Technical Writer

On the Pope and His Compulsory Membership in HY

Moretta clears up an issue for me.  She wrote:

    It looks like enrollment was compulsory, but that his family was solidly anti-Nazi. In other words, the passive voice was merited. http://bc.edu/research/cjl/meta-elements/texts/cjrelations/topics/new_pope_defied_nazis.htm

It's always a good idea to have one's facts straight.  Thank you, Moretta.

The Trouble With His Holiness is Not Public Relations

When he was a seminarian in Germany, young Joseph Ratzinger joined the Hitler Youth. This  statement is slightly different than the statement he made to a journalist in 1997, "As a seminarian, I was registered in the Hitler Youth."  (I quote today's The New York Times article by Rachel Donadio that appears on page A6, "Pope's Wartime Activities Resurface on Israeli Trip.")

As he put it, one could think that registration was something that happened to Joseph Ratzinger, who may not have had much say in the matter, if all seminarians were so registered as part of their priestly training.  Who knows?  In 1997, the then-Cardinal Ratzinger remarked on his membership in a way that made the morality relative to the times, for those who parse the shadows for motivation.  If I were to say, "I joined the Hitler Youth," then you might assume that I had some say in the matter.  If I say instead, "I was registered in the Hitler Youth," you do not know my part in it. 

I actually believe that the pope is a decent fellow, and as qualified as any to fill the shoes of the fisherman.  He is learned.  He grew up in troubled times. Beyond that, I do not know the man at all.  What I can tell you, however, is that he may be pope precisely because he is flawed and human, and has so much to learn, cast off, and even forgive himself for.

The humbleness of a pope and not the words of spokesmen or public relations managers is what matters because that is what remains, after misunderstandings, anger, and apologies are made.  It is humility this man may be learning, for his own sake. 

I have long believed that people are led to a religious life as pastors, priests, and church leaders not because they are so good at what they do but because having set their sights in a holy line of work, they accept the long road in present life that becomes a quick march to salvation or damnation, gifts and attainments notwithstanding, because every breath is taken in the present tense of the imperative to see Christ and to be so led at every step. It is personal, but people are watching.

One must also have the guts for the job.  Standing on the banks of the River Donau in Regensburg  three years ago, I watched traffic on the river and adjacent highway from a point next to a piece of the old city wall that was in disrepair. It looked like it had been bombed in WWII, I believe, and although I do not know this for a fact, I think the repairs were never made as a reminder to anyone who looked that war is hell.  War is no time to be passive when confronting faith, and I believe that when asked about it later, a humble person will speak plainly.

Where is Gibbs When We Need Him?

I wonder if brave Capt. Richard Phillips, who traded captivity for himself so his Maersk Alabama would be freed from the wretched men who had captured it Wednesday, and who is now adrift in a small boat with these foul people not far from his ship 300 miles off the coast of Somolia, thought that the United States Navy would have had its eyes locked on him and at the ready with SEAL rescue--he might have thought they were already in the water expecting him, a man of obvious action, to alter the dynamic--the moment he slipped overboard shortly after midnight today and made a break for it in the water until he was hauled back onboard by two men who jumped in after him? 

Politics for a New Year

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.”

Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218-224

Why Cause Trouble on the Way Out?

After the August war between Georgia and Russia, after the flames of burned towns and super-heated rhetoric died down, it became apparent that Georgia had provoked the war, and Russia accepted the provocation.  Certainly Russia could have displayed restraint and it did not, but in the particular instance of this war in their raw history, Georgia was not blameless, and instigated the war. 

During our recent political campaign, John McCain made a great issue about Russia's design on Ukraine and Georgia and what it would mean for the West. It struck me that his passionate discourse was the result of deep conviction, in fact an area of policy that seemed fully formed in his mind. On the other hand, I was not convinced that he could show restraint and international leadership in devising a solution. His position seems now to represent one plank of an administration agenda that has come into play this week in NATO.

The United States and other NATO countries in the past designed a joint Membership Action Plan (MAP) that lays out the circumstances in which a country may join NATO.  A country seeking to join is first admitted by the NATO countries to the MAP, a plan for eventual membership that requires a country to separate its civilian and military powers, reform the armed forces, and demonstrate transparency in government command and in intelligence services.

