POLITICS – REVIEWS AND VIEWS OF LIFE

IRAN

Torbati believes ordinary Iranians, especially Gen Z women, will change Iran’s history. One is reminded of the Yiddish expression “From your lips to God’s ears” because Torbati’s history of Iran is far from encouraging.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Stolen Revolution (Betrayal and Hope in Modern Iran)

Author: Yeganeh Torbati & 1 more

Narration by: Nikki Massoud

Yeganeh Torbati (American author, award winning journalist who is fluent in Farsi, Spanish, and English, earned a BA in political science and Middle Eastern studies from Yale.)

In listening to “Stolen Revolution” one wonders about the objectivity of its author. Because Ms. Torbati is born in America; one is reserved about her objectivity about Iran’s transition from an autocratic country ruled by a king to one that became a theocratic republic ruled by an equally autocratic Muslim cleric. It is difficult for we who are born in America to understand what the truth may be about the true feelings of people who have lived all their life in Iran.

The influence of religion on government.

Though America is not considered a Christian nation, it is deeply influenced by belief in a Christian God. Of course, America is founded on the importance of separation of Church and State which makes cultural influence of theocratic leadership unlikely if not impossible. The influence of one raised in America challenges one’s objectivity in analyzing the history of a country led by a theocratic autocrat. However, Ms. Torbati, in contrast to most Americans, knows the language of the country on which she reports. Further, her Iranian ancestry undoubtedly gives her a better understanding of Iran’s culture.

In recognition of the author’s reporting of Iranian opposition to Ayatollah leadership, a reader/listener is bound to give respect to her evidence of citizen resistance. Her reporting reinforces much of what we read and hear from news reports about Iran’s opposition to women’s rights and freedom of movement. The complaints of voter fraud have been noted by other writers about Iran’s Green Movement in 2009 and later public protests. Torbati’s profile of Hila Sedighi, a poet and activist in Iran, shows her poetry reflects on the shattered hopes and dreams of many Iranians in an election campaign that undermined women’s rights. Tobarti outlines two egregious voter frauds in the two terms of office for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a shill for the Ayatollah.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Elected twice under suspicious voter fraud allegations.)

With the undoubted help of the Supreme Leader’s manipulation of the 2005 and 2009 elections there were more voters for Ahmadinejad than there were people to vote in respective districts. Election competitors like Mehdi Karroubi turned against the Ayatollahs’ leadership because of obvious voter misrepresentations. It became impossible for an independent to be elected.

Autocracy may evolve in any form of government.

With reservations, this book review of “Stolen Revolution” is unlikely to be objective. America is presently being led by an autocrat who is marginally constrained by the checks and balances of America’s government. America’s current President chooses to act as though checks and balances are challengeable by one person’s judgement. The bombing of Iran shows the weakness of an autocrat’s decision; i.e. a fault apparent in Iran as well as America.

America’s bombing of Iran’s Qasim Island water plant on March 7, 2026.

Here stands America as the instigator of a war with a country it cannot or chooses not to understand. The Ayatollahs who replaced Iran’s autocratic king, have not succeeded in establishing a viable economic theocracy. The discontent and poverty of a large part of the Iranian population is revealed by Torbati’s history. How much of that poverty is caused by the Western world’s rejection of Iran is not clearly explained by Torbati’s history. She implies it is largely because of the rule of the Ayatollahs and their theocratic beliefs. She argues Iran is driven by clerical crony capitalism with clerical elites enriching themselves and the military by discouraging private enterprise.

Iran’s military.

Torbati infers Iran’s military has become a construction arm of Iran supported by the Ayatollahs. Citizen taxation is used as a bludgeon to discourage private enterprise while enriching the government and the military. Through personal clerical corruption and favoritism, with the use and support of the military, Iran has failed its citizens. Leadership of Iran confiscated private companies, restricted access to foreign expertise, and created fear and paranoia among its people. The Ayatollahs cultivated a military state by using it as a stabilizing force to repress the public while being the backbone of employment and construction activity as a substitute for private business growth. Torbati argues the government of Iran is more interested in self-preservation than the welfare of its citizens.

