the collateral damages, including civilian deaths; (3) "it was pious Americans who led the way in assigning collective guilt to the German people as a whole, not for things they as individuals had done, but for what they had allowed---nay, empowered---their leaders and their soldiers to do in their name. If the principle was valid then, it remains so now, as applicable to Good Americans as it was to Good Germans." The central theme to his long and convoluted essay was that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were the natural result of years of U.S. policies in the Middle East.


The fourth and final distraction takes us closer to academic-home and it involves the dust-up at Harvard, where President Lawrence H. Summers appeared to say that one reason for the shortage of women in the sciences might be linked to the "intrinsic aptitude" of women for such pursuits. He also touched upon other possible explanations such as discrimination, gender socialization, and the clash between family and career. Anyone who has ever given a lecture on gender inequality would have covered the same set of potential reasons as did President Summers. However, it is unlikely that they would give each explanation equal standing, which is what President Summers appeared to do.

That's the data of distraction. We wondered if we could make some sense of these disparate events that were causing such consternation to politicians, journalists, TV shock jocks, and talk radio hosts. We think we found the answer in Vilfredo Pareto, the Italian political sociologist whose writings stood in strong opposition to such products of the Enlightenment as rationalism and Marxism. Pareto believed that human action  was motivated primarily by emotions,which he called "sentiments." Action flowing from sentiments could be organized into a number of classes or groups, referred to as "residues," of which the two most important classes (for our purposes) are Class I-- instinct for combinations, and Class II--persistence of aggregates.

Persons who are high in Class I residues are clever, innovative, calculating risk takers. Persons high in Class II are moved by loyalty, devotion to duty, security, and commitment to traditional institutions. If we were to imagine a TV series based on Pareto, the Class I characters would be foxes and the Class II would be lions.

A second important concept in Pareto's theory of action is "derivations," which are the sugar-coatings applied to the explanations given for sentiment-driven action. Since people want to appear logical and rational, they are inclined to sugar-coat their base motivations for action. It also helps to make their ideas more palatable to the audience. For example, a person motivated to transform the Social Security system for purely ideological reasons (i.e. sentiment motivated) hopes to turn it back to conform with an earlier set of values that stress individual responsibility. However, the explanation given for these actions--the derivations--would focus on the technical and financial problems that supposedly demand immediate change. Sometimes, an individual-level derivation ia aggregated and becomes an institutionalized practice that we call a "fig leaf."

Returning to Mr. Gonzalez's difficulties with the Geneva Conventions, it is possible to consider such "rules of war" as a fig leaf designed to make war more acceptable---treating beheading and saturation bombing as aberrations that will be punished (by the victors).

What our four foot-in-the-mouth-award finalists appear to have in common, according to Pareto's reasoning, is a tendency to use residue-driven speech and to be nuance-challenged when it comes to telling it like it is. This is guaranteed to get them in trouble with audiences that have been served derivations for so long that they no longer recognize the spinach.

Despite their shared penchant for residue speak, our finalists differ widely in their animal membership phyla. Two appear to be aspiring foxes, overly intellectual and cleverly engaging and tormenting their readers/listeners. The other two no-nonsense lions who probably love to replay the movie scene in which Jack Nicholson, the Marine Colonel, is being pressured to tell the truth by the young fox-like attorney (played by Tom Cruise). When he can't stand it anymore he bellows from the witness stand" "You can't handle the truth."

To proceed further with this tempest-in-a-teapot script, we return to Pareto, who offered his theory of the circulation of elites as a critical response to Marx's theory of class struggle. Pareto argued that there are two elite classes, governing and non-governing elites and that they differ in their Class I and Class II residues. Our four foot-in-mouthers can probably be called elites, two being governing and two non-governing. Interestingly, for Pareto's theory the two elite groups each have a fox and a lion, supporting his contention that governing elites often need persons with residues that differ from their own. Thus, when the governing elites are mainly lions, they must recruit the more intellectual and clever foxes to help them remain in power. Does this Paretean analysis fit the last two administrations in Washington, and the incoming administration?

"Scripts" and Human Behavior

There are two competing theories in sociology about the best way to understand different types of human behavior, such as the participation in public protest actions such as "Black Lives Matter" demonstrations, or demonstrations protesting the recent presidential election results. One approach emphasizes human agency, or the exercise of choices by actors with free will; the other approach emphasis the constraints on human behavior from how people are influenced by existing institutions like the educational system or the mass media. They are often described as "agency versus structure" frameworks for understanding human behavior. We would like to consider a third approach that locates human action between agency and structure, a space that we would call  "scripts."

A script is an internalized record or sequence of historical events and experiences (often of others) that one chooses to use as the basis for understanding or making sense of a current event or situation. So when one confronts  an event of police misconduct or brutality, a persons sense-making processes may try to understand what occurred using the evidence of present events (what the police did and what the citizen did). Or they may immediately see the event using a "script" that describes a past record of police abuse (e.g. the Rodney King incident).

Scripts are usually associated with racial and ethnic identities. The anti-Semite script will interpret events through the historical record of past events such as those that took place in Nazi Germany. The anti-Black script will do the same, focusing on the experiences of slavery. Sometimes scripts will be cross-over scripts that link the experiences of two or more racial or ethnic groups. Let us use an historical example. When Robert first read about Billie Holiday singing the song "Strange Fruit" (a powerful song about lynchings) at the Lenox Lounge in Harlem in 1939, he didn't locate this event in the anti-Black script and would not have been motivated to write a letter to the editor or to join a protest march. Instead, Robert would remember that in 1939 Life magazine published a story about Joe DiMaggio (the greatest baseball player of the day) which contained the most blatant anti-Italian comments: "Italians, bad at war, are well-suited for the milder competition, and the number of top-notch Italian prize fighters, golfers, and baseball players is out of all proportion to the population." Commenting further on Joe D. they state:"Instead of olive oil or smelly bear grease, he keeps his hair slick with water. He never reeks of garlic and prefers chicken chow mein to spaghetti..." (reported in the book Summer of '49' by David Halberstam).

This example of conflicting scripts led me to interpret the Billie Holiday song in  a fashion that is less sympathetic to the intent of the song writer or singer, and more consistent with my own internal script.

So we might consider the number of distinct scripts that people may use, including religious, ethnic, racial, sexual, etc. What is the source of scripts? Media? Social movement literature? How exactly would these scripts shape action?

Deplorables say "Basta."

When we went to bed the media were still counting in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, and Michigan. That seemed odd, since we expected that Hillary would win at least three of those four states. When we got up at 5:45 the local newspaper had the headline "Too Close to Call." Then we turned on the radio and learned that Donald Trump was the President-Elect. We think this result has been percolating for a long time. It started with Ross Perot, then Pat Buchanan, then Ralph Nader, and now Donald Trump. We know we face a lot of uncertainty with the new President, but we also know that it is the end of NAFTA, TPP, and the pols blowing smoke up the asses of the working class. Hang on and learn something from the next four years.

The Clintons: A Fact and a Thought Experiment

On January 26, 1998, President Clinton went on national television to speak to the American people and to try and save his Presidency. Among the things that he said was the memorable, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky." That is the fact.

For the thought experiment you must think about the meeting that undoubtedly took place prior to the decision to go on national television and lie to the American people. The meeting would have included two or three of the President's most trusted advisers, and would have included Hillary Clinton. The arguments for the lie would include a discussion of the meaning of  "sexual relations" and whether what took place with Miss Lewinsky would qualify. The advisors obviously concluded that they could do a semantic dance around the President's relationship with Monica, and he would not really be telling a lie.  And someone must surely have said; "What happens if Monica pushes back and tries to embellish upon her sexual relationship with the President" (remember the blue dress). One of the advisers probably said: "We have that covered. We have met with Miss Lewinsky and told her that we have spoken with all her closest male and female friends and have dug up lots of dirt, and that if she speaks up, we will destroy her. In other words, she has been told what would happen to her if she says anything that contradicts what the President will say."

What I'm sure of is that such a meeting took place before President Clinton went on television to tell his lie. I am also sure that Hillary Clinton was among those close advisors. I am also sure that they discussed the possibility of "push back," by whom and how it would be handled. What was actually said is part of the thought experiment.  This was a high stakes game and I can only imagine the options that were considered.        

On Identities and Social Construction

All the people in my neighborhood who were called "shorty" were short. And all the people with dark skin were called "moolies," for mouliyan (eggplant in Italian--get it?). We may not have been school-smart but we knew that there were things called "facts"---not having a job was a fact; the police were a fact; my absent father was a fact. There was no social construction in this stuff, and no matter what you may wish for, it didn't change the facts. No matter how hard me and my buddies tried to get Junior Emerson into the neighborhood park swimming pool by claiming that he was Puerto Rican, it never worked. Junior was a light-skinned "moolie" but not light enough.

The social science mantra that race is a social construct is an idea that I learned as a graduate student and which I still believe. This means that people can "pass" if they are smart enough, thereby making race a product of social processes, hence a social construction. But there are limits to social construction. Kareem can't pass for short, except in a home for the blind.

But the idea of pure social construction was presented in social science before the research on DNA and the human genome. We can now trace our biological descent to any population in the world, which makes the idea of distinct races very questionable, but it doesn't mean that race is only a social construct. There can still be found distinctive "gene pools" that are "closed" with few links outside the pool, and there are gene pools with dominant and distinctive genetic material. So until we have further research it would probably be accurate to say that race is a "bio-social construct," which means that the defining power of one side of the construct will limit the power of the other side.

I don't think I would give a public talk today arguing that race is a bio-social construct; the public or the main street media are not ready for that level of complexity.

Trump

The audio-tape revealing Trump's comments about women and his predatory behavior are quite consistent with who I believe that he is.

First and foremost, he is what I have called a "hothouse kid," meaning that he was raised in an environment of controlled care and feeding. His growing up years were spent in Jamaica Estates (the closest thing to a gated community at the time). I was born and raised in Jamaica, but never went to Jamaica Estates because it was viewed as another world. He also went to a private school and a military academy during his pre-college years. In short, he never had the benefit of being a "city kid," which included contentious and combative male-male and male-female relationships.

His behavior as an adult has been noteworthy for trying to be the "tough guy" he was never able to be as a kid. I would guess that he was mostly fearful of other kids who were not in his social circle. So what you hear on those tapes is Trump trying to be one of the city boys, being tough and expressing his insecurity about women.

Should this disqualify him as a presidential candidate? That is for you to decide. 

Perot, Buchanan, Trump: Early Warning Shots

The mainstream media are having a great time with Donald Trump. He is the gift that keeps on giving. But while they "pile on" to reveal all his flaws, they have failed to place him in the proper political and economic context. The people who support Trump are angry and cynical, very much like those who supported other "outsider" presidential candidates in the past.

The first one that comes to mind is Ross Perot, who ran for president as an Independent against Bush and Clinton. He is remembered mainly for having pulled enough votes from Bush to give Clinton a victory. Perot received 18.9 percent of the popular vote, and no electoral votes. Among his most memorable lines as a candidate is the following: "This city is fueled with sound bites, shell games, handlers, media stuntmen who posture, create images, shoot off Roman candles, but don't accomplish anything. We need deeds, not words, in this city."

After the election, Perot continued his political activity by opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He is remembered for his predictions about NAFTA by telling the American people to listen for the "giant sucking sound" of American jobs heading south.

The second memorable presidential candidate was Pat Buchanan, the political commentator who ran for president in 2000 as the Reform Party candidate. Among his more colorful lines was to tell his listeners that "the people with the pitchforks will soon be coming to take what was rightfully theirs."

And now we have Trump, who from the very first moment he spoke told us of the "rigged system" that confronted the American people. The press would spin the meaning of the rigged system to be the political system, but that was not Trump's original meaning. He was talking about how he used his money to support all the political candidates he needed "to grease the skids" for all his real estate ventures.

