Abracadabra

Divide and Conquer has always been the strategy of the outnumbered oppressor.

Whether the division of Germany, India, Korea, or Israel-Palestine.

We are then told that the "Military-Industrial Complex" prefers perpetual war than peace on earth, even as an idealistic goal.

The truth on this question is uncertain.

What I can tell you, as I develop my understanding of the world over time, yet retain the same objectives that I had as a child, is that the greatest illusion the devil ever created was to tell you that your best friend was your worst enemy.

I think about the time I was interviewed by the New York Times while still in college in New York City. I mentioned my disappointment with homelessness in American streets. Many other countries, some of them our political adversaries, publicly touted the cleanliness of their public spaces, and their provision of basic necessities to their people.

By the way, I am clear to use the term "adversaries" rather than "enemies" because, in fact, these countries are our competitors, no different in a sense than our siblings vying for the love of our parents. A counselor once told me that it is not organically possible for a parent, despite any misgivings, to truly "hate" his/her own child. Perhaps that is the essential quandary we have today in considering one of the most contentious political cases of contemporary American life: Roe v Wade, which gave the woman a right to a legally-sanctioned abortion.

These arguments and images might have led some of us to think, maybe America was not as good a country as our adversaries. In those days, as today, the adversary seems to be communists.

We never considered, would we as individuals ever feel comfortable living in places like Russia, China, Vietnam, Korea?

We didn't need to move there -- we could just borrow some of their ideas and incorporate those ideas into our system of government.

One thing many of us didn't consider was that the Korean War never actually ended. It remains in "Truce" status. So North Korea, allied with China, is technically still at war with South Korea, allied with the United States.

What's my point?

I'm thinking of the "Manchurian Candidate" movie, suggesting that China controls the minds of our politicians.

I now tend to feel that these fears are overblown. There are many forms of "mind control"; substance abuse being only one of them.

The mind control I'm discussing here is the illusion that the decay of American society is the fault of our Capitalist, Biblical, or Multicultural system, and not an illusion created by our wartime adversaries.

We know of the horrors of communist societies, but create moral equivalencies in our minds when we suffer economic or basic necessity deprivation in our territorial homeland. We assume it is our Constitution, and not the political system of our adversaries, that is making us suffer.

On the other hand, if our system of government was better, how could be allow such widespread infiltration of our communist adversaries?

Perhaps, in fact, the strength of our system is our ongoing mission to form "a more perfect union". To welcome new ideas within our existing framework.

In contrast, we see the consequences of insisting on freezing in place our competitive advantages, assuming that the world would never walk away from us.

For example, there was a time when French was considered the greatest language on earth. It was the language of diplomacy, as English is today. In fact, in many more cultured strata of society, French is still preferred. This is evidenced by the fact that in France, as in Quebec, the government continues to enforce and enact new strict laws prohibiting the degradation of the French language by the inferior words of outsiders, whether English or even Italian. In these places, only the French version of words can be used.

Mainwhile, ordinary citizens have long ago abandoned the French language. Elites in exclusive Rivieras and Country Clubs are totally unaware that most of the world has begun speaking not only English and Italian, bui even Spanish.

When we evaluate the fundamental choices between restricted societies, whether France or China, we cannot deny that they have had, and may still have, some competitive advantage. They say, in the way of the first mass-produced video recorder, the BetaMax was better than the VHS; just and an Apple Computer or iPhone is likely better than many of competitors.

But in business, the objective is not only to create a better product, but to be most profitable. So there are different strategies in competition, and it is not always clear who the winner will be. We can only think, when making our own personal choices, what is best for ourselves.

Again, I would say, the truth of why we suffer economically from time to time -- who is at fault -- should not be the focus of our concern. Everyone has a theory on those questions.

The other issue I mentioned earlier is really the one we should focus on -- are we willing to leave the one multicultural country in the entire world -- These United States of America -- to find a better economic system elsewhere?