Soundings, July/August 2002

In the following items, notice how the conceptual mentality moves easily through the widest abstractions: man, world, trade, cooperation, peace. Then notice how the anti-conceptual mentality feels oppressed by that which is merely large.

"I feel this way about it," said Minoru Yamasaki, chief architect of the World Trade Center.. "World trade means world peace and consequently the World Trade Center buildings in New York ... had a bigger purpose than just to provide room for tenants. The World Trade Center is a living symbol of man's dedication to world peace ... beyond the compelling need to make this a monument to world peace, the World Trade Center should, because of its importance, become a representation of man's belief in humanity, his need for individual dignity, his beliefs in the cooperation of men, and through cooperation, his ability to find greatness." http://ericdarton.net/html/ideobite.html

But William Langewiesche, author of "American Ground" (The Atlantic Monthly, July/August, September, October, 2002), sees it this way: "The towers themselves, before they were attacked, represented something else about the United States, and probably not the most attractive thing. They represented Big Brother in the biggest way. They represented Big Organization—the monolithic company or government. They were very much a totalitarian representation of centralized structure and control . . . . When we replace them, we're not going to build the same type of twin-tower monolith—and not just because we don't want to get hit again. I think it's because American culture no longer really wants that. It was very much of a '50s/'60s/'70s kind of thing. The United States is less totalitarian now than it was before. Not that we were ever totalitarian, but the strains of totalitarianism that exist within all cultures, and that led to the building of those towers, have been damped down since then." (Thanks to Rick Minto for calling our attention to the latter item.) http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/int2002-06-17.htm

The anti-Semitic face of altruism: Richard Bernstein, one of the first journalists to expose political correctness, recently published an article on rising anti-Jewish sentiment in Europe. "Tom Paulin, a poet, Oxford University professor, and regular guest on BBC television [said] . . . that American-born Jews who have settled on the Israeli-occupied West Bank were Nazis who 'should be shot dead.' . . . José Saramango, the Portuguese Nobel laureate in literature, said, 'We can compare what is happening on the Palestinian territories with Auschwitz.'"

Seeking an explanation, Bernstein writes: "Israel and the Palestinians are elements in the broader post-cold-war policy and cultural differences that have emerged between the United States and Europe, especially during the Bush administration.

"'What is true is that Europe has moved toward an identification with international agencies acting collectively to help the disadvantaged and the poor, and there's a belief in Europe that the Americans haven't caught up with that,' says Tony Judt, a professor of European studies at New York University and a critic of current Israeli policy. 'Israel with its close identification with the United States, and vice versa, embodies this defect.'" Richard Bernstein, "An Ugly Rumor or an Ugly Truth?" The New York Times, August 4, 2002.

On August 1, the Connecticut toolmaker Stanley Works declared that it was abandoning its proposal to reincorporate in Bermuda, a plan that would have allowed it to reduce its taxes but that was denounced as "unpatriotic" by politicians and union officials. The company's chairman and chief executive officer, John M. Trani, said: "Our ability to compete is being undermined by the U.S. tax code, which is archaic in today's global market, putting U.S. companies that compete globally in an untenable position. We have been asked by the Congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle to support their efforts toward rectifying this situation by enacting legislation that will create a level playing field for companies incorporated in the U.S. We have honored their request, and the ball is now in their court."

The chart below shows what Trani is talking about. Only three countries in the thirty-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have higher corporate taxes than America. But lobbying "Congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle" will at best yield a short-term solution. If Trani and his fellow executives seek a long-term future for their companies, they must make the moral case that corporations have the right to pursue maximum profit. And if they succeed in that, they will truly have done a patriotic deed.

Top Corporate Tax Rates (percent),
(national and state or provincial taxes)
Source: "New Data Show U.S. Has Fourth Highest Corporate Tax Rate"
by Chris Edwards, Director of Fiscal Policy, Cato Institute