Michael Jordan and the new global capitalism

LaFeber's awe of Jordan can be infectious, since Jordan's basketball exploits are truly astonishing. But one may question some of LaFeber 's encomiums. Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali matched Jordan's global fame. And for athletic prowess, the argument for Babe Ruth's number- one ranking endures. In the 1920s and early 1930s, all American athletic talent was channeled into professional baseball. There was nothing comparable, no basketball, negligible pro football, really no mass popular sport--and no television. Ruth dominated on both offense and defense, early on not only as the best pitcher but as the grea

The concept of American cultural imperialism has entered the op-ed lists. Now critics in France, Germany, indeed all Europe, and intellectuals on each continent deplore American commercialism, mindless consumerism, the vulgarity and triviality of American pop culture. LaFeber notes, for example, that in film, television, and video sales, "in 1993 Americans made $4 billion more from Europeans than European films, television and video sales earned from the Americans. By 1996 the gap shot up nearly 50% to almost $6 billion" and rising.

One Sunday morning, with his wife at church, Bowerman poured melted rubber into the family's waffle iron. Waffle-soled, square-cleated athletic shoes, made of lightweight fabric, were the ultimate result. Knight decided to concentrate on the shoes he and Bowerman were developing. But he needed a name, a trademark, an easily recognized symbol. One of his young designers, Jeff Johnson, had a bad night's sleep during 1971 in which he dreamed of Nike, the Greek winged goddess who symbolized victory. Without any better idea, Knight decided to try Johnson's suggestion.

LaFeber properly writes as an economist focused strictly on the numbers, the magnitudes. Accordingly this prompts one to reflect on the social, cultural impact of advertising's crucial role in this immense new world of transnational juggernaut capitalism. After all, the defining factor of its engine, advertising, is not ever to convey the whole truth but to promote a partial truth (and sometimes an untruth) as the real truth. In short, varying degrees of deception is the essence of advertising. "All news all the time," proclaims CBS radio, our (self-described) leading news station, but unmentioned is that a third to a half of each news hour consists of commercials, advertising, just as a quarter of each TV hour does. Such deception is the raison d'etre of all advertising. So billions of people around the globe are saturated with degrees of deception around the clock. Folks from Mars might be astonished to discover that the editorial matter in the media cannot exist on its own: Advertising has to underwrite i t. To mislead has traditionally been judged to be malign behavior. However, transnationals thrive, and Michael Jordan's advertising endorsements inspire billions to consume anything he is identified with. A colossal fraud, in short. "Lighten up,

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