David Goodman wrote: The Left is no more ruinous or dangerous to America than the Right. It's called open political debate, free thought, free speech, and free expression. David -- THANK YOU! This could not have been stated better. As for Nike's marketing department -- well, I haven't seen anyone, "left", "right", or otherwise, claiming that Nike causes terrorist bombings. Nike's marketing department exists solely to sell the Nike brand, not to either foment or prevent civil or international unrest, and the mere appearance of a few "swooshtikas" on the feet or butts of kids in central Asia or an Inuit village aren't going to bring down whole cultures in violent revolutions any more than did the introduction of the telephone. Every culture on earth that I know of has evolved and will continue to do so. The spread and tolerance of sweatshop labor, however, has the potential to cause massive resentment and social upheaval. The resulting disputes can clearly be settled without violence, but they can also contribute to conditions in which violence thrives (and those who profit from violence will gladly drum up a following). Governments have some choices to make here. One is that they can function on behalf of their people to ensure some level of justice. Another is that they can operate on behalf of corporate interests and leave their citizens feeling they have very little left to lose, which is a dangerously unstable state of affairs. There are undoubtedly other models in operation in the world; I'm not trying to set up an oversimplified dichotomy here. I do think we -- and by "we" I don't mean just Americans -- have to come up with a better definition than we have now of what "national security" might possibly be. Julie
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0: Sat 12 Feb 2022 12:30:44 AM EST EST