In his recent letter regarding The Tribune`s series, ”Communism: A World of Change,” Andy Oakley wrote that our ”international heroes and villains change rapidly, based on the needs of the U.S. power structure. The public follows right along.”
Oakley`s gist is quite right. However, I feel two corrections are in order.
Yes, our nation`s ruling elite is extremely cynical. Unlike the leopard, it changes its spots frequently, always on the basis of its self-interest, usually in the guise of a nobler-sounding rhetoric about the ”national interest,” etc. Yet some of its heroes and villains are remarkably consistent. Whereas a foreign leader who opens his borders to U.S.
multinational companies has always been a ”hero,” one who doesn`t has always been a ”villain.”
Second, it`s somewhat unfair to charge the public with ”following right along.” Since it counts on the media to inform it about what`s going on in the world, the media are really to blame. The American public is the least well-informed of all the advanced societies. Now this, too, happens to serve the U.S. power structure, which accounts for its persistence as a fact of American life.