Just in April, in delicate negotiations among the NATO countries, the U.S. compromised its strong desire that Georgia and Ukraine be invited to join the MAP.  Western European NATO countries opposed the plan for a number of reasons including Russia's insistence against NATO membership for countries it claimed vital to its national interest.

A compromise was reached in which it was agreed that at some point the countries would be invited to join, but the time was not yet to invite them to the MAP, which would pave the way for membership.  Now it turns out that Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, in advance of next month's meeting of the NATO alliance, has been pushing strongly, not just for their admittance to a MAP, but for full membership for Georgia and Ukraine. Again, the Western European NATO members oppose this.

I must quote journalist Judy Dempsey, who states in the Nov. 26 edition of the International Herald Tribune, that,

    "Rice's intervention, however, changes the dynamics, undermining what was agreed upon ... as well as the entire NATO entry process, diplomats said.

    "If you get rid of the Membership Action Plan, it sets a very dangerous precedent," said another NATO diplomat, "Once you skip the filtering process of MAP, then you are going down the slippery slope to the right to join NATO."

Why now, just weeks before the end of a disrespected administration that has wrecked havoc in the world, would Secretary Rice feel compelled to attempt to jam through a proposal that is certain to fail? What is there to gain by the outgoing administration's insistence that NATO bypass its deliberative process that in itself could assure success for its alliance? I would like to know.

Sam at the Obama Rally

My nephew Sam has this to say about seeing Barack Obama a couple of days before the election. He and his wife went to Manassas, Virginia for a big rally. He has this to say about it:

"Tamara and I left Baltimore at 5:30PM.  Traffic was thick until we took the exit off Route 66.  Then it was stop and go for fifteen miles.  Obama was scheduled to begin at 9:00PM; at 8:58PM we were still a mile away.  People were parking in nearby shopping mall parking lots, and we did the same.  Tamara and I hopped out of the truck, and began the one mile jog to the fairgrounds.  As we approached the roadblock stopping the advance of vehicles, the stream of attendees swelled in numbers and excitement.  There were the walkers, the joggers (us), the runners, the shirt sellers, button sellers, police, and (I counted) three counter-protesters.  The excitement of the people to get to the fairgrounds and see their man was greater than that of the fans at any concert I have been to.  He is truly something special.

"We were herded into the fairground entrance, past concession stands, past a racetrack, through a field, and up onto the top of a hill.  Walking across the hill, past a large 'Vote For Change' sign, I was able to get a view of the crowd that made the journey worthwhile.  A camera would not do the crowd justice, perhaps I say this because I forgot to bring a camera.  (Anyways, here is a picture I found: http://is.gd/6Mk4 )  Obama was late, but the people didn't seem to mind as they were dancing, talking, smiling - generally being inspired and happy.  Obama arrived around 10:15PM.  The approach of his caravan of vehicles was visible from where we were, and the crowd erupted in excitement.  He walked onto stage, approached the podium, and the crowd hushed as it bent forward.  His voice is just as powerful and charismatic in real life, a quarter mile away, as it is on TV.

"As we walked the mile or so back to the truck, we passed a fellow selling Barack Obama CDs out of his car.  To a cheesy, catchy beat, "You know we're voting for Barack, duh dah dah, Obama, He is who we're hoping for..."  His headlights lit up his sign which read, "And Don't Miss the Hit, 'Barack Steady' and others!"  Indeed.  The song still pops into my head from time to time.  They should have played it at the rally.

"The man brings people together."

Generational Difference

I have written that on the streets of my small city the day of the election, long before the polls closed, there was a sense of excitement and camaraderie amid the unexpected throngs pf people out at late morning I have not experienced since a march on Washington by the youth of this country on October 15, 1969.  What a difference the decades have made.  While my generation when we were young was compelled to demonstrate against a terrible war, we did not recognize the power of the vote.

Watching on TV the crowd of perhaps 125,000 in Grant Park the night of November 4, a crowd where some family members were among the joyful celebrants, I was happy, too, looking at the faces of purposeful youth.  Happiness aside, the demographic difference was striking compared to the crowd that had gathered at the McCain headquarters. It gives me great pleasure to have participated in an election where the Vietnam War, save in the person of a prisoner of war who refused release, did not override the hope for a new direction for our country.