Ali Khamenei (Supreme leader of Iran Killed by American bombing on February 28, 2026)

Torbati’s history of Iran is not encouraging. She suggests the Islamic Republic will remain focused on preserving itself with military support more than improving the lives of the majority of its citizens. Torbati implies foreign intervention will not break Iran’s system of government. Iran’s leadership will only change if ordinary citizens, not just the elites of government, are able to influence the course of their economy. She argues Gen Z women, reformist activists, and discontented businessmen will eventually change Iranian leadership. Torbati implies external intervention will not determine Iran’s future.

An estimated 326 Iranians were killed in Iran’s November 2022 protest.

As history suggests the road to success is not a path you find, but a trail you blaze. Iran’s future is dependent upon the citizens of Iran; i.e., not foreign impositions, wars, or demands of foreign governments. Torbati believes ordinary Iranians, especially Gen Z women, will change Iran’s history. One is reminded of the Yiddish expression “From your lips to God’s ears” because Torbati’s history of Iran is far from encouraging.

CULTURAL DECLINE

Americans need to come to grips with their history, mend its fences, and use its cultural diversity as a means for acceptance of difference and rebirth of its founder’s principles. Empathy is a relatively minor part of America’s institutional, economic, and moral decline.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Suicidal Empathy (Dying to Be Kind)

Author: Gad Saad

Narration by: Gad Saad

Gad Saad (Author, Canadian professor of marketing and evolutionary behavioral scientist.)

Gad Saad has written an interesting book about human empathy. He describes empathy as a biological, socially beneficial, and important characteristic of human cooperation. However, he notes empathy has the potential for societal harm that can be destructive with long-term negative consequences. He suggests empathy can distort the harm done by criminals against victims and compound ethnic differences that are a detriment to society. He argues empathy is an emotion that can lead to harmful decisions, and poor social policies that create moral distortion and confusion. His examples carry some weight.

A definition of empathy.

Criminal defenders sometimes frame an argument that violent offenders are products of their life circumstances and should be empathized with, rather than punished, for their actions. However, with empathy as a treatment, victims of personal crimes become victimized twice. Once by the actions of the criminal and a second time by leniency toward a criminals’ actions. An argument is made by a criminal defender that poverty and systemic faults of a legal system or society are the fault of others, including the victims of the perpetrators’ crime. Empathy for the defender gets in the way of justice for society and the individual is victimized twice in the guise of empathy. Violent offenders are released or given reduced sentences that offer opportunity for a repeat of violent crimes. Saad extends this argument to society that empathizes with terrorists, radicalized individuals, and ideologically driven attackers.

Robert Wright suggests every human action in life is determined by evolution.

Saad suggests too much empathy creates an atmosphere of moral relativism, and identity-based hate groups that reinforces an “us-them” mentality that diminishes social difference. One can easily agree with Saad’s observation, but history shows difference of one’s group identity is both good and bad. The contributions of Jewish group identity have been a great boon to society. Jewish identity is a prime example of the value of group difference. The educational and identity-based tenants of Judaism have made immense contributions to science and industry. Of course, at the other extreme, moral relativism and identity-based hate led to the holocaust by the Nazis.

As an American moral philosopher and cultural commentator who lives in Germany, Neiman offers an analysis of race and evil.

The troubling part of Saad’s argument is his selective focus on empathy as a cause of cultural decline. Corruption, politicization, self-dealing elitism, and societies’ failure to deliver justice, safety, and education to the public are the fundamental causes of cultural decline. Whether Jew, Gentile, or other, it is not empathy that has caused the widening wealth gap, loss of group identity, labor displacement, collapse of local industries, and/or the erosion of intergenerational opportunity.

Cultural decline cannot be reduced to a single cause as inferred by Gad Saad.

Cultural decline cannot be reduced to a single cause as inferred by Gad Saad. It is cultural destruction of group differences beginning with the diminishment of native Americans, through America’s history of slavery, and today’s loss of civic trust in government that is harming America. Americans need to come to grips with their history, mend its fences, and use its cultural diversity as a means for acceptance of difference and rebirth of its founder’s principles. Empathy is a relatively minor part of America’s institutional, economic, and moral decline.