Perot, Buchanan, and Trump are the continued expressions of the anger and cynicism of the American people, and should be understood as "early warning shots" against a rigged system where wealth and concentrated corporate dominance shape the political system that produces "free trade"
agreements and tax policies that benefit mainly the privileged class elites.

Immigrants and Ex-Cons

We have read of the impressive efforts of some communities to embrace and support immigrants from the Middle East, especially Syria and Iraq. The collective effort by these communities should be emulated as they provide financial, emotional, and material support for immigrant families to become integrated into the communities in which they have located after coming to the United States.

We think it would be great if an effort of this sort were directed at helping some of the 600,000 inmates who each year are released and returned to the community. Unfortunately, more than one-half of those released will be re-incarcerated within three years of their release. After serving time in prison, ex-offenders face major challenges in finding jobs, housing, and general assistance to deal with reintegrating into the community.

The needs of ex-offenders are very much like those of new immigrants. What is needed is a program sponsored by State and Federal agencies to connect ex-offenders with community support groups and to provide the consistent message that there is a second chance for those who want to work at it. 

Election Prediction

All social scientists know that it is dangerous to predict, but the forthcoming presidential election is so overheated that we cannot resist. Thus, we predict that: 

Trump will win the popular vote, but Clinton will win the electoral vote. This will allow Trump to claim that "the game is rigged" and the battle between their followers will continue, as it is another gift to the media. On a more serious side, Clinton will seek to unify the country and will become more hawkish in foreign relations, as we "discover" that Crimea and the Ukraine are vital to our national interest, leading to a new Cold War with Russia.

Post-election comment.
We were correct in predicting a split decision, but we got it wrong as to who would win the popular vote and who the electoral college vote. The turnout for Trump in all the blue-collar union states was greater than expected. He obviously had an appeal to the tens of millions of blue collar workers and their families and friends who believe that their jobs are at risk, who have worked without a wage increase for many years, and who have lost their benefits (pensions and health insurance) as their employers have sought to reduce costs. We can now watch to see what President Trump will try to do for them.

Crime and Time

On September 2, 2016, the New York Times published an article by Josh Keller and Adam Pearce with the title: "This small Indiana County sends more people to prison than San Francisco and Durham, N.C., combined. Why?" The article began with a statistical documentation of the decline in prison admissions from 2006 to 2014 across many cities in the U.S. Yet despite this national decline the "small Indiana county" sent convicted offenders to prison at exceeded national trends. The preferred "explanation" for this odd statistic seemed to focus on the fact that the county was composed of citizens who were white, rural, and politically conservative. Since these maligned citizens were not involved in sentencing offenders, attention and criticism turned to the power of local prosecutors who were presumably elected by the citizens who were white, rural, and politically conservative.

Apparently preferring the "hick" explanation to this practice of sending convicted persons to prison, the article fails to examine the expansion of drug-related activity outside of the cities and into surrounding counties (that is, "rural areas"). Anyone who has studied the illegal drug business knows that you must treat it as a business, so the spread from cities to surrounding counties is evidence of the business practice of seeking new markets for the illegal drugs. Thus, when the "hicks" and their "out of control" prosecutors send drug offenders to prison, they are sending a message to the urban drug entrepreneurs that their business is not welcome in the county. It's like saying "no" to Wal-Mart because you prefer the local mom-and-pop stores.

We encourage you to read the article and see what you think may be responsible for this hard line version of "if you do the crime, you do the time."

Location,Location,Location: The Case for Globalization

[This was written in the year 2000. It was to be Chapter 5 in the never-to-be published book Democracy for Dummies. The book is described in a post on May 10, 2016.]

Carmelita raised her tiny voice to a shout. "Madre. Padre. Paco. De prisa, hurry. Hector is coming on."

The small room is filled with the giant television screen. Hardly anything else appears to be in the room but the screen. Four figures, two adults and two children, are squatting the floor in  front of the screen. the screen brightens and is filled with the image of  a soaring eagle holding the globe of the world in its talons.

One of the figures on the floor exclaims, "Caramba! Que gigante pajaro." "Es una aguila, padre. It's an eagle" exclaims Paco. "Una aguila Americano."

A booming disembodied voice pours out of the screen over the image of the soaring eagle, "N-N-N, the News from Nowhere Network is proud to present the host of our show, the incomparable, Regal Menace." The applause is prolonged and deafening.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the world's most watched television show, Who Wants to Have a Job? Tonight's show is brought to you by the most famous man in Arkansas, known to his friends as the Chicken Hawk, because he has stuffed more birds than anyone else in the world. No, it's not Bill Clinton, but none other than Harry Purdoo, and his world renown Cyberbird Chicken Farm, a totally automated, robotized production system for the world's most tender, juiciest birds. Harry's motto is: When someone flips you the bird, say thank you, as long as it's a Purdoo bird. Now let's meet some of Harry's happy birds.

Accompanied by bump-and-grind music. a chorus line of Disney chickens with human legs in mesh stockings, and voluptuous very human breasts are dancing around a barnyard that looks like its from the infamous chicken ranch in Las Vegas. After plugging the virtues of the Purdoo birds, the screen scrolls the same phrase in several dozen languages.

                               "Purdoo chicken in every pot"
                               "Un poulet Purdoo dans chaque poile."
                               "Una pollito dentro de todos barrigon"
                               "Tutti bisogna pollo biondo con grande fenditura"

The list of phrases apparently causes some consternation and amusement to viewers around the world, as the production room call-in board is lit up like a Christmas tree. Apparently the commercial potential of the Internet exceeds the capacity of the producers to translate meanings that are free of local meanings. the first phrase is clear enough--everyone should buy a Purdoo chicken. the second phrase in French says that there is a lost chicken in every pot. In Spanish we have a chick in every potbelly. And the incorrigible Italians believe that everyone should have a blond chicken with great cleavage.

The camera is back on Regal. "Okay folks, you know how our game is played. Each week we bring to our stage two contestants from different countries who are going to try and convince you, the audience, and our panel of judges, that they deserve to get a new company that is up for grabs. There are three rounds of questions for our contestants. After each round, the judges will rate our contestant's performance, and you, the audience can register your choice through the applause sensometer. Now let's meet our contestants."

A booming disembodied voice fills the screen as a spotlight follows a tiny figure from offstage to a podium near center stage and close to the audience. "Meet Hector Rodriguez Tomar, from Ciudad Pollo, Mexico"

Regal meets the contestant at his podium. "Welcome Hector, bienvenido. May I call you Rod? Hector smiles at Regal's pronunciation, and although initially puzzled by the question, he recovers quickly. "Yes, Rodriguez is my mother's family name. It is our custom to use both parents' family names.

"A great custom Rod. And now for our second contestant. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Charlie W. Trash from Flint, Michigan in the good old U.S of A." Regal moves in again. "Welcome Charlie. And what do you do in Flint, Michigan?"

"Well right now I ain't doing much of anything. That's why I'm on the show."

"Right, Charlie. But isn't Flint an automobile town?" says Regal somewhat tentatively, not sure what this guy will say next.

"Yeah, it used to be. I had a great job at the Olds plant. We made some great cars back then. Why I had a '72 Cutlass  with over 150,000 miles on it and it could still hum along at 90."

Regal projects gravitas with the next question. "Well what happened to change all that Charlie?"

"It all started with those candy-ass Japanese cars. Small, no power, no chrome, and everyone worried about the A-rabs raising gasoline prices. I still think we could have beat the Japs head-to-head, because we had a better product. But then they started outsourcing our work wherever they could find cheap labor. That was the beginning of the end."

"You sound a little angry, Charlie," says Regal, hoping to put him on the defensive. "Don't you think the workers in Flint bear any responsibility for the shutdown of the plants?"

"Oh, sure. They probably cut some corners, and took off too many Mondays to go fishing or hunting. But we did our job, and you can't compete when the playing field ain't level. When NAFTA came in, we didn't have a prayer. Jobs went south big time."

Putting on is best Mike Wallace voice, Regal clarifies. "NAFTA, that's the North American Free Trade Agreement, correct."

"Au contraire," Charlie shoots back to a slightly stunned Regal. "It's called FREE trade, and free trade ain't the same as fair trade. People need to understand the kind of capital flows that exist between countries. Some capital is for investment, and some is for speculation. The politicians don't talk straight on this issue, all the time trying to blow smoke up our ass."

Regal is flustered and tries to move on. "You may have a point there Charlie. Let's see if our other contestant agrees with you. Well Rod, what do you do in Ciudad Pollo?"

"Right now, not too much. We haven't seen any of those jobs that Charlie thinks came from NAFTA. I used to work at Pollos Dios Mio!-- that means heavenly chicken--one of Mexico's largest chicken farms and processing plants. It was a great job."

Again with gravitas, Regal asks, "What happened Rod. How did you go from chicken heaven to chicken down below? Or maybe I should say chicken diablo, Regal breaks into chuckles, drawing audience laughter.

"Si, pollo inferno. It has been hell for the people of our town. The plant was moved to Thailand. The company said they could use special growth hormones on chickens in Thailand, cutting by half the time from birth to chicken parts. We couldn't do that because of NAFTS's environmental regulations."

"That's quite a story, Rod,"  says Regal with a broad smile. "You and Charlie have really interesting stories to tell. But now it's time to play Who wants to have a job? he shouts, waving his arms. The audience rises to their feet waving arms with a mixture of thumbs up and thumbs down gestures. "One of you, Rod or Charlie, is going to win a chicken farm and processing plant for your home town. There will be hundreds of new jobs and all the good things that come with that."

A giant screen behind Regal shows pictures of a prosperous community with smiling people walking in parks, eating in restaurants, and shopping at the mall. "That's what life can be like again in Ciudad Pollo or Flint, Michigan," shouts Regal. "Now let the games begin. Charlie won the coin toss, so he gets the choice of going first or second."

"I guess I'll go first, says Charlie, rocking side to side as if he is dancing, and trying to look enthusiastic.

"Good choice, Charlie," blasts Regal. "Now to the first question for each contestant. And remember, Charlie and Rod, you can ask for help from someone in your support group. The question: Some experts say that all towns are like people--they either have to grow or they die. How do you respond to that statement?"

Charlie looks genuinely puzzled. "Grow or die, that's the question? Seems like it's better to grow than to die, but why do you have to die if you can't grow? Can't you grow too much and die? My Aunt Bertha on my mother's side weighed about 300 pounds and she died before she was forty. I'm not sure I understand the question. Flint grew in the 60s and 70s and it still died. Well it's not really dead, but folks talk about it like it's dead. Why can't you just have a decent job without bringing all this other stuff in?"

Regal jumps in to pump some life into the contestant. "Why don't you ask someone from your support group if they want to help. Who is the guy waving his arms and jumping up and down?"

"That's Wayne Babbit from Flint. He's with the Chamber of one of those business groups."

Regal wave his arms toward the end of the stage. "Come on up here Wayne." He arrives at the podium with a broad grin and bouncing with energy. "Tell us who you are and what you do in Flint."

"I'm Wayne Babbitt and I'm president of the Flint chamber of Commerce and a member of the Economic Development Commission of Southeastern Michigan."

"It's great to have you on the show, Wayne," says Regal. "What do you think about the question of whether a town has to grow or die?"

"That's a no-brainer Regal. You don't have to be a rocket scientists to know that without growth, a town stagnates. It loses pride in itself. It turns inward. Mom and Pop stores are quaint, but that's not where it's at. Wal-Mart give you more choice and better price. To survive in the global economy a town has to sell itself to attract new business. and to sell yourself with a positive can-do attitude and attractive options. It's just like in the animal kingdom. Those who survive have learned to dress up their act with fancy feathers, mating dances, and overpowering smells. The guys and gals that survive have put together the best show to get somebody's attention."

Regal shows genuine admiration for Babbit's pitch. "Well you have sold me, Wayne. But what is Flint going to do to attract the new Purdoo chicken plant?"