It turns out that the world apparently shares that hope, adding to it a renewed respect for the United States.

What a wonderful country.

So Happy

I'm waiting up to call friends overseas about the good news of Obama's election. I do not want to call before a seemly hour, although I imagine they will be up and tuned to the election results before the coffee is brewed.

Some of our dearest friends live in Germany; they used to live next door to us in Frederick.  They returned to their homeland, he to direct a cancer research lab, and she to work in the administration of the sunniest city in Germany.  Their little Nick was born at our local hospital, but now he is nearly a teenager, at the gymnasium.  I think I will wake them up right now.

I called them, and they had gotten up early to watch the election results.  The news of Obama's election will resonate and expand over time.  We are a fortunate nation.

Apres Vote

The day will come when we all may vote online, but it will require not a sea change of confidence in the electronics at the voting booth today, but some demographic change in the number of people in the country or in their willingness to interact in person with others.  Here are two possible scenarios unfolding in our future:

Blob-like Americans will be sitting in front of the screen, ordering in, sending out, and meeting in cyber space and unwilling to interact personally except in the commission of crimes of violence against non-believers. This scenario of a science-fiction bent world may require a nano-virus to fell the population. In this world, the toxic waste in the environment and unforgiving climate turns the sad remnants of humanity into dome dwellers.  Moose have long been turned into stew.

Here is a better version:   The sun shines on a street such as Market St. in my town of nearly 70,000 people today at mid-morning, when people--crowds of them--most wearing "I voted" stickers actually speak to strangers and smile at each other as they go about their business, some returning to work, and others having the day off because it's election day. The predictions are that between 85 and 88 percent of the people eligible will vote today in Maryland, and I've spoken to some of them in circumstances where normally I would remain distant.  Conversation is induced by a shared feeling of responsibility and I will say it, after the longest campaign in history, a feeling of relief that this  day is finally here. Today I had a free cup of Starbucks coffee, and the joint was jumping with young voters.  I have not seen such comraderie and shared desire for an outcome since the October 15 war moritorium march on Washington, DC in 1969.

My nephew Sam, a student at UMBC and a thoughtful lad,  drove from Baltimore to Manassas, Va. last night to see Barak Obama. Sam was part of a crowd of between 80 and 90,000 people.  I am counting on the youth vote to put this country over the top today.

John McCain and the Redistribution of Wealth

I listened to the approving roar from a crowd at a televised John McCain rally, and a campaign line that triggered loud approbation was that he, Senator McCain, would not "redistribute wealth," a socialist concept, he and his running mate inform the crowd, but he would let people keep their wealth. Of course he would. There is nothing like hiding in plain sight.

It seems to have escaped many of his supporters in the regions of the country that stand firmly for his presidential bid that they, and their states, are more frequently the beneficiaries of that redistribution of wealth than, for instance, New York or Massachusetts.  Among my acquaintances and broad family there are staunch supporters of the Republican ticket, for a number of reasons that are not identical. I won't discuss those reasons, but one of those lines of thought I can extrapolate somewhat and apply to a part of the electorate. Essentially, there are middle-class families who are struggling financially and whose opportunities appear limited by poor education and poor investment and borrowing choices (so much that can not be predicted), and this is seen only in retrospect, the  choices appearing sound at the time.

We tax ourselves to redistribute the wealth for the good of the country. Public spending programs that spread the wealth would

• Provide opportunities for an improved health care system with all the complexity that supports individual responsibility and entrepreneurial endeavor while broadening the existing federal programs to cover more children and the indigent.

• Provide an improved public education system that includes the diversity of opportunities families seek for their children, and that is also excellent district to district, state to state.  I read an article recently about the high achievement of the school children in Finland, where apparently the children learn quickly and uniformly and can articulate their subjects with mastery and sophistication.  The United States is vastly different from a small, socio-economically homogeneous country, and the problems that must be overcome here are quite different. The problems are not the kids, however, but how we need to better educate them, and that includes the many pre-conditions for learning.

• Provide a national reconstruction of our failing roads, rails and bridges. Can we afford to have the already meager federal highway funds dry up? The interstate highway system was initiated in 1956 by Dwight Eisenhower with federal highway laws that assumed the national security importance of the nation's transportation infrastructure.  It took Eisenhower the president to inaugurate such a vast improvement, but its geneses was his participation in the Transcontinental Motor Convoy of 1919 to ascertain the fitness of the first national road in case need arose to move troops quickly across country in case of war.