Türkiye

As a tourist to Turkey, one does not see an authoritarian’s impact on their society. Hansen lives in Istanbul for ten years to offer her insight to Erdoğan’s reorganization of Turkish society. Her experience reminds one of Trump’s authoritarianisms and its potential reaction to public discontent.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

From Life Itself (Turkey, Istanbul, and a Neighborhood in the Age of Erdoğan)

Author: Suzy Hansen

Narration by: Suzy Hansen

Suzy Hansen (American journalist and author.)

Suzy Hansen was born in New Jersey and earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She became a journalist and moved to Istanbul in 2007 for ten years. The move is motivated by receiving a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs. She is offered the fellowship to study and write about a two-year cultural immersion in a foreign society. “From Life Itself” is a compilation of her research and experiences in Istanbul that enlighten those who have visited Turkey but only as a tourist, not as an educated journalist.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey.

Hansen’s book is revelatory in explaining Turkey’s more recent history and the rise of its Prime Minister and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan who has been in office since 2003. The growth and reconstruction of Istanbul is part of Hansen’s history of Turkey. She interestingly explains her view of Erdogan’s rise to power and how the political system of Turkey’s capital has been shaped by history and the rise of Erdoğan.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Donald Trump are authoritarians.

Erdoğan is characterized by Hansen as a powerful authoritarian. That authority, in Hansen’s opinion, has led to corruption, questionable elections, and a reshaping of public institutions, public life, and the personal lives of Turkish citizens. Hansen suggests Erdoğan’s rule fits within the long history of Turkish autocracy. She reflects on Turkey’s political history of discrimination against non-Turkish residents from different cultures like Syria and other middle eastern countries.

Muhtar influence by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Hansen notes how village leaders, called muhtars, become sources of both cohesion and disruption of Turkish communities. They are elected by local villages or urban neighborhoods. These muhtars are information sources for newly arrived immigrants who transform communities. Muhtars aid newcomers to understand differences from their cultures and historic Turkish traditions. As immigration increases, tensions rise, immigrants are rounded up, abused, sometimes murdered, and forced to move to other neighborhoods or countries. Erdoğan’s authoritarianism reinforces a kind of fascism that rises from local Turkish citizens. Hansen argues local leadership corruption, questionable elections, and institutional leadership change are methods used by Erdoğan in his authoritarian rule.

Authoritarinism.

Reflecting on Turkey’s history, its Ottoman Empire precursors, and world history Hansen argues Erdoğan fits in with Turkey’s long experience of autocracy. The broader point made by Hansen is that authoritarianism is growing around the world. What Turkey’s citizens are experiencing today are happening in many parts of the world; i.e., including the United States. Her observations carry weight in light of changing immigration policy in America and the election of Donald Trump. Everyday life is changing in Turkey, just as it is in America. Democracy seems to be waning in the face of authoritarianism.

Public Health Agencies in America.

Hansen explains how local service organizations in Turkey are being politized or shut down by elimination or placement of government loyalists that control government and non-government institutions. (This seems similar to President Trump’s appointments at OAS, NSB, Dept. of Defense, Dept. of Education and various public health agency organizations in America.) These new appointments and reorganizations exacerbate social division. Newly appointed leaders by an authoritarian change original institutional purpose. Hansen argues Erdoğan is demographically reengineering Turkish society. Democracy is undermined by authoritarianism. Life becomes less free.

Hansen notes an attempted coup in Turkey in 2016 and the reaction of Erdoğan. Her experience reminds a life-long resident of America of Trump’s authoritarianism and its potential reaction to citizen discontent.

AN ACCOMPLISHED WOMAN

“A Woman in Arabia” is a compilation of Gertrude Bell’s writing and involvement in the Middle East in the early 20th century. Her experience and ability to influence the course of events in the Middle East is concrete evidence of the mistaken view of sexual inequality.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

A Woman in Arabia (Gertrude Bell–The Writings of the Queen of the Desert)

Author: Bret Baier

Edited by: George Howell

Narrated by: Sian Thomas & 2 More

Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell (British archaeologist, explorer, political officer, and writer.)

Gertrude Bell was educated at Queen’s College and received a first-class degree in modern history from Oxford in 1888 at the age if 19. She was the first woman to earn a first-class degree at Oxford. Women were not awarded graduation degrees at Oxford at that time, but her intellectual capability compelled the institution to recognize her accomplished study in modern history. (Oxford did not award general college degrees to women until 1920.)

