Fred wrote: >However, most Americans do *not* feel this way; most Americans fell helpless > to change their government's direction.
And I feel very dismayed by that. > Very powerful financial/political/military concerns and > interests (yes, "elite" ... Eisenhower's astute admonition against "the > military-industrial complex" is a reality) control the government's > direction, and to believe otherwise would be almost charmingly idealistic if > it weren't so dangerously naive. I heard that repeated to me over and over again when I was a teenager and young adult in the 60s/early 70s. Who were the people telling us that and what may have been their motives or self-interest in doing so? I was open-minded at the time and was going to be sure when I got out in the world to look out for those evil powerful big business and military elites who were oppressing me and my fellow peers. I sang the songs, wrote the poems and got the (tie-dye) t-shirt. Then I grew up and actually worked in a few of those big corporations and military industrial concerns, and now work representing a few of them. They are all controlled by layer after layer of law and regulation on all sides that prevents them from acting with malfeasance whether it be from the labor law side to the enviromental to the financial compliance or to the unlawful government influence side. There are also layers upon layers of laws that prevent them from having some kind of special "in" with the government. Of course, many of these laws came about precisely because of people who did protest against unethical and unfair practices in business. But those laws have been tightly in place and enforced for years now and to still look at these "complexes" with a view from a 1930s or 1960s mindset is really not being up to date or currently relevant. The laws that are in place will eventually and do get the ones who are out of line everytime, trust me. Arthur Anderson going down shows how it works, and they are not just one example - there are many Arthur Anderson-type situations that go down every day but don't get the publicity. Yes Fred, I am charmingly idealistic ;-) and still naive on many aspects of life but not on this one. Kakki
