“Buck” Duke, owner of the American Tobacco Company, used the new

Bonsack cigarette machine to steamroller his competition at the turn

of the century. By 1910, his company had 86% of US cigarette sales.

Big Business

in the US at

that time was

hard, fast, and

mean… It’s not

like that

today, right?

Like other large businesses of the day in Great Britain,

Imperial Tobacco Company was slower to adapt the new,

more fiercely competitive business practices of their US

counterparts. They feared widespread unemployment from

the new machines, and it all seemed rather impolite.

Japanese big businesses grew on

the zaibatsu model, like a big, well-

interwoven family business. Small

companies like Mitsubishi rode the

groundswell of Japanese industrial

expansion, and became giants. The

net effect was more subdued than

in the United States.

American Tobacco Company was dissolved in an anti-trust suit in 1911 into

several smaller, equally rapacious companies.

Now, girls, even if they are toasted, you

still can‟t smoke „em in the theatre…

They made us

laugh, they made

us cry, they made

us squirm in our

seats and sigh…

THE MOVIES!! With all our favorite

actors and actresses…

Greta Garbo

1920s 0r so

Many of these early romantic films

made excellent use of the talents of

European film stars, such as Rudolph

Valentino, and the stunning Pola Negri

The American film-going public

found the European stars to be

more, well, sexy, although many

American men denounced

Valentino as being effeminate.

The ladies loved him… a very graceful man

His dog

did not

consider

him

effeminate

Much of the American anti-Japanese propaganda

during WWII depicted the Japanese as myopic,

buck-toothed rats. There was a general tendency

to denigrate the Japanese people as a whole,

although Hirohito was frequently depicted.

Oddly, almost

all anti-German

propaganda

featured only

Hitler himself.

Much domestic Japanese propaganda of the day addressed the

delight of a Pan-Asian Pacific, free from the overbearing influence

of the USA and Great Britain.

Americans

were often

depicted as

political

fat-cats, or

sometimes as terrifying demons.

Same thing, right?

In the 1770s, North American colonists rebelled

against Great Britain’s imperialist rule. We won.

Great Britain lost.

It felt good…

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the USA fought against North Vietnam…

They had rebelled against imperialist French rule, and after they

successfully drove the French out, we fought them… They won.

We lost.

We were imperialists…

It didn’t feel so good… probably because we lost.

Globalization: “The removal of barriers to free trade and

the closer integration of national economies” (Joseph

Stieglitz: Globalization and its Discontents, p. IX)

The pace of Globalization with

the USA in the forefront has

increased tremendously in

the last few decades. Never

before have so many places

in the world been so tightly

connected, so similar in

so many ways

There has been a cost to the

US job market, many IT

related positions have been

outsourced to other countries,

many factories built elsewhere,

but we get cheap shoes and

TVs, and the wealthy just keep getting wealthier. All is well…

Yet, many feel that the US

has forced its form of

“Coca-Cola” globalization

on the rest of the world

far too fast, and think

we need to back off a

bit, and not take undue

advantage of our

position of power, which

appears to be waning,

anyway.

Probably a good idea.

Now, if we can just convince those rich,

powerful industrialists and financiers…

Sources:

• All slides, Google Images and

America Compared, by Carl J. Guarneri

Napalm Diplomacy