Bell is born into a wealthy family that gave her advantage, but it is her work ethic, adventurousness, and intelligence that demonstrated more than her privileges.

What “A Woman in Arabia” reveals is Bell’s intelligence, erudition, desire for adventure, and research experience. She became a competent field archaeologist who learned Persian and Arabic while traveling through and living in the Middle East. She was a remarkable linguist who could speak a number of languages. Bell is born into a wealthy family that gave her advantage, but it is her work ethic and intelligence that demonstrated more than her privileges. She became recognized in the world as a person who helped shape the modern state of Iraq by supporting installation of King Faisal I as its ruler in 1921. She helped define Iraq’s borders after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

Mesopotamia became territories recognized as Syria, Palestine, Arabia, Israel, and Asia Minor.

Bell spent years mapping and exploring Mesopotamia after leaving England and living in the Middle East. She became intimately familiar with Mesopotamia, which became territories recognized as Syria, Palestine, Arabia, Israel, and Asia Minor. She participated in major archaeological digs and founded the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. Her numerous writings are compiled in “A Woman in Arabia”. A compilation of her writings explores her critical role in the creation of an independent Middle Eastern’ nation known as Iraq.

For anyone who doubts equality of the sexes, Bell represents the truth of a false belief perpetuated by the illusion of male superiority.

Bell shows herself as an accomplished human being, respected by governments, Kings, and the general public in the same way as the greatest men of her or our time. Bell is a woman of substance who reveals her love of two men (one an adulterous married veteran of WWI and another whom her father refuses to countenance because of his alleged unsavory character). Bell never marries. She grows to maturity to council governments and rulers about the value of Middle Eastern countries and their desire and capability to rule as independent nations. This is during a tumultuous time when the Ottoman empire is trying to take, by force of arms, as much Middle Eastern territory as they can.

Sir Percy Cox (The British High Commissioner for Mesopotamia.)

Bell counsels and significantly influences several powerful and well-known “great men” of her time. Great Britain is a major player in the Middle Eastern resistance to Ottoman control of the territories that became Syria, Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Kuwait, and Jordan. The High Commissioner for Mesopotamia (the name assigned before Middle Eastern nations’ formation) is Sir Percy Cox. Bell’s correspondence shows she is highly esteemed and trusted by Cox who had appointed her as his Oriental Secretary and adviser on tribal politics of what became the nation of Iraq.

Sir Arnold Wilson (Acting Civil Commissioner in Mesopotamia.)

Sir Arnold Wilson was the Acting Civil Commissioner in Mesopotamia before Sir Percy Cox is appointed The High Commission. Bell served under Wilson as his eyes and ears in Mesopotamia during World War 1. Her familiarity with leaders in the Middle East led to the choice of King Faisal I as the Hashemite monarch in 1921. Bell became a close friend and adviser to Faisal in the governance of Iraq which aided in peace between factions of Iraq’s Sunni, Shi’a and Kurdish peoples. Bell worked closely with T. E. Lawrence (the famed “Lawrence of Arabia”) in what became the Arab Bureau that dealt with Middle Eastern nationalism and statecraft.

Lawrence of Arabia.

AMERICA

Bret Baier highlights civic ideals, recalls history that reveals American continuity, and encourages listener/readers to be grateful for what they have, or achieved in American life. There remain many structural injustices that have not been overcome by past or current American Presidents.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

The Case for America (An Argument on Behalf of our Nation)

Author: Bret Baier

Narration by: Bret Baier

Bret Baier (Author, American journalist, political anchor for Fox News.)

Patriotism is devotion to one’s country with a willingness to uphold its principles. Bret Baier’s “The Case for America” is a teacher and conservative newscaster’s expression of his personal American patriotism. As a white American male, he recalls the national ideals created by the founding fathers of the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. He clearly identifies the national ideals of America’s founders and their historical sacrifice. To some who listen to his book, one feels he glosses over many of the historical truths of discrimination, slavery, and unequal treatment in America.

Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement in America.