"That's easy," shoots back Wayne. "We have tax abatements that will help Perdue  avoid property taxes for at least ten years and maybe longer. We will us e state and local development funds t prepare the work site, bring in utilities, widen roads, and anything else to get the plant up and running. And if we can justify a need for training for workers, we can get federal funds to pay their salaries for up to six months."

"That sounds like a great deal for Purdoo." beams Regal. "The good people of Flint are willing to go balls-out, I mean all-out, for Purdoo." The audience is screaming with laughter at Regal's locker room expression. "It's an innocent expression folks," chuckles Regal, enjoying the good spirits of the audience. "I think we even used it to motivate people at church fund-raisers."

"I like that expression, Regal. IT captures what we're all about," says Wayne amid great laughter. "I'm going to use that expression at my next Chamber meeting, a great motivational phrase."

Regal takes control again. "Speaking of motivation, what is the work force like in Flint? What can the Perdue people expect from their workers."

Wayne seemed to be waiting for this soft ball. "We've got the finest workers that money can buy. There are thousands of laid-off auto workers just begging for work. Now I know that they are ex-union, and that will scare some employers. But they have learned their lesson. Unions can't protect them when companies can move their plants overseas."

"Suppose that Purdoo won't hire ex-union workers," says Regal, hoping to generate some heated discussion. "I've heard that happens."

Wayne is beaming once again. "You want foreign workers, we will give you foreign workers. We can give you all the Mexican workers you need, legal or illegal. You want temporary workers, we have a large Manpower office in Flint, funded by the Feds, that provides all the temps you need. Low wages, no benefits, no problem. They work for Manpower and not for the company. The company gets all the workers they need, without the headache of having employees."

Regal feels the need to introduce some fairness into the discussion. "Now wait a minute Wayne, how can we talk about hiring illegals. Isn't that illegal"?

"You have to get out more, Regal,"  says Wayne with a smirk. "The I.N.S. has almost stopped raiding businesses that hire illegals. There is a shortage of workers and the Immigration and Naturalization folks have started looking the other way at border crossings. The illegals help to keep wages down and inflation under control. I'll bet Alan Greenspan even hires illegals to do his cooking and gardening."

The audience is hooting and cheering. Regaining his composure, Regal turns to the audience. "Okay, enough fun and games. Let's turn to our second contestant, Rod Tomar, and see how he reacts to the idea that towns must grow or die. The ball is in you court, Rod. What say you?"

Hector Rodriguez Tomar had intended to speak on this question, but after seeing the performance of Wayne Babbit from Flint, he decides to call upon the Mayor of his city. "I am going to ask Alcalde, the Mayor of Ciudad Pollo to answer that question. Alcalde Angel Jesus Alquiladizo.

Regal didn't have a clue that this was coming, so he is not prepared to deal with the very complicated pronunciation task in front of him. "Mr. Mayor, please come to the podium." There is great applause, whistling, and shouts of "jefe,-jefe-jefe" from the audience. The audience seems to be stacked with residents from Ciudad Pollo. "We are honored, sir, to have you on our program. What do you have to say about the grow or die question?"

"As Mayor of the great city of Ciudad Pollo, I can assure the Purdoo chickens that their last days in our city will be among the happiest of their short lives. Everyone in the world should know that in our city the chickens come first. chickens are in our hearts, our history, our culture. This also means  that the companies that work with chickens also come first, and they are also in our hearts, our history, ur culture."

"Great Mr. Mayor," says Regal, wondering how long he can continue to avoid calling this guy by one of his names. "But how will you counter the offer of tax abatements made by the people of Flint, Michigan? There is a sputter of applause, and some shouts of "Go Wolverines" from the back rows.

"No problema, Mr. Regal. Primero, first, you don't have to worry about getting approval for tax abatements. In flint, you might get hem, but then again you might not, especially if some citizen's groups starts makin noise about abatements. The Purdoo plant will be located in an EPZ. Do you know what that is?"

"What is an EPZ, Mr. Mayor," replies Regal dutifully, but also with some interest in furthering his knowledge.

"An EPZ is an Export Processing Zone. It is an area of land that has been designated by the government of Mexico for foreign companies to locate their production plants. Everything that is produced in the zone is free of any taxes, as long as it is for export out of Mexico."

Charlie Trash blurts out, "You mean to tell me that none of the chickens processed in your city can be sold to the people who live there. What the hell is the point?"

"Please Mr. Trash, you had your turn," says Regal in his most official manner. "You will get a chance to speak again." The crowd is hooting and shouting a mixture of "Regal-Regal" and "gringo-gringo." Regal tries to quiet the crowd with his upraised arms. "Please continue Mr. Mayor."

"Gracias, thank you. So, first, no taxes, ever! And next, no environmental regulations. That's another advantage of being in an EPZ. In flint, you are going to have to get rid of all the waste that accompanies a chicken operation. that will mean that you will either have to build a waste processing plant, or contract out to someone else to haul your waste."

Regal suddenly feels that Flint is not getting a fair hearing, and maybe the crowd will start pulling for the underdog. "But tell me , Mr. Mayor, how will the waste be handled in Ciudad Pollo."

"Bueno, I will tell you. First, we dig a huge ditch from the plant toward the river about two mile away. It's a nice downhill slope that will carry the waste washed along by water from the city's wells."

"Won't that be an awful lot of smelly waste laying around until it reaches the river?" says Regal, turning up his nose and holding it. A segment of the crowd hoots.

"Not so," replies the Mayor. "The beauty of our operation is that we use nature to are for nature. Our region has more turkey vultures than any other place in Mexico. And once that waste stats down the ditch toward the river there will be more vultures in that ditch than you can imagine. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that no waste ever reaches the river. We are going to have the best fed vultures of anyplace in the world."

The Mexicans in the audience are on their feet cheering and screaming, "buitres, buitres, vosotros todos buitres."

Regal returns to his cameraman, who happens to be an illegal from Mexico. "What are they yelling?"

"Vultures, vultures, you are all vultures."

The big TV screen goes dark, ending the Regal Menace show.

"Hey, turn it back on. I want to see who wins."

"It's a no-brainer. Hector has it hands down. Just like the swallows went back to Capistrano, the chickens are going back to Mexico."

"Flint doesn't have a prayer of getting a new factory. Those ex-auto workers may as well join the militia  in Northern Michigan and hunker down for the Aryan revolution.

Bif sits at the table in front of the big screen TV. "I think you have seen enough for our purposes. That was Hollywood's contribution to our project. They are proposing to do a series of Who Wants to Have a Job? shows for worldwide distribution. What do you think?"

Emma and Denny both try to grab center stage, but Emma wins the toss. "Absolutely brilliant. If what I saw is a sample of the future shows they will produce, I say full steam ahead!"  Denny projects more controlled, cerebral enthusiasm. "It was very well done. The show has all the imperatives of the global economy, and it will make the audience aware of the need to get with the program.

Bif looks at the other two members of the Bravo Team. "Bob, I mean Robert? Bill? What's your take on this pilot show? Should we make it a part of Bravo's portfolio?"

They speak almost simultaneously, and say the same thing. "I think It's a go!"

Bif tries to inject some enthusiasm. "Great. now let's review your assignments. You are to come up with a plan, one that can be used cross-nationally, for getting the average person to believe in using the idea of the market as the best way to develop and deliver products and services. The key to spreading market values is, first, to link American values to universal values, and second, t link universal values to economic, political, and military action."

"That's a mouthful, chief. How about some detail," says Robert Pierce with a look that says: we have been here before, haven't we?

"Sure. Let's take the issue of poverty. The United States is committed to the idea of eliminating poverty around the world. We provide millions in humanitarian aid through the U.N. and other organizations. An alternative to providing aid, which has nothing to do with the free market, is to get poor countries to invite  U.S. corporations to set up shop and employ the poor in clothing factories."

"Aren't we already doing this kind of thing?" says Matthew, with his usual quizzical look.

"Sure we are," pops back Bif, "but not as wide and deep as we should be. There are still too many places trying to mix market solutions with state-centered approaches, or with traditional, and even semi-feudal approaches. There is still a lot a talk about a third way, a form of market socialism. this kind of thinking is confusing, and it's why some countries can't tell their ass from their elbow. Let me give you another example in the military area. The U.S. is committed to protecting and advancing basic human rights around the world. We shout about human rights when we are talking about trade with China. And we shout about human rights when we are sending cruise missiles into Libya, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Under the guise of human rights we are trying to eliminate regimes that are unwilling to buy into the global free market. Those American values can serve a multiplicity of purposes. They can serve economic goals directly or indirectly. you just have to be creative."

Denny looks enthralled. "I love it chief. The inversion is beautiful, pure poetry. During the Cold War we used geopolitics to advance global economic domination, and now the global economy is used  to access labor and markets in order to advance geopolitical domination. I can hardly wait to get started."

Bravo Team: The Players

In one respect, the members of the Bravo Team are ideally suited for this assignment. They are all brainy types, trained in economics, business, and true believers in the wisdom of the market. William "Bill" Matthews is the teams most senior person, and he is designated by Bif to be the group's convenor. He did not come from great wealth, but from a distinctly privileged background. his father was a corporate attorney with the kind of income that provided a second home on Captiva Island, and a power boat large enough for partying. Bill is an only child, and wanted for little in his early years, vacationing around the world to adapt to seasonal variations. He is an accomplished skier and tennis player, and is steeped in the writings of the "dead white men" who are responsible for Western Civilization. Bill attended an exclusive New England boarding school before going to Harvard. Bill's family had enough money to live with great comfort, but not enough to free Bill from the need to have his own income. So after Harvard, Bill went to Stanford for graduate work in economics, where he developed international interests that carried him into a position in the State Department after graduation. Bill is a congenial and congenital elitist. He will tell you with a straight face that he remembers hearing Bach's Double Concerto in d for Oboe, Violin and Strings, which was his mother's favorite, when he was still in her womb. He uses this ploy to tell the listener that his mother could have been a world-class cellist, but she gave up her musical career to provide the right kind of home for him and his father. Bill's father believed that families needed there types of nourishment to prosper, which he called his "head, heart, and stomach principle." Bill's father took care of the stomach needs through his productive work, while Bill's mother satisfied needs of the heart, and, in the early years, the head, but later the needs for the head was "out-sourced" to tutors and private schools. Bill developed his father's principle by giving a hierarchical order to the needs --stomach needs must be satisfied before the head and before the heart-- and applied the principle to nations. Bill will discuss, without passion or moral judgement, why countries that have experienced hardship in their formative years have very little chance, in a freely competitive environment, of improving their circumstances in life. According to bill, disadvantaged countries or people can advance only by giving the special treatment, and that such efforts violate the natural order and will ultimately harm everyone.

Robert Pierce is the strong, silent type. During his days at the Wharton School he acquired the name "Straight Arrow," reflecting his total dedication to the objective application of economic principles to all forms of human behavior. As a graduate student in economics he irritated everyone by constantly trying to fit economic theory to dating behavior, marriage, and crime. He was slightly megalomaniacal in his effort to construct a general theory of human behavior, reminiscent of the grand theories developed by nineteenth century thinkers. He dislikes being called Bob, as he thinks it reflects a level of familiarity that rarely exists in his relationships with others. He is all business, and always pulls his weight on team projects. Robert and Bill Matthews have a kind of unspoken affinity. They always seem to be on the same wave-length, although there is no outward sign of friendship between them. They both speak fondly of time spent in the Pacific Northwest, and of the challenges of living off the land. They would both be great survivalists, capable of rebuilding society after a nuclear attack.