There are many other examples of national spending priorities where we redistribute the wealth, a phrase that seems to send shivers of apprehension down the spines of men and women who are being taught to associate such spending with socialism.  There was real state socialism, with its sad, failed policies that brought degradation and misery to hundreds of millions of people, and those countries have largely failed.  To conflate socialism with a discussion of national spending priorities is a ruthless and dangerous McCain tactic.

I do not believe that all is fair in love and war, but I have come to think that John McCain does believe this.  The prize he so desperately wants is for himself, not for the country, and this is why I believe that he should not win the presidency.

Brief Letter to Barack Obama

Looking at the front page of The New York Times this morning, I am increasingly heartened by the shifting poll data that brings you closer and closer to a good outcome for the United States on Election Day.

The issues support you, but as the McCain campaign and its affiliates tighten the screws in the only way now left--through targeted, thoroughly negative advertising--the issues may not be enough for even you.  What will remain paramount is character, and I urge you to continue behaving in your expansive, presidential way and not lower yourself to the level of vicious behavior that the McCain campaign will unleash in the battleground states.

There was a passionate moment in the vice presidential debate when Joe Biden spoke with strength and authority to refute the false notion that John McCain is a maverick.  He was not being negative; he was speaking with truthful conviction.  You can use anger, too, not to defend yourself, but to protect this country from the easy grip of McCain's negative imaginings, the seeds of which are being sown by a campaign going mad with the desire to win.

I sincerely hope that voters grow weary of ugly, soul deadening negative attacks. I suspect there is a fine and nuanced understanding within the campaign of how much the public will absorb before there is a rejection of such advertising, but maybe not.

Be personally kind to John McCain during your next debate, but confront all errors of omission and commission.  Continue to face him as well as the people in the debate.  When you are president, he will still be a senator, and you will be working with members of his party who will not forget that you treated their reckless candidate with respect and dignity.

Finally, please do not relax between now and November 4, because the McCain campaign will become more erratic and dangerous to the country and while you must point that out, you must also remain tightly focused on presentation of yourself and your own program. 

David Brooks, Voice of Reason

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/opinion/16brooks.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&oref=slogin

I'm out of the business of political commentary.  After reading David Brooks op-ed piece in the morning The New York Times I recognize that David Brooks, conservative analyst, has my objections to Sarah Palin covered in his essay, Why Experience Matters.   He writes in a masterful essay,

It turns out that governance, the creation and execution of policy, is hard.  It requires acquired skills.  Most of all, it requires prudance. 

What is prudence? It is the ability to grasp the unique pattern of a specific situation. It is the ability to absorb the vast flow of information and still discern the essential current of events — the things that go together and the things that will never go together. It is the ability to engage in complex deliberations and feel which arguments have the most weight.

How is prudence acquired? Through experience. The prudent leader possesses a repertoire of events, through personal involvement or the study of history, and can apply those models to current circumstances to judge what is important and what is not, who can be persuaded and who can’t, what has worked and what hasn’t.

Ah!  The calm voice of reason, and would it had been mine.  I will now return to my previous subjects of forest and field, and whatever else catches my eye.

Critique of Sarah Palin from High School Principal in Alaska

I am not usually the recipient of e-mails strings, but I got one yesterday from a friend I respect, who got it from a friend he respects, and so on, and that’s the truth.  Even in the best of circumstances in a chain of clear-eyed people who care about preservation of truth and original meaning, words change.  The e-mail was passing along a letter written by Peter Hauschka, whose e-mail is petnbon@hotmail.com. I wanted to excerpt the letter in this space, but because by now the e-mail had been forwarded so many times I wanted to check with the original writer to verify its authenticity. 

This is Pete Hauschka’s reply:   

The letter you received was mostly authentic.  I wrote the original letter on 8/29, the night of the announcement.  As documents pass on through the net, people change a word here or there, and after a while the meaning is different or lost.  Much changed from the original version I wrote 14 days ago.    I hope you enjoy the original version even more (which contains a few details, evidence, and accurate information, which the passed-on versions now seems to lack), which I copied to you below. …Thanks for checking with the source. 