American unity is not a moral imperative. American unity is a political project in the process of perfecting human equality and economic opportunity. It is far from achieving that goal, but America’s leadership and philosophy is as Martin Luther King advised, an “…arc bending toward justice.” Americans, like all human beings, are flawed but the founding fathers created a basis upon which equality of all citizens may be achieved.

Either centralized authority or freedom are compromised by human nature.

Most Americans, regardless of their circumstance in life, support the ideals of freedom, respect for all human beings, and are willing to defend an American way of life. Americans vote for what they believe in, many are willing to take responsibility for civic involvement, and a free press informs the public of the state of American affairs. Baier’s history is measured to reinforce the positives of American history. However, his historical framing is selective in ways that underrepresent American inequality and the failure of institutions to protect all citizens equally.

American protest.

Baier argues unity is a moral duty rather than a political challenge. Divisions in America are unclearly defined. There are real conflicts of interest, immense power differences, and historical traumas that make unity less appealing. Those truths are minimalized or unspoken by Baier. They create today’s unresolvable divisions. Baier’s expression of patriotism is not enough to assuage many Americans’ discontent. The role of dissent in America has changed the course of its history. Baier fails to identify many of those dissents by emphasizing unity, stability, and institutional continuity. He seems to ignore the value of protest movements, whistleblowers, and radical reformers when they have been essential to American progress.

American Presidents.

Baier focuses on Presidential leadership, their decision-making process, and character rather than the complexity of American political life. To identify President Reagan in the league of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, or Truman is a betrayal of Baier’s political objectivity. Reagan like Biden are patriots of America but they aged to a level of incompetence in their terms of office. There are differences of opinion about American history. Not all believe, understand, or agree on what America stands for. Ideological, racial, economic, and informational differences are glossed over by Baier.

Nevertheless, Baier highlights civic ideals, recalls history that reveals American continuity, and encourages listener/readers to be grateful for what they have, or achieved in American life. Despite the errors of being human and growing old, all Presidents of America have contributed to the progress of Democracy’s ideals. There remain many structural injustices that have not been overcome by past or current American Presidents.

WHO’S CHOKING

Economic chokepoints illustrated by Fishman are real, but their effectiveness is problematic.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Chokepoints (American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare)

Author: Edward Fishman

Narration by: Robert Petkoff

Edward Fishman (American author, international relations scholar, former diplomat at the Council on Foreign Relations, professor of Public Affairs at Columbia, University.)

Edward Fishman offers a detailed history of economic “Chokepoints” that have become a tool of war between nation-states. He reminds readers of Trump’s first term as President of the United States. Trump did not change from policies he believed in his first term. He only became more effective in carrying out his beliefs in his second term.

Trump’s beliefs.

Fishman shows how Trump combines the tactics of warfare with economic chokepoints to decimate Iranian cities while starving its citizens of their right to believe and live. Trump is convinced of the potential of Iran’s current leadership to use weapons of nuclear war to destroy civilization because of religious belief. Trump chooses to bomb Iran while expanding economic policies instituted by both Democratic and Republican administrations to choke petroleum revenues from a country that provides 20% of the world’s oil needs.

Like the bombing of Dresden in WWII, today’s America is senselessly bombing Iran.

Trump is waging a war on the singular belief that he can force Iran to abandon research for a nuclear bomb. The consequence is to embroil America in a war of attrition and destruction based on Trump’s belief that Iran’s leadership is willing to use nuclear war to end life on earth for a place in heaven. Trump’s actions are deluded idea of a “bully in a school yard”. Denying nuclear bomb development by force is a fool’s errand. North Korea, Russia, China, and America are as likely to instigate a nuclear war as Iran. Religious belief is Trump’s excuse; not a cause for war.

Iranian citizen protest.

It is the citizens of Iran that bare the consequence of America’s chokepoint decisions.

Fishman explains how economic chokepoints have becomes as devastating as war. The Iranian people have been impoverished by American allies’ cooperation in restricting their economy. It may be, like the physical war against Germany and Japan in WWII, economic chokepoints will make Iran bend its knee. On the other hand, it may continue a “forever war” that only diminishes humanity. Chokepoints are a war by other means that offer compromise, or dictatorship. Chokepoint effects are poverty, death, or compromise. Religion, like political belief, is a personal choice that cannot be eradicated by force.

Effects of human descent.