Emma Golden and Denmark "Denny" Lyte are the dynamic duo of the Bravo Team. They bring brilliance and passion to all discussions, and provide excellent balance for Bill Matthews and Robert Pierce. Emma and Denny provide the creative spark, and the others provide the follow through. Bif knew what he was doing when he put this foursome together. Emma and Denny are the "liberals" on the team and they are preoccupied with their identities as "minorities." they believe that they are products of the American Dream, because they have "made it" based on merit, and they often refer to America as a meritocracy. Reality is somewhat at odds with this image, as both Emma and Denny come from business families that have accumulated considerable wealth in "ethnic niche" markets. Demetrius Lyte, Denny's father, is the CEO of a conglomerate that sells foods, beauty products, and magazines to African Americans, and although he hoped that Denmark would become an academic at a Ivy League college, he was very pleased with his son's State Department career. Emma's parents, Ben and Ruth Golden, took a family restaurant and turned it into an international chain of upscale delicatessens. They sell nostalgia with great pastrami--an unbeatable combination. Emma liked to tell people that she was named after Emma Goldman, but the truth is that it was the name of her mother's sister. At Swarthmore, the girls called her Red Emma because she was always talking about the radical '60s, and writing papers about SDS and the Black Panthers. Emma really regretted having missed the 60s, both for the politics and for the wild times. But at Swarthmore, everyone was pretending to be someone else as a way of avoiding acknowledging their shared privilege and the futures that awaited them among the nation's elites.

*********************************************************************************
Bravo Team Workshop
Subject: Privatization

Bill, Robert, Emma and Denny are seated in high-back, very comfortable, soft leather chairs arranged in a circle. The fifth chair is occupied by a stranger to the team, a somewhat rumpled looking, thirty-something academic type whose appearance  and bearing is still on the kinder side of wunderkind. The room has the décor of the Harvard Club, exuding brains and money with each lamp, rug, and painting. The old Langley crowd liked to refer to this room as the academic war-room, because it made academics feel comfortable when making policy recommendations that often resulted in diminished lives for ordinary people, whether by bombing, starvation-centered embargoes, or welfare reform. It was simply unthinkable that one could do harm in such a warm, humane room.

The five seated figures look right at home and are calmly arranging pens and pads on the writing tables at the side of their chairs that they can swing across the arms of their chair. This could be a group therapy session at Chestnut Lodge where institutional elites get together for a weekend to discuss wealth, power and guilt--25k for the weekend, meals included. Bif breaks the silence, "Welcome all to our think-tank. Our guest today is Geoffry Slikker, known to us all as the world's leading international economist. Geoffry is going to lead our discussion about how to move state-centered and traditional economies toward privatization of goods and services. In short, bring back the market."

"No more bio please. First, call me Gee-Free, which is actually the pronunciation, but I get a kick out of the joke, because I'm anything but free. Let's start with this clipping I found in today's Times," which he passes around and proceeds to read before everyone has a copy.

                                    More Funds Listed for Ex-Nigeria Head

                                                 by the New York Times

Geneva, June 19---Representatives of Nigeria said today that they had found bank accounts in Liechtenstein that probably held tens of millions of dollars looted under General Sani Abacha, the former dictator of Nigeria. Those sums are in addition to much larger accounts in Switzerland, Luxembourg and Britain. Officials estimate that $1.6 billion in accounts in these countries is suspect. In Liechenstein, documents show that more than $150 million had been transferred to two banks and that a third bank had five accounts where sizable deposits had been made by members of Abacha's family, according to lawyers for the Nigerian government. Negotiations to report the exact amounts are underway with Vaduz. In the past, the tiny principality between Switzerland and Austria did not report any figures.

Geoffrey tosses the news clipping in the air and slams his hand down on his writing table. "That's what we have to contend with. The liberal press always slamming the rich and the powerful. What, exactly, has Abacha done that is wrong? For all we know, the money has not been looted, but he has put government funds in foreign banks for safekeeping, because Nigeria lacks a central bank that can be trusted."

"Isn't that a bit of a stretch, Gee-Free," says Emma. I wonder what kind of return he is getting on $1.6 billion?"

"Maybe it's a stretch, but doesn't he enjoy the same benefit of the doubt that we give to welfare queens when they are suspected of double-dipping? Besides, he is also a role model because he is emphasizing savings, and if more Nigerians would save money there would be money to loan people to start their own companies."                                            


"But what's the point, Gee-Free," says Robert with slight irritation, and blurting "what the hell are we paying this guy."

Geoffrey responds. "The point is to know what you are up against. The best laid economic policies can be destroyed by a witch-hunting liberal press. For all we know, Abacha and his family made it big in the market in the "90s, and the money squirreled away in Swiss banks is rightfully theirs. Hell, i made a small fortune trading in the foreign exchange market buying and selling the Thai bhat. I  knew when to buy the bhat and when to sell the bhat. 

Denny jumps in: "Weren't you also a consultant for the Thai government. Is this a case of insider trading," he says, drawing warm laughter from the group.

"No way," says Geoffrey, "I consult for the US government and that doesn't prevent me from buying and selling stock. I made that money because I'm smart and smart people shouldn't be penalized."

"We all agree with you Gee-Free," says bill, "but no one gave us a chance to get in on the bhat.""

"Well if you invited me sooner I might have put you on to it. Anyway, enough of this little warm-up piece on Nigeria.. The bigger question is how to sell the idea of using the power of the market, whether it is in Nigeria, Russia, or China. Big state-centered projects can never beat the market in delivering the goods. I want to make that point to you with a story about the Dinosaur and the Octopus. Let's start with the dinosaur and a far-out example, the genocide project of the Nazi regime during World War II."

Emma jumps in. "If you mean the holocaust, why don't you say so."

Geoffrey smiles, knowing that he is dealing with a right-wing liberal, and thinking to himself, how can these people work for the Agency and pretend to have humane values. "The term holocaust lacks precision, carries a lot of political baggage, and is used to cover a host of sins. Genocide, on the other hand, refers to the systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group. It is a more inclusive and analytical term and can be applied to Native Americans, Gypsies, Communists, Jews, Palestinians, or supporters of the FMLN in El Salvador."

"Point taken" says Emma, grudgingly.

"Back to the main point," says Geoffrey, irritated by Emma's distracting comment.

"The Nazi genocide project is a classic example of top-down, vertically integrated structure that is designed to achieve a mass production goal. It is the same structure used by General Motors in the 1950s and '60s to dominate the automobile market. The Nazis controlled supply and demand, production, distribution, and marketing. General motors incorporated suppliers into their firm, controlled demand through massive advertising and marketing, and handled distribution and financing through their own dealerships and financing divisions. Both the Nazis and General Motors are dinosaur structures, with a little tiny brain center trying to control a massive workforce of guards and prisoners in the Nazi case, or managers and workers in the General Motors case, through top-down control and flow of information. One structure has the goal of processing people efficiently, and the other to produce cars at low cost.

"I thought the goal of most corporations was to become a dinosaur, in the sense that they are the biggest and strongest," says Robert.

"Maybe in the old economy, but not today," snaps Geoffry. "Let's get creative folks. Let's turn the dinosaur into an octopus. How would you have advised the Nazis to use the power of the market to run a more efficient and effective operation."

"I know where you are going, Gee-Free, very clever," say Bill. "The Nazis should, of course, have out-sourced their work to private firms. they might have asked cities throughout Germany to make bids for locating concentration camps in their area. Privatize the camps in the same way we are privatizing prisons in the U.S. today."

Emma jumps in: "Why limit the out-sourcing to German cities? They probably could have obtained bids from the Vatican, and number of Arab countries, and also from the U.S. Running the camps is a labor-intensive system, and once you privatize it you will replace soldiers with civilian workers. That's a lot of jobs."

"And the beauty of privatization," exclaims Denny with enthusiasm, "is that you get new stakeholders in the camp system, people who have an interest in making it succeed. This is really brilliant. Its exactly what the Salvadoran government did in their battle with the FMLN and FDR in the 1980s. Instead of relying solely on the military, they brought in the so-called Death Squads, made up mainly of right-wig civilians, who kidnapped, tortured, and murdered thousands of the political opposition. All at no direct financial cost to the government."

"And the added beauty," hisses Robert, "is that the Death Squads are still operating even after the peace accords between the government and the FMLN. Although the government can't keep killing their opposition, the Death Squads can still do their work on behalf of the government without a formal tie."

Geoffry is very pleased. "You people obviously haven't forgotten your grad school training. You know how to privatize with the best of the free marketeers. When this kind of thinking finally hit general Motors, they also started to outsource their work to suppliers around the world. The result, whether we are talking about concentration camps, death squads, or GM, is an organization that is structured like an octopus. The head of the octopus is not a control or decision-making center, bur a coordination center that interrelates the work of the tentacles, which is an autonomous agent carrying out its own work. You can rip out one of the tentacles without affecting the octopus, and, moreover, you can grow a new tentacle."

"Down with the dinosaur, up with the octopus," screams Ellen in her best cheerleader style.

"You better believe it," beams Geoffrey. "Who wants to take me to lunch?"

 ********************************************************************************

The scene is often described as "awe inspiring." The very large seal of the United States seems to be suspended in mid air, without apparent support. (Perhaps it is a hologram projected n dust particles by the intersection of powerful laser projectors. The kind of stuff that spooks at the Agency are always playing with). The U.S. flag is large and prominent at the center of a V, flanked by smaller national flags of visiting dignitaries. The smaller flags are positioned to appear to be looking at Old Glory in a supplicant's posture. A Marine Corps string quartet plays softly, providing an air of elegance. There is something visually jarring about having "take-no-prisoners-killing-machine" Marines playing softly in a string quartet amidst all the pomp and circumstance in the Rose Garden. It is sort of like having death row inmates playing in a string quartet while one of their own is being marched into the death chamber.

To say that the scene is awe inspiring suggests an emotional or psychological feeling. But, in  fact, the scene is powerfully social in nature. It gives one the feeling of belonging to something larger than particular individuals and therefore of great importance. It is the kind of transcendent feeling that allows one to look at the President and say to oneself "I can't stand that son-of-a-bitch," and simultaneously stand and applaud when he enters and leaves a room. It is the feeling that made grownups applaud with tear-filled eyes when the creepy Richard Nixon walked across the south lawn of the White House for the last time and climbed aboard a helicopter that took him into political exile.

The crowd in the Rose Garden is festive, engaged in animated paired conversation while maintaining eye contact with as many others as possible. Bill, Robert, Emma, and Denny are seated in the back of the audience, observing the proceedings. Bill says, "Nice turnout. Plenty of dignitaries and lots of media. We should get good coverage of this on the news tonight." Emma chimes in, "well get coverage as long as no one goes postal before the evening news." Denny snickers, "As they say in news circles, if it bleeds it leads." They feel responsible for this gathering because they set in motion the project that will be announced.

A hush sets over the crowd as the President approaches the podium. "Isn't this a glorious day! Beth and I have never seen the flowers look so beautiful. And all of you look beautiful as well. this is an historic day on which we will take the first step in what we intend to be a long journey of new partnerships between the United States and our friends in Africa. The first step is in Nigeria and we have with us today Azike Emedu and Ibafemi Offolowa." The President gestures to the two young women on his left and the crowd applauds. "Ms. Emedu and Ms. Offolowa are from the two largest ethnic groups in Nigeria, the Ibo and Yoruba peoples, and one is a Christian and one is a Muslim. So today we not only celebrate a new partnership between the United States and Nigeria, but a new partnership between the Ibo and Yoruba, the Christians and Muslims."

The military string quartet plays an unrecognizable melody that is undoubtedly the national anthem of Nigeria, as indicated by the bowed heads of members of the Nigerian Embassy staff. Azke and Ibafemi glare at each other, nether betraying the President's declaration of a new partnership. As the music trails off, the president moves back to the podium. "Today, we take the fruits of the new global economy one step forward. Although the last decade has seen the successful adoption of capitalism in many parts of the world where it had not existed before, today we begin the task of making people capitalists and not simply part of capitalism. I am reminded of a parable I learned many years ago from a Baptist preacher. Let me read it to you."

