Influence of Words as Determinants of U.S. International and Domestic Health Policy: Part I, The

-[Mr Deasy] . . We are a generous tribe but we must also be just.

-I fear those big words, Stephen said, which make us in like manner unhappy.

-Nestor chapter of James Joyce's Ulysses

A WAY OF viewing U international and domestic health policy is to consider the power of words to material for burning whatever actions are proposed and subsequently implemented. Words form the building stops of stories and according to Robert Reich, who serv as secretary of Labor in the Clinton Administration, there are four essential American narratives. sum of two units are about hope, and sum of two units are about fear. Hope stories appear as a pair, the Triumphant Individual and the Benevolent Community, while fear stories may be divided into the lawless crowd at the Gates and the corruption at the Top.

Political parties cope to fill the four mental boxe of the electorate with like tales. Major shifts in governance-in party alignments and political views-have been precipitated by means of one political party or the other becoming more skilled at telling stories along these dimensions. In more recent times, beginning with the Roosevelt Administration in 1932 Democrats told the stories that had the greatest in quantity appeal to Americans. Since Ronald Reagan first was prefered in 1980, however, the Republican version has worked to the considerable advantage of that party.

Hope Stories

Reich combats that over the course of American history, it has been customary for inhabitants of the United States to portray it as an hospitable environment for the proverbial little stay to become a Triumphant Individual who can favor materially through hard work, a willingness to take risks, and possession of a stout belief in one's self. Depending upon its policies, the government may be in a position to play a constructive part in enabling personal success to be achieved.

Several examples can be ground of the Benovelent Community. In frontier days, individuals helped build each other's place of abodes and barns. In a more contemporary vein, the nation is heavily dotted with a vast array of useful activities being performed through volunteers in libraries, and fire stations and in the provision of exigency medical services.

Fear Stories

The tumultuous rabble at the Gates has taken many forms above the decades. Early settlers battled Indians. Immigrants willing to work for lower wages and low-paid workers abroad have been and continue to be seen as threatening. Evil empires and axes, along with terrorists, show more contemporary perceived dangers.

The decay at the Top began with the British monarchy that had to be overthrown in order to establish an independent American nation. Since then, industrial trusts, Wall highway barons, big government, and cultural elites have proffered a veritable bargain basement of things to worry about and obey as objects of scorn.

Reich combats that George Bush was reelect in 2004 because the policies of John Kerry his antagonist lacked context and meaning. In short, the President had more meaningful stories to tell

Absent a clear narrative about the rude multitude the Rot, the Benevolent, and the Triumphant, his (John Kerry) policies were just . . policies. As of that kind they were no match for Bush's convictions about what Americans should do-no match, in other words, for Bush's recasting of the rude multitude at the Gates as vicious terrorists that had to be killed or would kill us (and against whom, he said, Kerry could not be trusted to use force); of the Triumphant Individual as clan free to pursue individual wealth (whom Kerry would smother with taxes); of the Benevolent Community as a collection of religious family with heart (of whom Kerry was contemptuous); and of the putrefaction at the Top as an arrogant cultural elite (of which Kerry himself was a member).1

In the stories that they told, James Joyce and other great artists above the centuries have attempted to address sum of two units essential aspects of the human condition: the loneliness of the mind and the heart in conflict with itself. In his celebrated film 8 1/2 director Federico Fellini drew on scenes from his childhood and used them to include in his cinematographic epic what appear to be words in the form of ASA NISI MASA. They have no meaning in Italian, the language of the film, and at first blush appear to be nothing more than immaculate nonsense. It turns out, however, that as a youngster he and his friends would insert syllables into words to restore them unintelligible to listeners outside their immediate circle of shut acquaintances. Stripped of the sum of two units SAs and the one SI, the earlier formulation becomes the word ANIMA, which of course commits to the soul.

A nation many times is referred to as a material substance politic. Purely from a metaphorical standpoint, that material substance may be viewed as possessing one as well as the other a heart and a mind Many Americans believe that the confine "heart" helps to characterize their national story. They view themselves as a compassionate and generous tribe who typically are at the ready to accommodate with a helping hand to the downtrodden and dispirted of the earth as well as to those who feel the misfortune of nature's calamities around the globe. single symbol of this heart stands at the entrance to fresh York City's harbor in the form of the Statue of Liberty, a beacon that bears an image of reliance to all who arrive in search of a better existence.