Economic chokepoints illustrated by Fishman are real, but their effectiveness is problematic. First, one must identify the economic target that is affective. Second, there must be unity and credibility among nations that can enforce a chokepoint. Even with a chosen chokepoint, the target may make citizens willing to sacrifice everything for belief in sovereignty.

AMERICAN AMBITION

Keefe shows Arthur Sackler raised himself in America through grit and determination, i.e., little seems handed to him on a silver plate. This is not to suggest the drug industry or the Sackler’s of the world carry no responsibility for addiction but opportunity and a way to succeed in an American life is a choice.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Empire of Pain (The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty)

Author: Patrick Radden Keefe

Narration by: Patrick Radden Keefe

Patrick Radden Keefe (Author, investigative journalist, staff writer for The New Yorker.)

Patrick Radden Keefe’s book is a detailed examination of the Sackler family, and more specifically, the dynasty that grew after the life and death of Arthur Mitchell Sackler who died in 1987. Arthur Sackler was a trained physician who specialized in biological psychiatry. Through hard work, he built a family fortune with a company specializing in medical advertising and pharmaceutical marketing. With wealth created by advertising, the Sackler patriarch acquired interests in specific drugs that added to the wealth of the Sackler empire. One of those investments is made by the sons of Arthur Sackler. It became known as OxyContin which became a huge revenue producer controlled by Arthur’s heirs. Dr. Paul Goldenheim and Dr. Robert Kaico were the scientists who invented OxyContin while working for Purdue Pharma, a company owned by Arthur’s brothers. Arthur Sackler is characterized by Keefe as secretive about his ownership interests while becoming a very rich man. The structure of his business interests and its conflicts of interest are passed on to his heirs.

Arthur M. Sackler (American psychiatrist and marketer of pharmaceuticals.)

Arthur dies nine years before OxyContin exists. Despite the difficult life Arthur Sadler had with the bankruptcy of his father, he works his way through school, becomes a licensed physician and starts a pharmaceutical advertising company. He worked as a physician, a medical researcher, and owner of a company that advertised his and other medically researched and discovered drugs. This opened the door to profiteering from drug promotions and conflicts of interest in groundbreaking and potentially harmful drugs. As a physician, it put Arthur and other research physicians in position to market drugs and influence prescriptions for drugs that may or may not be safe or effective. As an advertiser of a physician/scientists’ own drugs, they could skirt independent judgement of their effectiveness or possible side effects. The FDA is created to avoid that possibility, but Keefe illustrates how that roadblock is compromised. Keefe recounts how a leader of the FDA is compromised by his relationship with the drug industry.

The Family That Built an Empire of Pain - Strength and Hope

Arthur’s wealth and investment interests are inherited by his divorced wife, his new wife, and his brothers, i.e., Ramond, Mortimer, and Richard who led the company after Arthur’s death. The brothers sell their patent on OxyContin to Purdue Pharma. The brothers start two branches of their business, one of which retains control of OxyContin’s manufacture, marketing, sale, and profit. Patent law is a legal ownership “smoke” screen that protects company owners from liability for harm from patents a company holds. A company may own a patent independently, without recourse to its company’s owners. Purdue Pharma grows and uses its wealth to influence politicians, government officials and doctors to endorse drugs like OxyContin.

OxyContin dosages.

As is known by many Americans, OxyContin has had a catastrophic impact on America. It its launch in 1996, OxyContin is considered by some to be a gateway to addictive drugs like heroin and fentanyl. In 2026, it is estimated that 200 deaths per day were happening from fentanyl overdoses. What Keefe argues is that when the structural conflicts of interest were introduced by the Sackler family (especially with the creation of Purdue Pharma) the lines between drug efficacy and profits were breached by the medical profession.

What Keefe reveals in his research is that pharmaceutical-physician relationships cross the line of conflicts of interest.

Doctors receiving “speaker fees”, continuing-education events, consulting positions, and industry-funded clinical guidelines are being lured into prescribing drugs that may or may not be safe or effective. Funding for medical research frequently comes from companies more interested in profit then drug efficacy. Government regulators are influence by lobbyist for a drug industry that is mired in potential conflicts of interest. Keefe notes there is a revolving door between the FDA and pharma employment. Keefe notes marketing has become a part of medical education. He infers philanthropy by the drug industry may be a bribe to influence public acceptance of drug treatments that are not effective.