             If you give a man a fish, you feed him for one day. But if you teach him how to fish, he can feed himself forever.

Azike is thinking to herself: My people live on the outskirts of Ajuba. There is no water and certainly no fish. I hope he does not donate fishing poles to our people.

Ibafemi is more irritated than puzzled: These Americans, Always acting like they know so much about other peoples and their needs. Yes, they live in the Niger delta, and the fish parable may be appropriate, but if the President could see what the oil companies have done to the delta he wouldn't be recommending fishing there.

The crowd applauds the president and his parable, with head-nodding that seems to say, we recognize wisdom when we hear it. The President continues: "We intend to break the cycle of dependence on foreign aid, and give the people the tools to become entrepreneurs in the new economy."

The groans from the Nigerian Ambassador are almost audible: He is going to cut our foreign aid again! How can he do that? The U.S. buys almost half of our oil production of two million barrels a day. They should be giving us more aid so we can become less dependent on foreign oil companies for our foreign exchange. We used to exporters of our agricultural products, and now we are net importers for our food needs. Too bad we can't eat oil.

The President continues: "Let me introduce you to John Anderson, who will tell you about our plans for Nigeria. Some of you will remember John when he was a third party candidate for President in 1980. Right now he is President and CEO of the World Federalist Association, and he does many of the important things that I wish I could do. John has the advantage of not having to work with Congress, but that's another story. John come up here."

John steps to the podium and receives light but sustained applause.


He has the same stark-white hair of twenty years earlier, a curious feature that somehow always made him look younger rather than older. It may be the slight albino look of the pink-eyed rabbit that gives the aura of youth. "Thank you Mr. President for your kind words and your support of CUP, Capitalists United for Power. CUP is against foreign aid because it is a form of charity and dependency that never helps those who are most deserving. You remember the old joke about the Congressman who asks a constituent if he knew the definition of foreign aid. the constituent says no, and the Congressman says: Foreign aid is money you take from poor people in rich countries and give to rich people in poor countries."


The audience erupts in laughter. The President turns to John: "John, if you told jokes like that in 1980, you might have become president." John replies, "You're probably right. The guy who won had some great one-liners. Anyway, back to CUP. We plan to provide small loans --working capital--to poor people in poor countries in order to turn them into capitalists, with a small C. A loan of as little as $50 can allow a poor woman to start a handicraft business, making straw baskets or wood carvngs that can be sold at Pier One Imports in the United States. Or we might loan $100 for a sewing machine machine, making it possible for a family to sew shirts or pants for J. C. Penney or Kathie
Lee Gifford. This is not charity, these are short term loans that are paid back in weekly payments. When the first loan is paid off, our capitalist can borrow again, each time a little bit more. And before you know it, the really creative capitalists will be able to hire their neighbors to work for them, and they can begin t live off the labor of others.

The audience breaks into spontaneous applause, revealing genuine enthusiasm for this micro-finance program. john continues: "Now I know what your thinking. Why should I lend $50 or $100 to someone who has no collateral? that's not good business. But here is where the U.S. steps in, because they will be backing this loan program to cover any of the failures to repay. And the possible coat to the U.S. taxpayer will be a lot less than the current cost of foreign aid.. the end result is everyone wins!

The President wants to cut this short and get on with the photo-ops. "Very exciting John. We should have started something like this years ago. Now what about our visitors from Nigeria. what do they have to do with the CUP project? "Right Mr. President. We plan to make our first loans to two young women from Nigeria, Azuike Emedu and Ibafemi Offolawa. They have been identified by several NGOs, non-governmental organizations, as community leaders and members of the Young Capitalist League. Azike would you please come forward." Azike walks to the podium. John Anderson hands her an envelope and says, "This woman doesn't need our foreign aid or our charity, but she does need a short-term U.S. guaranteed loan to start a business. Congratulations, Azike!"

Azike opens the envelope to find a check for $50. She breaks into tears, and after regaining her composure, speaks: "I am most grateful to the CUP project and to the people of the United States. With God's help, I will use this money to buy bricks for an oven, charcoal, and flour. I plan to bake bread for sale in the market in my home village. And one day I will bake bread for all of Nigeria and then for the world."

The audience applauds, and cameras scan the crowd for the best emotions. John hugs Azike. "You got it right Azike. Today cup is in Nigeria. Tomorrow it will be the world CUP.

Denny whispers to his comrades, "I thought the world cup was the largest jock strap." Bill tries to stop the giggling, "Cool it! stay with the program."

John continues. "Ibafemi, please come up here for your CUP award." He hands her an envelope, which she opens, looks at he check and approaches the podium without being asked. "I had planned to use my award to raise pigs in my village. But I have changed my mind. I will use my award to help te Ijaw people of the Niger Delta."

"Oh shit, what is going on here," growls Robert to his partners. "This is not in the script. Pull the plug on her."

"No way," replies Bill. "Too many reporters and cameras. Let's just ride this tiger."

Ibafemi reaches into a sash around her waist and withdraws several sheets of paper. "I would like to read a statement. To the Presidents of the following petroleum companies: Shell, Conoco, British Petroleum, Texaco, Philips, Mobil, Chevron and all other foreign-owned hydrocarbon upstream/downstream companies operating in the Niger Delta. We have irrefutable evidence report that the General Adulsalami Abubakar-led military junta is planning an operation against the people of the Niger Delta. The attack is supported by some Western governments and a consortium of oil companies who are supplying gunboats, pilots and other military hardware to be used. We are aware that the Nigerian armed forces have no operational gunboats nor qualified pilots to fly them, hence their recourse to the use of foreign mercenaries." 

"Thank you Ibafemi" says Anderson with his biggest smile, while trying to guide the young woman away from the podium.

"I am not finished," Ibafemi states firmly. The President moves toward the podium."We have time John, let Ms. Offolowa finish." Still smiling, he whispers to Anderson, "I will handle this."

We of the Action Group Against Enslavement of Nigerian ethnic groups want to know what exactly is the Central Intelligence Agency, CIA, the National Security Council, NSA, and USAID up to by meeting Mobil, Chevron, and Texaco officials with regards to Nigeria? What was Undersecretary of State Thomas Pickering and Assistant Secretary  of State for Africa Susan Rice also doing in that meeting that excluded environmental and human rights groups, which have criticized the oil companies atrocities in Nigeria?"

The President moves toward the podium applauding, which is followed on cue by his staff, nd then the general audience. Ibafemi is taken aback by the deafening applause and the TV cameras on wheels that zoom right up to her and the President.

"Ibafemi, I want you to know that this government takes a back seat to no one when it comes to human rights. I may not agree with everything yu said, but I will defend your right to say it. Where else but in America can someone stand in the Rose Garden and speak their mind according to the dictates of their conscience." The President is beaming with his best look of genuine compassion and love.

The quartet starts playing God Bless America and the crowd joins in singing. It almost sounds like Kate Smith is in the crowd because someone is really booming.

Bill is chuckling as he walks out with Emma, Denny, and Robert in tow. "That man is something else. they don't come any smarter or slicker. He would have made a great mole for the Agency; beyond double agent--he could do triples or quadruples. What a waste that he went into politics.

"And you can bet that he'll make sure that Ibafemi is greeted by General Abubakar when she gets back to Nigeria. People sometimes forget that snake goes with snake oil."

                                                                 The End
      




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Perpetual Elections

[This chapter was written in the year 2000. It is drawn from a never-to-be published book entitled Democracy for Dummies. The book is described in a blog entered on May 10, 2016.]

  
                           EYES ONLY                EYES ONLY                EYES ONLY  

                                                      Alpha Team: Soaring Eagle

Target: Political System

Goal: Elections, all the time, everywhere

Code Name: Kingfish

The U.S. is recognized across the globe as the "leader of the free world." We are a constitutional democracy, a nation of laws, with a free press, protection of individual rights, and freedom of speech and assembly. The individual is the source of sovereign rights that are temporarily transferred  to legally elected representatives, but these rights may be withdrawn when sovereign individuals act collectively to do so. These things make us the envy of the world, even among those who are sometimes our enemies. For example, it is no accident that Ho Chi Minh, the Communist Vietnamese leader, loved to hear himself called the "George Washington of Vietnam."

What is less apparent to other nations is the link between democracy and capitalism. This link is not simply a historical accident. We are the world's richest nation not simply because of the growth engines of capitalism, but because the democratic system nurtures, supports, and protects capitalism. The wisdom of the Founding Fathers, and the U.S. Supreme Court decision in 1886, that decided that a corporation is a "natural person" under the U.S. Constitution, and therefore entitled to the protections provided by the Bill of Rights. Thus, corporations may use their vast financial and communications resources to compete with individual citizens in the political process through contributions to political candidates and political parties, and through the purchase of media time and space for corporate messages.

The goal of the Kingfish project is to put forward the case for electoral democracy on both moral and economic grounds. Alpha Team should begin to identify possible demonstration sites and specific strategies for implementing the project. 

       END               END                       END                   END                   END

On the face of it, Alpha Team looks like the wrong bunch of operatives for this assignment. They have extensive experience, but mostly at destabilizing regimes and defeating anti-US candidates in elections. They are now being asked to build a system of stable elections and encouraging people to buy into democracy as the path to development. Let's look at the cast of characters.

William Yeager, aka Biff Yeager, or to his close friends "Banana Bif." The Banana part identifies Bif's main area of operations---Central America or the Banana Republics. It also identifies Bif as a second generation spook. Bif's father, Malcolm Yeager, worked for the United Fruit Company in the 1950s and was in charge of their operations in Guatemala. United Fruit was the country's largest landowner, and Malcolm got pissed big time when Jacabo Arbenz, President of Guatemala, ordered the confiscation of United Fruit's land that was not being used. Arbenz was trying to introduce land reforms and social welfare programs, and quickly got tagged as someone working with the Communists. Malcolm helped to set up safe havens on United Fruit land for the 200 exiles who were armed and trained by the CIA. He also directed United Fruit's public relations office to develop a national campaign publicizing the communist threat in Guatemala.

Bif was very proud of his father's work with the CIA, and the overthrow of Arbenz was often used as a textbook how-to-do-it case for toppling a regime with little expenditure of  money and lives. And as much as Bif enjoyed having people brag on his father's work with the agency, he never talked about it much himself. Everyone liked Bif. He had a wide smile and didn't have a mean streak towards others. But everyone knew that Bif would not hesitate to, quote-unquote, "terminate someone with extreme prejudice."  He did what he had to do to get the job done. It was nothing personal, just business.

Next is Ed Finley, called "Easy Ed" by those who wanted to annoy him, was anything but "easy." Ed was tightly wound and deadly serious about everything. He had a talent for getting under peoples' skins and pissing them off with innocuous comments that he thought were funny. When he passed you in the hall you could count on him saying  something like, "So you decided to come to work today" or, "Are you only working half a day now?" Ed didn't really care how much or how hard people worked, and he thought he was making small talk. Unfortunately, he chose the wrong subject, because people were always putting out maximum effort, especially when they had a new assignment. The youngest member of the team, Ed was a "Yaley" who majored in psychology and turned it into an agency career working on propaganda. When the agency made the rounds of Ivy League schools looking for new recruits they seem to be attracted to types like Ed, probably because they were trainable. Ed's big contribution since joining the Agency was his work during the Gulf War, in demonizing Saddam Hussein and making him the new Hitler. Everyone agreed that Ed's work was truly inspired, brilliant at both a strategic and tactical level. The "weapons of mass destruction" allegation could keep Saddam bottled up forever. No one knows what they are, but everyone has them. And Saddam pays a price for what everyone does. And planting the false story about Iraqui soldiers in a Kuwaiti hospital taking babies out of incubators. Ed knew it was just the kind of story the press would eat up, and they wouldn't care whether it was true or not. He had an instinct for knowing what kind of stories "had legs," and would go with little or no factual basis.

