Next Target (review of The Other Government: The Unseen Power of Washington Lawyers, by Mark J. Green)

The New Left and their liberal hangers on are committed to attacking every institution necessary for the functioning of a free society. The armed forces, the most essential of those institutions, are the first target; the Executive Branch of the government, the courts, the universities, and large business corporations have all had their turn. The large corporations—multinationals as they are called loosely in the current mythology—are deemed disreputable; and it has become unfashionable to recognize that in all recorded history the large business corporation has been the only institution that has succeeded in bringing the mass of people out of poverty, just as it has been forgotten that the productive capacity of the large American corporations made possible the defeat of mankind’s enemies in World War II.

The functioning of American society depends on a reasonable state of harmony between government and the corporations, which is not the easiest state to achieve. Many a corporate executive perceives the government official who denies a license application as an ignorant bureaucrat insensitive to the needs of those “who have to earn a living” while meeting a payroll; and many a government official, in turn, perceives the executive pleading before him as a greedy philistine, insensitive to the needs of the country. It is the Washington lawyer whose task it is to remove the obstacles to communication created by these clashing perceptions; to make the client understand that the official is trying to do his best in applying policies laid down not by him but by the Congress, the courts, and administrative agencies; and to make the official understand that reasons other than corporate greed may make the governmental action sought by the client permissible, or even desirable.

FO

About the Author

Franz M. Oppenheimer

The New Left and their liberal hangers on are committed to attacking every institution necessary for the functioning of a free society. The armed forces, the most essential of those institutions, are the first target; the Executive Branch of the government, the courts, the universities, and large business corporations have all had their turn. The large corporations—multinationals as they are called loosely in the current mythology—are deemed disreputable; and it has become unfashionable to recognize that in all recorded history the large business corporation has been the only institution that has succeeded in bringing the mass of people out of poverty, just as it has been forgotten that the productive capacity of the large American corporations made possible the defeat of mankind’s enemies in World War II.

The functioning of American society depends on a reasonable state of harmony between government and the corporations, which is not the easiest state to achieve. Many a corporate executive perceives the government official who denies a license application as an ignorant bureaucrat insensitive to the needs of those “who have to earn a living” while meeting a payroll; and many a government official, in turn, perceives the executive pleading before him as a greedy philistine, insensitive to the needs of the country. It is the Washington lawyer whose task it is to remove the obstacles to communication created by these clashing perceptions; to make the client understand that the official is trying to do his best in applying policies laid down not by him but by the Congress, the courts, and administrative agencies; and to make the official understand that reasons other than corporate greed may make the governmental action sought by the client permissible, or even desirable.