Coming away from Keefe’s analysis of the drug industry, one is troubled by its corruption vulnerabilities in a society that prides itself on freedom and rule-of-law.

In one sense, Arthur Sackler is a tribute to how America became one of the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world. One doubts that the Sackler family planned to create a drug that would addict and kill so many Americans. The Sackler family played a role but how many Americans have made mistakes in their drive for success. Keefe shows Arthur Sackler raised himself in America through grit and determination, i.e., little seems handed to him on a silver plate. This is not to suggest the drug industry or the Sackler’s of the world carry no responsibility for addiction but opportunity and a way to succeed in an American life is a choice.

A MANAGER’S JOB

One sees Blankfein growing as a manager in “Streetwise”. He realizes it is necessary to make an investment in the people that report to him and to focus on the synergy of different expertise in the complex world of investment.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Streetwise (Getting to and Through Goldman Sachs)

Author: Lloyd Blankfein

Narration by: Lloyd Blankfein

Lloyd Blankfein (American business executive and former chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs.)

Lloyd Blankfein believes being the smartest person in the room is a mixed blessing. “Streetwise” is a biography of his life. He is educated as a lawyer but becomes an employee of Goldman Sachs when a firm he works for is acquired.

A machine’s ability to recall billions of facts and historical precedence cannot be matched by the human brain.

One gathers from Blankfein that he believes he is usually the smartest person in the room. Considering his accomplishments, one is inclined to believe he understands his intelligence. However, he realizes being smart is not enough for him to be a good manager. Blankfein finds his intelligence and wit can undermine the effectiveness of his direct reports. As a manager of an organization, Blankfein grows to understand success in any company is based on performance of people who report to you.

The interdependence of cultures.

Every company has a culture. The growing success of Goldman is not because of any singular leader. It is the hiring of people who are ambitious and believe that they can do anything their employment requires. One who is hired by an aggressive company like Goldman has the expectation that they can add to the competitive advantage of its growth as a multinational investment and financial services company. Blankfein recognizes he is among managers that held abilities and ideas that often contradicted each other. The culture requires consensus building for the company to act on decisions to either continue or withdraw from corporate actions. Blankfein realizes persuasion rather than command is what has made Goldman successful. It is not one person’s sense of direction that makes a company a success. A good manager focuses on relationship-building to get the best results from the people who report to him or her.

Relationships are always a work in progress.

Blankfein finds he depends on the persuasive abilities of the people who work in the firm. He argues that being anxious about other’s opinions helps him make considered decisions about the direction of the firm. His role in the company became multifaceted with his recognition of different investments as complementary tools for successful growth. Blankfein realizes he does not know everything and that his style of management is to read people well, not to take his position as an entitlement, and to spot talent in others who have a positive track record in their discipline. One can imagine Blankfein’s personality violates those beliefs in his tenure, but what manager of others is perfect.

One suspects, Blankfein was a difficult person to work for but one who benefited the growth and survival of Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs and Blankfein, like many American companies and people, lived through the 2001 Trade Center disaster and the 2008 financial crises because of managers like Blankfein.

The importance of government, as well as corporate leadership.

One sees Blankfein growing as a manager in “Streetwise”. He appears to manage a hyper-vigilant temperament without killing messengers who fail by balancing their successes and potential against failure. He realizes it is necessary to make an investment in the people that report to him and to focus on the synergy of different expertise in the complex world of investment.

AMERICA’S JOURNEY

Today, it seems America has taken a step backward from human equality, but every 4 years gives America another opportunity to step forward. That step forward welcomes equality of opportunity for all who choose to become American.

America has come a long way since 1776, but it is far from the goals that it set for itself in the Constitution.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

American Grammer (Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation)

Author: Jarvis R. Givens

Narration by: Bill Andrew Quinn

Jarvis Givens (Professor and scholar of Education at Harvard)

“American Grammar” is a reminder of America’s past which shows the hard truths of what really made America great. In the 19th and 20th centuries, American government attempts to erase the cultural heritage of tribal nations. At the same time, America disingenuously encourages human slavery based on false claims of racial and gender inequality. This history lives on in America today with faltering efforts to compensate tribes for their cultural and economic losses, and its failure to provide equal opportunity for all.