The third person on the team is Marshall Shaw. He was the closest thing to G. Gordon Liddy since G. Gordon Liddy. He may have imprinted on Liddy during the Watergate years. He is a true believer, who feels the Agency is the only thing standing between the United States and a host of internal and external enemies. You can find his counterpart on TV cop shows---the officer who sees the police as the thin blue line between civilization and chaos, yet they take all the heat when upright citizens feel that the police may have gone too far in enforcing the law. Marshall is a Vietnam vet, which probably where he developed his mistrust of politicians, liberals, and the general public. He once had an assignment in the White House dealing with family security. One night late when he was making the rounds he heard sounds coming from the family movie room and he was getting a lot of static on his two-way. He went inside where there was a porn film on the screen, and slouched down on the couch was the First Lady with someone else and something in her hand that was making a buzzing sound. He couldn't make out the other party, who quickly left the darkened room. Marshall was so flustered he asked the First Lady if she needed his help, and she was so angry at his impertinence that she called him a "bloody fool." Marshall had been called all sorts of things but never a fool. He was hurt by the sharp Brit tone of condescension in her voice. He was only doing his job. Marshall still likes to work with White House staff types when they come asking for the Agency's help in digging up some dirt on key opponents in Congress, or on journalists who are working overtime making the administration look bad. The staffer like to act tough when they get near Agency operatives, trying to show that they can play "hardball" when necessary. Marshall would bait the White House types with discussions of how they might use wiretaps, or Internal Revenue searches to come up with dirt on some "enemies," and they would go along because they didn't want to look "wussie." He would then escalate the discussion of dirty tricks until he would slip in a thinly-veiled to "taking somebody out" or "making the prick disappear."  He loved to watch the "tough guys" nearly wet their pants when they realized what Marshall was saying. The not-so-funny thing about Marshall is that if his chief told him that the President had some serious enemies who needed to be stopped, Marshall would stop them, no questions asked. And if he got caught, he would take a bullet before he would rat out anyone in the Agency.

Ray Bracker is the fourth and most unusual member of Alpha Team, and probably in the agency in the DC-Langley area. The first thing that set him apart is having attended school at an obscure regional university, and having a degree in social science. He is bookish, not in appearance, but in his interest in big ideas about nations, economies, or ecological systems. Reading the work of cross-over academics is his favorite outside activity, but he never reveals this to others. He would never mention the names of John Kenneth Galbraith, Robert Reich, Paul Kennedy, or Amitai Etzioni, whose books he read, but he never really uses their specific ideas in shaping his own writing and speaking. Ray tends to absorb their way of looking at the world, often their unstated framework in a wide-ranging work of history or economics. Ray tends to deconstruct their work and reassemble a framework of his own, with propositions about human behavior and the operation of social systems. Thus, he is interested in whether human beings are acquisitive and self-interested by nature, or whether they are capable of cooperation and altruism. He also ponders the role of different forms of conflict as a stabilizing element of social life. After reading Paul Kennedy's The Rise and Fall of Great Powers, Ray spent months thinking about the economic, political, and social principles that had to exist in order to produce the recurrent patterns reported by Kennedy. Ray has come to the conclusion that human societies are complex, but rule-governed systems, operating on laws much like those governing the operation of physical systems. He believes that humans are no different from other animals, with the exception of their brain and its capacity for abstract, symbolic thought and communication. This human capacity to think reflexively leads to the self-delusion that they are not like other animals, and have special qualities like free will and self-determination. It also leads to all sorts of arrogance about being special people and having been the product of some cosmic intelligence or God. In short, Ray is a system thinker, and he explains what he does not in terms of right or wrong, but in terms of organizing principles that govern the maintenance and survival of human societies.

Alpha Team Briefing: Operation Kingfish

Bif opens the meeting. "Welcome back. I assume that you all read the Kingfish memo. It was short enough. Reactions?"

Ray jumps in first, it is his kind of stuff. "I like the broad framework. The link between democracy and capitalism is inspired, and historically correct."

"No easy sell", adds Ed. "Lots of people around the world have fixed ideas about who should and shouldn't be leaders. There are powerful religious and ethnic hatreds that stand in the way of normal electoral politics. But it can be done."

"Working the political front will be harder than the economic side," says Marshall. "Too many people to try to bring along when you're talking democracy. On the economic side we simply have to put the screws to the big money boys in each country."

Bif sees an idea worth developing. "You're partly right Marshall, but don't take the democracy stuff too seriously. It is designed to keep the masses occupied, not as a way to 'bring them along" as you put it. Our main goal is to make elections a way of life. We want elections from the president of a country down to dog catcher. we want elections at the national level, the regional level, the state level, the district level, the precinct level, and if we can get it, at the block level also. As a matter of fact, we want elections in every classroom, in every grade, in every school in the country. Goddammit, even the mental hospitals and prisons should have elections for their wards or cell blocks. Not a day should go by without someone, somewhere running for some office. And if they are not running for office, they are talking about it, or raising money to do it, or gathering volunteers to do it."

Ray is overwhelmed by the detail. "Jesus, Bif, how will we ever do something like that?"

"Don't you see Ray, all I'm talking about is what we have in America. Don't you think we should share that with the rest of the world," says Bif with some emotion.

Ed is clearly excited by this idea. "Okay Bif, let's start with what we know. First of all people will only join in elections if they think they can get something out of it. But they want so many different things that it's hard to unify around wants. Some want lower taxes, some want social security, and some want as much health as they can get. On the other hand, you can get more agreement on the things that they don't want or the people they don't want to get anything. they want to be sure that welfare queens aren't on the dole, or that abortions are not supported, or that illegal immigrants don't get health care. Second, the main thing that keeps people from elections, especially in less developed countries, is they believe that most politicians and government bureaucrats are corrupt, and by and large, they are right."

"Good start, Ed," says Bif. "How would you go about getting people to believe in elections and to develop more trust in politicians? After all, let's be honest about it, American politicians are just as corrupt as you'll find anywhere."

"Yes,"says Ed, "but the corruption is so institutionalized that it's treated as normal."

"That's your assignment Ed," says Bif, with a sense of satisfaction at having moved toward strategic thinking. "Do a working paper on how to transform corrupt practices in less developed countries into normal corruption."

That's a heady question for Ray, who responds. "Now you're talking about basic human motivation, and how to harness self-interest and make it appear like civic virtue. If I may paraphrase Adam Smith--That man may advance the general welfare when seeking the gratification of individual selfishness."

Marshall broke into his most mischievous grin, exclaiming, as General Westy once said,
'Grab 'em by the balls and their hearts and minds will follow!"

"Great Marshall, You do the white paper on squeezing the balls. Well done folks. Let's take a break for lunch. When we come back at two, Ray will do a walk-through on how to build an infrastructure for elections."

2:00 p.m.

The group is a little lethargic, as their bodies are using energy to process the food they gulped down. Ray is feeling professorial but trying his best not to act like a pointy-headed professor. "Let's start by thinking about the strengths of the U.S. system. First, it is a two-party system, but in name only. The parties are much more alike than different. Second, the parties pretend to speak to the needs of all the people in the country, when in fact they only work on behalf of the privileged 20 percent. Third, the two parties have a mix of income groups, educational groups, racial and ethnic groups. In other words, there is no party made up solely of workers, or Blacks, or Hispanics, or of women. that is the danger to be avoided. Political parties must appear to represent all, avoid any discussion of class differences among Americans, and work hard to encourage as many divisions of identity politics as you can devise. This is the only way that the privileged 20 percent can keep bullshitting the other 80 percent."

"You're really smart Ray," Ed says with genuine admiration.

Ray accepts Ed's admiration, and continues. "The challenge is to have voting in elections become a public virtue and a private vice. The virtue part is to elevate voting into a quasi-religious act--you know, the stuff on patriotism and flag as civil religion. That makes the voters feel that they are somehow special people."

Marshall chimes in. "What is great about this virtue stuff, is that voters can look down their noses at non-voters as less deserving of anyone's consideration. We can start treating non-voters like welfare recipients or child abusers."

Ray is excited by the positive reactions of his colleagues. "The trick," he says, "is to make voting a virtue, but also to make it complicated and boring. In order to find real differences between parties and candidates, you have to really work at it. And the only place you will find a difference is at the margin---on a single issue that is of importance to only a minority of people."

"Where do the political parties fit in?" says Marshall. "If they are really just tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, how do they appeal to potential voters in a way that really depresses an interest in voting."

Ray is a little irritated by his colleagues failure to pay attention. "As I said earlier, and don't make me say it again, the job of the parties is to appear to work hard to eliminate divisions among people, when in fact they are reinforcing those divisions. The pointy-heads call it reification."

"Whatification?" mimicks Marshall. "This ain't Harvard, Ray. Tell it to us in English."

"The political parties always talk about reducing divisions between men and women, Blacks and Whites, Christians and Jews." Ray feels himself getting into it. "Yet every time they embark on a new plan to eliminate divisions, they are actually heightening the divisions by making them real at a new level that didn't exist before they embarked on their anti-division plan. That's reification. The whole program of political correctness is the best example of what I have in mind. You get people worrying about the Confederate battle flag in South Carolina, or the name of Squaw Valley, or the Atlanta Braves and all you do is to make the divisions more pronounced."

"Correct" says Ed, "and the beauty of it is that it doesn't cost a cent. Nobody gets a job when you change the name of Squaw Valley to Pleasant Valley, but the pols get all puffed up as  if they have done something. Keep people thinking about the names of their bridges and you can blow smoke up their asses all day long."

Ray beams, "Now you are with the program, Ed. Let's give this strategy of perpetual elections a "Step Name."

Step 1: Elections mean freedom.  Freedom means choices. Choices mean risk.

Ray expands. "Step 1 has the power of being a totalizing and individualizing principle. People are drawn in to embrace the universally attractive ideas of freedom and choices. But wait! Making choices is fraught with danger. I might choose the wrong party or the wrong candidate. How do I know who will represent my interests? Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Ray has brought everyone down with the complications of Step 1. He is pleased, because that is exactly the effect it is supposed to have. First, it energizes, then it complicates, and then it paralyzes. "OK guys, let's call it a day. I'm going to take a couple of days off to bring the academic community on board for this project. Let's meet again next Tuesday at 8 a.m. Pencil it in."

*****Monday, April 14, 1999. Office of the President, Harvard University ********

Ray can't take his eyes off the huge crest on he wall. A shield with crimson background and three open books in the shield. Each book has bold letters across the open pages--VE--RI--TAS. Ray muttered to himself, "Veritas, Truth." Below the shield in bold black letters: HARVARD. Ray had the same feeling of awe when he was in the Vatican years ago, waiting to see the Pope. And the irony didn't escape him as he snickered quietly. In both cases, he was making an offer that they couldn't refuse.

Ray spoke into his lapel to start his voice activated recording device: "4,14,99 meeting with Drew Kenneth Siegel, President of Harvard University." Ray snickered as he recalled the report that many of the faculty referred to Siegel as DK, meaning "Don't Know," while others preferred DKS, "Don't Know Shit." The President's assistant returned to the room. Ray thought she looked like an English nanny, or a well-educated tutor for children in the Royal family. Hair pulled back into a tight bun, very little in the way of makeup or jewelry. Actually quite attractive, if you liked that sort of thing. Ray wondered if she and Siegel had anything going. He smiled to himself. Not at Harvard! siegel would be going after the undergrads.

"The President will see  you now." Ray follows tight bun into the office. She leads Ray to his chair and leaves. She never looks at the President, so Ray assures himself that there is something going on between them. That kind of studied indifference is not normal, unless you are trying to convey the opposite of the real situation. Ray thought the President looked like tight buns type. Nice looking, mid-50s, casual dress, very Brooks Brothers, but with a flair. A crimson print mouchoir in his jacket pocket. Slightly effeminate, but maybe a gesture to diversity at Harvard.