I've always found strength is speaking out.  I feel that if it is done fairly, even your detractors will have some respect for you. Here is the original.

Sincerely, Pete H.

This pick floored me.  Sarah Palin is a nice person.  I've met her.  I've even talked with her for a few minutes at an Alaskan principal's conference a couple of years ago. She has lots going for her superficially. She speaks from the heart, like a sassy mother; she can even be sort of funny sometimes. She is drop dead gorgeous. She is athletic and has that radiant glow of someone who actually spends time doing things outside. Unlike many politicians, she has lived a "real life" and done things that few living and working in DC could ever do....like dipnettin' fish, shootin' stuff and eating it out on the tundra, and havin' 5 kids.


Personally, I'd never vote for her. She has an extremely simple view of the world. I don't even think she has ever been abroad.  (She did go on-base to Iraq to visit our homesick AK National Guard troops which was a nice gesture, but I do not believe she has experienced another culture besides Native Alaskan cultures even as a vacationer.  As governor she has repeatedly shown us that she is unable to grasp the demands of leadership. She is very prone to cronyism of the worst kind.  Most important cabinet level political appointment she has made, (for example, our State commissioner of Education), she has over-ridden suggestions of our state advisory boards, and instead promoted those who had granted her direct political favors. Not that other politicians don't do this, they do, but most of them are able to balance their appointments to ensure that at least a few people with real skill and experience are running big state agencies.  Some of the people she has appointed are just doofuses...even by Alaskan standards; and we have a high tolerance for doofuses here.


She also has been unable to pay attention to her Alaskan constituency. Personally, I've written several of our previous gov's hailing from both major parties and been asked to comment publicly on education policy. All the previous gov's have always acknowledged that contribution, criticism or comment; sometimes by direct reply, or at least by that of a staff member. Palin's office has been a zone of silence. Not I, nor one person I know commenting has ever gotten any sort of reply. Her claim of running an open or transparent government is totally false; the public simply has no role in her administration.


Her previous claim to fame was being mayor of Wasilla, a growing town about 40 minutes from Anchorage of about 7,500 people. Wasilla is a hellhole, even by Alaskan standards, where there are plenty of hellhole towns and villages. Wasilla is an ugly place that shows a complete absence of planning, design, or sense of public vision. Gov't agencies and services are completely overrun in this town; things are so bad that they can't even track their population, and have difficultly building schools in the right place, because building permits are not required in nearby unincorporated areas, and are lax in-town; so the only clue about where people are settling are utility receipts. Imagine trying to be an emergency responder in this kind of place: Houses don't just catch on fire in Wasilla, they burn to the ground, because by the time the fire department has figured out which road to take (no signs) or whose house it is (no directory), the place is done for. Palin was mayor this town for at least 2 terms before being elected gov. a year and a half ago.


Her moral sense is simplistic and not inclusive. She is the sort of person who is used to using their "faith" to divide and isolate minority groups of human beings instead of uniting them. To her credit as Gov. she has kept out of this arena pretty well, but when in comfortable company, she lets her true colors show.

Socks Chase the Blues

I just put on my favorite socks to cheer myself up and uplift my mind and mood--it works!   There is nothing like the recollection of visiting Vermont, where I found my socks recently, to reframe my glum view today of the world. (See socks on socklady.com.)

Once on the Bateaux Mouche on the Seine in Paris, I sat transfixed by the bad behavior of a gaggle of American kids who had hogged the front rail of the boat, but then something nudged my mind and I looked at them differently and saw a group of the best kids in the world--adventurous, outgoing with a one-for-all and all-for-one spirit that lacked only discipline, and that could be learned upon need.   The kids were not different, just my attitude, which changed my relation to them and had occasion arisen, would have guided any interaction for the better.

On that same trip to Paris, I recall sitting on the subway wearing my brand new Dr. Marten's Mary Janes. Notice the stitching around the sole; it is the dead giveaway that these are the authentic counter-culture shoes worn by hip radicals, revolutionaries, and me.  I have always wondered what the pale lad sitting across the aisle from me was thinking as he stared at me, then my shoes, then back at me in disbelief.  He was a veritable Marius in his to-the-barricades jeans and torn shirt, and I was dressed, well, for walking.  He recognized the shoes but didn't see his Cosette in me. I remain charmed by the memory of his face.