Too many people fail to read or understand history. Not knowing history makes repeating it a likelihood.

America has become one of the most powerful nations in the world. Beyond the natural abundance of its land, Jarvis Givens explains the decision of America’s leadership to create an educational system to ensure white America’s political and economic success.

An educational system is a key to the door of American political and economic success.

Common education, focused on grammar, melds disparate cultures, races, and genders into one nation. The title of Givens’ book “American Grammar” is a testament to the method America uses to create an independent nation. Educational institutions became indoctrination centers designed to teach citizens a common language and the importance of conforming to a primarily white male system of governance.

American inequality.

All people, as implied by the American Constitution, deserve to have equal opportunity based on their innate ability, I.e., regardless of ethnicity, race, or gender. Givens shows how the wealth of native lands that were stolen, support of slavery, and gender inequality became culturally acceptable in America with an education system designed to indoctrinate the public. Givens’ history reminds listeners that building a great nation is a work in progress for every country. America’s Constitution recognizes the importance of human equality, and its leaders have made some progress toward that goal. However, America is far from the goal of equal opportunity for all.

America steps back and forward toward the goal of equality of opportunity in every political election.

NATIVE AMERICANS

Pember’s story of her life is heartbreaking but it reminds one of the harshness of life for every ethnicity and gender that is unfairly treated in society. Regardless of one’s ethnicity–poverty and unequal opportunity are plagues in every society. They are infections with no known cure.

Books of Interest
Website: chetyarbrough.blog

Medicine River (A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools)

Author: Mary Annette Pember

Narration by: Erin Tripp

Mary Annette Pember (Author, national correspondent for ICT News, journalist, descendent of an Ojibwe family.)

Mary Annette Pember offers a firsthand, intergenerational perspective of America’s effort to assimilate native inhabitants of America. She details the 1950s brutality, hunger, impoverishment, humiliation, and emotional neglect that diminished the economic security and sovereignty of a distinct ethnicity (the Ojibwe) in America. From research of Indian boarding school records and her personal experience, she draws a picture of the ignorance, disrespect, and discrimination by white Americans of a culture different than their own. She notes the unmarked graves, survivor testimonies of boarding school experiences, and government investigations that fail to correct the misbegotten effort to destroy a native culture in America. (The name America came from a German cartographer’s labeling of a map to honor Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine-born merchant, navigator, and explorer in the 15th and early 16th century.)

The multicultural world in which we live.

Her story is not particularly well written, but it clearly documents the ignorance and brutality of a growing white American culture. She presents an emotional truth about American government’s discrimination and why, in modern times, it is still trying to assuage its guilt. Pember’s harsh assessment of nuns who ran early schools for native descendants seems to unfairly discount a stern and punitive habituation that is true of all early “nun-managed” schools in America. In the mid-20th century, Catholic schooling relied heavily on strict order, corporal punishment, and cultural obedience. Their religious vocation reinforced an authority that applied to all students, whether native American or not. That is why the American government chose to create grants to the Catholic Church for indoctrination and education of the Ojibwe and other native Americans.

Protestant and Catholic religions in America.

The U.S. government funded native American Catholic Church schools because of their strict teaching habits. Their teaching style would demand language conformance, common spiritual belief, and reinforce Christian ideals that were acceptable to most of America’s non-native citizens. This is not to minimize the cruelty of these native American boarding schools but to suggest all Catholic schools exercised strict order that went beyond education and devolved into neglect and death in many native American’ boarding schools. The harsh disciplinary treatment of native Americans is worse, but the discipline and teaching methods of Catholic nuns set a horrible precedent that grew out of control in their schools.

Poverty and predation is widespread in the world.

The poverty and predation that Pember reveals in the story of her family’s life grows to be more widespread. The history of America’s treatment of native American tribes is recounted in many books. The constant tribal relocations of the government and murder of native Americans is well documented. Poverty and lack of equal opportunity is shown by Pember to be severe for native Americans just as it was for black Americans. One can only imagine how hard it would be for an Indian woman when all women are equally disadvantaged by poverty and lack of opportunity in the world.

Poverty in the middle east.

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