"Mr.Bracker, how nice to meet you."

"Than you for seeing me President Siegel, especially on such short notice."

"How may I help you Mr. Bracker."

"This is actually a courtesy call. The Agency has asked me to speak with a number of your faculty about a project that is of great interest to us, and may be of interest to your faculty as well. I thought that I would inform you of our efforts in this regard so there would be no surprises down the line."

"I appreciate your consideration, Mr. Bracker, and it is fortunate that you stopped by here first, before approaching the faculty.

"Why so?"

"As we move into the 21st century, there is great awareness of the importance of knowledge to governments and corporations, the two greatest consumers of knowledge. Harvard University, as it happens, is the greatest single repository of leading experst in all fields of endeavor. Some people believe that money is the greatest source of power, but here at Harvard, we know that it is knowledge."

Ray decided to stick it to this pompous twerp. "Yes, I believe that one of your distinguished faculty, John Kenneth Galbraith, wrote on the at subject in the late 1960s. I believe it was in The New Industrial State that he said that power is located in that resource which is in shortest supply, first it was land, then capital, and now it is knowledge."

"I am duly impressed Mr. Bracker. We may find a visiting appointment for you on our faculty." Actually, Siegel cringed at the mention of Galbraith's name. He was so tired of hearing about that patrician John Kenneth G and his ties to the Kennedys. Siegel knew that he was smarter than Galbraith, and with the right political sponsors he could be Secretary of State rather than stuck in this no-where job of ass-kisser to rich alums. "However, my point Mr. Bracker is that here at Harvard we no longer encourage faculty to be so available to agencies of government or to corporations as they once were in the past. As you may know, we have been stung pretty badly by all the revisionist history pointing to our cooperative efforts with government to bring Nazi scientists to the U.S. after World War Two."

"To say nothing of what we now know to be all the help provided by Harvard faculty in toppling Allende in Chile, in managing that disaster we called the Vietnam War, in devising strategies to defeat revolutionary movements like the FSLN, the Sandinista Front for National Liberation in Nicaragua, and the FMLN, the Farabundo Front for National liberation in El Salvador. Some even say that Harvard may have as many war criminals as Nobel laureates on its faculty." Ray was now enjoying himself telling this asshole that people besides Harvard faculty know what is going on in the world. "Shall I go on?"

Siegel turned stone cold. "My point Mr. Bracker is that we do things differently today."

With all due respect, Mr. Siegel, there is more buying of faculty today by government and corporations than there ever was in the past. Why some of your people may well as be listed as independent entrepreneurs who just happen to have office space at Harvard."

"Wrong, Mr. Bracker! You can still buy all the faculty you want at schools with a direction in their name, but not at Harvard!"

Now Ray was really pissed. The son-of-a-bitch looked up my resume, and knew that he got his degree at Southwestern State University. Maybe he should just cut his losses and move on. "Well I guess there is nothing left for us to talk about."

"I didn't say that Mr.Bracker. Harvard faculty are still eager to trade their expertise for a little extra something, but it must be done tastefully, discreetly, and, above all, academically. So, we are talking grants, conferences, travel money, exhibitions, publication of books, support for graduate students. And, most importantly, the money must be laundered--the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations  are well situated for this kind of assistance. Everyone is happy. You get what you want, the faculty get what they want, the Foundations continue their role as influence peddlers  and opinion shapers, and Harvard and its faculty have clean hands. So, what were we talking about Mr.Bracker? How may Harvard assist you?"

"Well, Mr. Siegel, I was thinking about $30 million to create a Harvard Center for Global Democracy."

"Why don't you call me Drew."

________________________________________________________________________________

Alpha Team Briefing: Leader Ed Finlay

Target: Political System

Goal: Normal Corruption

"Okay guys, the problem that we face with corruption in less developed countries is the way that corruption is carried out. There is no subtlety to what is done, and no effort to disguise the actions of the corrupt party. Everyone is motivated to get what they can NOW, with no interest in laying a groundwork for corruption so that it may proceed normally, as it does in the U.S."

"Sort of like Hillary's $100,000 overnight gain in cattle futures," says  Marshall, and getting great laughter from the rest of the team. (NOTE: This was written in the year 2000, long before the Clinton's would be receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from Wall Street firms for giving a speech. It must have been some speech to be worth $500,000).

"Not the same thing," Ed replies. That's small potatoes stuff and besides  Hillary wasn't in the White House when she became an overnight genius in trading cattle futures. The real problem is that is that there is insufficient trust by leaders in less developed countries in their ability to build a stable system of corruption so that people will be able to delay their immediate need for gratification in anticipation of greater rewards in the future. I propose the following first step principle for inclusion in the overall plan." Ed clicks on an overhead that projects on the screen in big, bold letters:

Step 2: In service to country, gratification delayed is gratification gained.

"This Step 2 has the virtue of getting the "haves" to think twice about immediately stuffing their pockets with public money, and the "have nots" to lower their expectations about what will follow from democratic elections. I am continually amazed when I see in these less developed countries local police on the street  getting kick-backs from local vendors and accepting money from drivers to avoid parking tickets. The police have to learn that they will get their money from people above them not below them. It will come in the form of raises, bonuses, and pensions, all of which are hidden from public view."

Ray Bracker smiles sardonically, exclaiming "Instead of calling you Easy Ed I'm voting for Sneaky Ed."

"Flattery will get you nowhere, Ray. Let me illustrate the nature of the problem that we face. Take the case of Russia. The President-Elect Vladimir V. Putin has vowed to fight corruption and lawlessness in Russia. His credibility is tarnished by the fact that he is the majority owner of a major television company, and while running for president he used his company's TV programming to attack his opponents in the election. He is also believed to have substantial financial interest in sveral formerly state-owned industries that have been privatized."

Ray jumped in. He loved to talk about this kind of stuff. "The other problem Putin has is trying to reign in his regional governors. If you want to see corruption go check out guys like Murchenko who runs the Kalingrad region like a Baron reminiscent of feudal times. Putin has a hell of a time making the Governors accountable to Moscow, and they are afraid of losing the support of the regions."

Bif smiled. "Let's get Marshall to work on the hearts and minds of the Governors. But watch out for those Russian balls, Marshall, they might bite back. Anyway, you're right Ray, about the magnitude of the problem. The important thing is to examine why something like this would never happen in the U.S. When the President or members of Congress have millions invested in corporations take public office, they put their investments in a "blind trust." Someone else takes over the decisions about their investments in oil companies or the banking sector, and they can contribute or accumulate wealth without their direct involvement. It's a really great arrangement, one that American people seem to approve of. You can serve in the White House or Congress making decisions that can affect the value of oil companies or banks, and yet behave as if it does not affect your personal financial interests. A real stroke of genius by the Congressional ethics crowd, and it is the essence of normal corruption.

Ray seems very irritated. "That's not the real payoff  for Congress. It comes after they leave, quote-unquote, public service. Poor bastards like us do all the work, take all the heat, and those blow-hards get all the gravy."

Ed jumps back in quickly. "Right on Ray. I know where your devious little mind is going. The real payoff is the revolving door! After they leave quote-unquote, public service they go to work for the corporations that they regulated, or the countries that they bashed when they were in office. Former Senator Mike Mansfield is on the payroll of the Japanese, helping them get more products in the U.S. When he was Senator, he bitched about all those Japanese imports. Henry the K is on the payroll of more companies and foreign governments that you can count."

"Bombs today, bonds tomorrow," Ray snickers. "Those guys would give Ghadafi a blow job if the fee was right. And speaking of blow jobs, I see where Clinton's ass-kissing defender during Monicagate has left the White House to consult for some half-assed country."

Ed is back again. "Let's focus on what is important here. The U.S. has devised a system that keeps the pols and the bureaucrats from stealing directly from the public treasury. Instead, we funnel megabucks to corporations through tax loopholes, subsidies, research support, and the like. We also develop a system of regulation of powerful corporations. We regulate banks, hospitals, oil companies, automobile makers, utilities, the stock market---you name it and we regulate it. So when members of Congress or White House lackeys, or loyal workers on the Democrat or Republican National Committees decide to move on, they have loads of opportunities to work as influence peddlers for the private sector firms. The beauty of this system is that you win whether you are a Republican or Democrat, and whether you win or lose an election."

"You're starting to piss me off Ed," shouts a slightly red-faced Marshall. "Why should we help those bastards continue to feed off this system?"

"Try to remember that you're a professional, Marshall," replies Ed with some anger. "The maggots that feed off this system will get theirs someday, but right now we have a job to do. We have to get the elected leaders and government officials in less developed countries to let the private sector companies be the first beneficiaries of the public treasury, and to believe that their turn will come after they leave office. That way, the pols and the bureaucrats can actually spend their time in office trying to build the country rather than  finding ways to rob the treasury. The key is--let's say it loud and clear: Deferred Gratification. That was the old Calvinist virtue that created wealth, but for enjoyment in the hereafter. Well, we are not that stupid. The hereafter for our Third World pols is after they get out of office."

*********************************************************************************

The mirror behind the bar has a small sign in red, white, and blue letters.

                                                You can always spot a spook. He never springs
                                                        for a drink or tips the bartender

Marshall didn't especially like this watering hole. The bartender was a smart ass who enjoyed being "in" with the Langley crowd. Most of the Agency people who came here after work were low-level scut-workers with plastic IDs that made them think they were part of the intelligence community. Marshall came here when there was a chance he might get too juiced to drive. If things got too bad he could go back to his office and sleep it off.

The place always had a solid contingent of clericals that livened up the place. They didn't hold much interest for Marshall. He like companionship, but the conversation costs were high. While Marshall is reflecting on his day, in walks Easy Ed Finlay. When Ed spots Marshall, he has that deer in the headlights look, as if he has been caught at a Pat Buchanan rally. Marshall is amused. "What's up Ed. Here to look over the chippies?"

"On my way home and thought I'd get a beer before hitting the traffic."

Marshall persists. "You have your eye on one of those hot numbers in the ID section?"

"We're not at work Marshall, so you can stop ragging on me."

"You college boys don't know how to kick back and relax. You always need blasting music and pot to make you think you are having fun. Is that what it was like at Yale?"

Ed ignores Marshall's baiting, but he does want to talk about the group's assignment. "What do you think of our new assignment?"

Marshall is not surprised that Ed wants to talk shop. The little weasel is always trying to get his mind around something. "It's a big improvement over the diddly stuff we have been working on. I'm not sure that I can handle another assignment that involves planting stories with foreign journalists that paint U.S. policies as benign or humanitarian. Who do they think reads that shit anyway? Sometimes half the population can't read, or if they could, they wouldn't have the money to buy a newspaper."

"I don't know Marshall. Those stories can make a difference. Besides, we are trying to reach the middle and upper classes, and they will carry forward our message."

"Bullshit! You reach the uppers with cash, not with puff stories about the U.S. Didn't you take any hard-nose courses at Yale. You think its all about persuasion and media, don't you."

"You old cold warriors never give up, do you? This is the 21st century, Marshall."

"That's the root of your problem, Ed. You have no basis for comparison. You have no idea what it was like during the golden age of the Cold War. We were big thinkers then, not the diddly shit of planting stories with foreign journalists. We talked about toppling governments and taking out world leaders who were giving us grief."

"Okay I'll order another beer and you can tell me some war stories from the good old days."

"I won't bore you too long Ed, but you can never know what it was like to go eyeball-to-eyeball with the Ruskies over the Cuban missiles. Being in a room with serious people who make a difference and talking about when and where to use the big stick. Back then everyone knew what we were capable of doing. They knew that we could do it slow, like wearing down a country with sanctions, and hundreds of internal incidents of subversion. And they knew that we could do it fast, like Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Ruskies knew what we were capable of, and they blinked."

"Are you a slow man or a fast man, Marshall?"