My attitude has needed a little improvement of late.  I'm looking out at this moment over the upstairs balcony, over the garden with its late summer flowers.  I know this is all transitory, that is, summer flowers and even summer itself, but summer always comes around again, even when comets smash into the earth and obliterate the sun for decades and species forever.  Eventually life establishes itself anew because the impulse of life is optimistic. With this thought I could have warmed myself had I been sitting Galois in hand listening to the radio at an outdoor cafe on the Rue de Rivoli in the spring of 1940, hearing bad news coming from the east.  Having just seen The Wizard of Oz, I could have clicked together my ruby slippers and wished myself in a cornfield instead, or in the pages of a good book, and Philip Roth comes to mind.

Philip Roth's 2004 The Plot Against America takes us through a hypothetical revision of our history had the nation through insidious circumstance fallen prey to Nazi takeover of our government.  The story takes place on United States soil, but I was led through the daily accommodations and unbelievable encroachments on liberty and democratic thought until I realized that Roth was demonstrating how easy it is not to recognize what is coming because we do not want to believe it could happen here.  Roth's mirror on the past reflects one potential historical circumstance, but there are many others such a mirror could reflect.

So, come to think of it, why not extend the physical barrier being rammed across parts of the Mexico-U.S. border along the entire length?  While we're at it, let's eliminate once and for all the books that could sully the pure minds of our youth.  There are so many opportunities to envision a future gone wrong.  I would rather give my thought to a future going right, so I think I will take Roth's mirror and seek the images of well being, health and prosperity in our country and restoration in the world that we can have when I vote for Barack Obama in November. 

The Cult of Personality and the Audacity of Disrespect

I have allowed beyond reason my mind to be unsettled by the unease I feel in the elevation of Sarah Palin.  The mean bite of fear has left me wondering if this country is so addled by emotional fervor that John McCain and Sarah Palin could be elected to run our nation in a few months.  Among the arguments against the McCain ticket are that he has voted with the Bush administration nine out of ten times. As Garrison Keillor points out,

So the Republicans have decided to run against themselves. The bums have tiptoed out the back door and circled around to the front and started yelling, "Throw the bums out!" They've been running Washington like a well-oiled machine to the point of inviting lobbyists into the back rooms to write the legislation, and now they are anti-establishment reformers dedicated to delivering us from themselves.

John McCain is less a maverick now than he is a reckless driver.  McCain’s judgment in his choice of running mate, while energizing his ticket, demonstrates profound disrespect for the need to heal the nation and what we have made in the world after the eight sorry years of the Bush administration.  We've been crossing our national Rubicon since the 2000 election, but the downward spiral of the country’s fortunes can still be averted, however, we can’t look for that change in the McCain ticket.  That one demonstrates the audacity of disrespect for the people and the desire to further divert their attention while the fox is stealing the eggs.  As for Ms. Palin’s religious beliefs, I am happy to leave them to her as she applies her faith in her private life, but unfortunately her extremist views are guiding her public life. 

Palin has made her religious beliefs the center of justification for the righteousness of her candidacy. It is her body of belief that has energized the extreme right wing of her party, not the specifics of how she has actualized her faith in the governance of Wasilla or Alaska.

 

Palin’s acceptance speech and subsequent stump speeches have stressed actions that have been debunked upon examination, yet she and McCain continues to lie and exaggerate her public record.  This is a strategy of deliberate, disrespectful manipulation of the public, and of her new fans in particular.

 

My intention is not to list Palin’s achievements and pronounce her fit or not fit to run the country.  I do ask, however, when her public assertions are exposed as a fraud upon the public, why people still respond warmly to her.  My hunch is that she taps into the reservoir of emotional heat of right-wing Christianity, which is being heartlessly used to preserve the status-quo of the present Bush administration.

 

Palin’s fans and supporters may not care that what she asserts as her political achievements are untrue.  Her appeal to them is her potential to bring right-wing Christianity into the Oval Office.  Her appeal to the mocking politicians who publically agree with her is that she brings with her the votes of people who forget that extreme right-wing politics are beads strung on the string of preserving the status quo of any corrupt political administration in the world.