"I'm AC-DC, ED. I go both ways. And that's why I like our new project," he exclaims with such enthusiasm that he surprises Ed, who sees Marshall as too cynical for such reactions. "There are big ideas driving this project, and a chance to stretch our legs again and see what we are capable of doing."

Ed looks at Marshall straight on. "What are you going to do with your grab-them-by-balls assignment? How are you going to get the big money people to buy into my suggestion of deferred gratification when it comes to corruption?"

"I though you might give me some help on that one Ed. You have the more devious mind. I'm too direct."

"You have to sneak up on the short hairs, Marshall. You can't grab them with a direct frontal attack. the key is indirection. Make it loom like you are going after a group other than the big money boys, while laying the groundwork for getting their attention."

"Can you give me a clue Ed?"

Ed could give more than a clue but he thought that Marshall should work this one out for himself. Besides, if you give out ideas too freely, people will take you for granted. "I would start by thinking about how the U.S. moved into the number one spot for all nations when it comes to putting people in prison. How did we get almost two million people in jail, and almost half of them Black."

" You are a sneaky bastard, Ed."
______________________________________________________________________________

Alpha Team Briefing: Leader, Marshall Shaw

Subject: Short Hairs

" Okay, I know that Bif asked me to do a white paper, but I didn't feel comfortable putting some of this stuff on paper. Even though I'm just tossing around ideas, some of this stuff can blow up in your face."

"Yeah, like Fidel's cigars," laughs Bif.

"Hey I wasn't in on that off-the-wall idea. Fidel just chews them, he doesn't light them. It's part of the image. Anyway, my point is that I'm a little paranoid about a paper trail, and we all know that paranoia is what keeps most of us alive, or at least holding our jobs. Besides, I wanted your input."

"You mean you want to implicate us in the Short Hairs project," Ed says with a snicker.

"When they come for me, I ain't going alone," says Marshall, to the cheers and catcalls of Bif,Ray, and Ed, who is giving Marshall the thumbs-up and finger at the same time. Actually, they all loved this kind of stuff. It makes them feel closer to the 007 image of their sometimes boring work.

"Okay, let's earn our pay. The assignment is to come up with a plan for less developed countries that will bring the big-money business people to support the elections project. We will do this by changing their long-standing practice of buying elected officials. We need to sell the idea that we must stop the practice of gross corruption and replace it with a system of normal corruption. People will never buy into elections and democracy as long as here is gross and visible  corruption. As Ed Finlay argued in his presentation last week, the key is delayed greed. The business types have to learn to use the orderly workings of government to get their hands on the public treasury. That assumes trust among the greedy bastards that everyone will play by the same rules, and if everyone is patient, the pols and the big money boys will eventually get everything they want."

Ed chimes in, "That also means that the big money people and the pols have to accept an occasional disciplining of one of their own when he doesn't play by the new rules. It's necessary to throw one to the masses once in a while in order to save the entire system."

"Give us Barrabas! Give us Barrabas!" shouts Ray, with great gusto.

"up yours, Ray!" exclaims Marshall, thoroughly enjoying the levity. "To get this project in place we need to have a symbol that is universally feared and hated in all countries. A symbol so powerful that it justifies major efforts to limit or eradicate the condition."

"A no-brainer Marshall, it's drugs, I all its varied and wondrous forms," says Ed, with some embarrassment for answering such an easy question.

"Right! Drugs. The destroyer of youth, corrupter of adults, despoiler of virtue. We start with a national campaign about the magnitude of the problem and how drugs is responsible for corruption among officials, and how it drains money from the public treasury. We subtly link drugs to poor economic conditions that exist in a country, and show how the elimination of drug use will contribute to economic growth."

"Remember that great anti-drug showing a fried egg with the caption "This is your brain on drugs," say Ed. "How can we adapt that in Russia  or in Nigeria? We can start with the hard drugs like meth and coke and when necessary move into the prescription drugs that non-druggies use to deal with normal health problems."

"Slow down Ed, you're too far out in front," cautions Marshall. "Let's stay with getting the drug problem on a country's agenda. First, we connect drugs with economic development, giving people the feeling that their lives would be better if the drug problem didn't exist, The we connect the availability of drugs to a country that is also disliked for other reasons. Drugs in Iran come from Iraq and vice versa. Finally, we associate  drug use with segments of the population that have already been marginalized, using the music industry and Hollywood as the wedge. If this is done effectively, you have the basis for an anti-drug and the need for crusaders."

"But the drug menace has to be linked  to highly organized menacing forces," says Ed, with a hiss that says this is my meat. "We can't us e the Mafia anymore. Too many Corleone movies. Marlon Brando as the Don has ruined this trope forever. But their are still the Columbian drugs lords, international cartels with billions in cash, quasi-military entities with advanced weapons, aircraft, boats, advanced technology. Hell, it's like fighting another country with an army, navy and air force."

"Right on the money, Ed," says Marshall. "The power of the drug lords requires a counter-force with comparable resources and the political legitimacy to act in order to protect the nation. When faced with a national emergency, like in wartime, it is necessary to overlook some of the things associated with legal rights. We will use the cultural resources of the country in question to create some thing comparable to the FBI. In Russia, the tradition of the KGB can serve as a starting point."

"And let's not forget the local police in this work-up," says Bif, who is trying to stay on the edge of the briefing. "The drug war has transformed local police departments into formidable military forces, with enormous firepower and sophisticated technology. In the U.S. they are the ones who have used the war on drugs as the excuse to fill up the jails with young Black men. They transform local racist fear into battles from the anti-drug crusade."

Marshall takes charge again. "So, first we create the drug problem, and then we create the local and federal forces who are charged with combating the drug menace. We put them to work sweeping the streets of the undesirables and thereby making the good folks feel safe again."

Bif can't resist. "But eventually the good folks are going to have some doubts about thet tactics used by the government or local police. Look at what happens in New York. The rich who live there love the hard nose tactics of the police, but they are also the first to scream about the excessive us eof force."

"Not to worry," Ed says with a smirk. "The rich want the streets clean of beggars, drunks, and muggers. But they don't want to see how it is done. But that's the beauty of a repressive operation that appears to be targeted on some marginalized group, whether it's Blacks in the U.S. or gypsies in Russia. The public practice of repression in the name of some lofty goal is a totalizing experiemce."

"Here comes Ray's totalizing shit again. What the hell are you talking about, Ed," erupts Marshall with some irritation.

"what I'm talking about is that you want people to simultaneously want the repression and to be upset by it. It is cathartic for the privileged classes to see the jails being filled with those considered as human waste. And when they're upset, it's not about how the waste is being treated, it's about their awareness that such things could be done to them under the right circumstances. That's what it means to call this kind of repression "totalizing." It gets the attention of the poor and the rich, but for different reasons."

"And that's why the short hairs project will bring along the pols and the fat cats." Marshall beams, with a sense of satisfaction. "Today we put wiretaps on the phones of suspected drug traffickers, and tomorrow it might be a search of your bank records, or how you get your recreational grass or coke. Who knows what that might turn up."

Bif's beaming. "You guys have done good. Let's call it a day."

*********************************************************************************

White House Press Conference

"Mr. President, there have been reports recently that the Pentagon and the State Department have undertaken a joint project to recruit, arm, and train paramilitary units in the largest Russian cities, and that similar plans are underway to do the same thing in Nigeria. What can you tell us about this, sir?"

"I can always count on you for the tough ones, Sam. As you know, our government, in cooperation with the governments of Russia and Nigeria, have undertaken joint programs to build the institutional infrastructure for democratic elections. the people of Russia and Nigeria deserve the opportunity for self-government. But we are not doing this just because it is the right thing to do. We have a self-interest in seeing a democratic Russia and Nigeria. With political stability comes an interest in investment, and both countries have enormous natural resources to attract investors."

"Yes sir, a follow-up please. What about paramilitary units?"

"Well Sam, the only thing that I can say is that a number of our big city Mayors and Police Chiefs are asked routinely by their counterparts in other countries for advice about law enforcement matters. That's the least that we can do when people ask for our help."

"Thank you, Mr. President.

"Yes, Sally, what's your question?"

Mr. President, is it true that you are getting another dog, and, if so, how have you prepared Skipper for his new friend?"

"Why Sally, you must be taking lessons from Sam. You just can't keep a secret from the professional journalists. That's also something other countries need to learn from us.

**********************************************************************************

Press Conference, Los Angeles Mayor's Office

"I want to start by giving you a report on the LAPD's anti-gang, anti-drug unit, known as CRASH--Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums. During the last month, through the counter-intelligence program of our CRASH officers, we have made over 3,000 arrests and convictions. The new techniques of gang profiling and drug profiling make it possible for us to identify and neutralize criminals before they commit crimes."

"Mr. Mayor, what do you say to those people who allege that the CRASH units go after innocent kids on the basis of their race and where they happen to live?"

"Innocent kids have nothing to fear from the LAPD. We start with known gang members and look for their associates who wear gang clothing and gang tattoos."

"What tattoos and what clothing, Mr. Mayor?"

"If I tell you that, than gangs will know what we're looking for."

"And what about the allegations that a CRASH officer was caught stealing and selling cocaine from the evidence room, and that some units have been beating and framing homeboys on street corners, planting evidence."

"Responsible journalists don't try to use a few bad apples to make the entire force look bad. The bottom line here is that most of the LAPD are professionals doing their job to protect the people of this diverse city. This city belongs to everyone, not just the homeboys and drug dealers. The people of LA have the right to walk to Starbucks without fear."

"But Mr. Mayor, can all these allegations be false or mistakes of a couple of bad apples?" Some people are starting to wonder about who polices the police?"

"Well let me ask you, Mr. Smart Guy. If the CRASH program is so bad, why are so many police departments in Russia and Nigeria using our program as a model for their own anti-drug task forces?"

**********************************************************************************

NEW YORK TIMES, June 15, 2000

                                     Worldwide Poll Data Results: People Want to Vote

"Finally, I can die in peace. And I hope that it is my dharma to return as a voting registrar," said the street beggar in the teeming streets of Calcutta, after he cast his first vote ever for a movie star running for the city council. It doesn't matter if you are Cuban, French, or Pole--people want to vote. It doesn't matter it's a soft drink, a movie, or a president--people want to vote. What was once a right of people in a handful of democracies has now become the latest craze of people around the globe.

Preliminary returns from the most ambitious world-wide opinion poll ever conducted were released today by the Phew-Grogby GLOPOLL. This person-on-the-street poll queried 64,000 people in the largest cities in over 100 countries, asking how they feel about voting as a means of expressing their views on everything from soft drinks to female politicians. Although the final results will not be available until early fall, the big picture is already clear: people from all walks of life feel empowered by voting. Some also believe that it is having an effect on their self-esteem, so says Kareem Shafir, a street sweeper from Bangladesh: "I hold my head a little higher these days knowing that my preference in soft drinks are respected by others. Of course, I cannot afford such luxuries, but someday I will."

The pol was commissioned by the World Federalist Association to see if their year-long global project "Down With Suffering, Up With Suffrage" is taking hold. WFA chief executive John Anderson, himself a former presidential candidate in the 1980 elections, describes the polling results as an "overwhelming endorsement of the power of the people in a plebiscite." Speaking at the Rose Garden press conference, after a meeting with the President and First Lady, Anderson pointed out that "most people aren't aware that the word plebian is not a put-down. People should be proud to be called  plebes, for they shall inherit the earth. The First Lady made it her personal mission to bring polling booths to every city, village, and town around the globe in order to make voting way of life. The World Federalist Association will work with the First Lady to turn the sleeping giant into an army of workers and consumers. And I want to make a personal pledge to Kareem Shafir: I will not rest until you can freely choose to buy a soft drink whenever you wish."

The U.S. Marine Corp band played selections from over 200 national anthems, and homeless people from downtown Washington who are working on the Suffering-Suffrage project were invited to the Rose Garden reception to meet some of the foreign dignitaries.

                                                             The End