David Brooks, "The Brutality Cascade": Sure, Just Ask the Chinese to Stop Using Slave Labor

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"? You're right. I've just removed and examined one of my black New Balance trainers, and it is indeed manufactured, most likely by slave labor, in China.

In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "The Brutality Cascade" (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/opinion/brooks-the-brutality-cascade.html?_r=0), David Brooks makes reference to a "brutality cascade" present in sports, school and politics. Owing to the fact that your competitors engage in unwholesome conduct, the brutality cascade compels you to mimic their behavior or otherwise face failure. Specifically with regard to Chinese industrial cyber warfare and global trade, Brooks writes:

"Brutality cascades are very hard to get out of. You can declare war and simply try to crush the people you think are despoiling the competition.

Or you can try what might be called friendship circles. In this approach, you first establish the norms of legitimacy that should govern the competition. You create a Geneva Convention of domestic political conduct or global cyberespionage. Then you organize as broad a coalition as possible to uphold these norms.

Finally, you isolate the remaining violators and deliver a message: If you join our friendship circle and abide by our norms, the benefits will be overwhelming, but if you stay outside, the costs will be devastating."

Well, this is similar to how the US is attempting by way of the P5+1 "friendship circle" to restrain Iranian efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Have sanctions against Iran worked? Not really. Sure the Iranian rial has been punished, yet Iranian president Ahmadinejad recently declared, "God willing, in the coming days, the world will see Iran showcasing some very big nuclear achievements" (see: http://www.voanews.com/content/ahmadinejad-iran-to-unveil-new-nuclear-achievements-139152194/151891.html). Moreover, Tehran failed to respond to concessions offered by the P5+1 in Kazakhstan during the most recent "negotiating" session over Iran's nuclear development program. Do the mullahs care if dealers in Tehran markets are inconvenienced by difficulties in transacting trade while they go about their business of building a bomb? No way.

Can the US respond to Chinese cyber attacks upon American industry by convening an international convention and challenging China's "sociopathic" behavior? Two problems: The world is addicted to their cheaply manufactured goods, notwithstanding use of slave labor to manufacture your Apple iPhone and the high levels of suicide among Chinese laborers (see: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57367950/the-dark-side-of-shiny-apple-products/).

Then, too, the US is in China's pocket, given that China is the largest foreign owner of America's spiraling debt, fast approaching $17 trillion. True, the Chinese "only" hold some 8% of this amount (see: http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/moneymatters/ss/How-Much-US-Debt-Does-China-Own.htm), but imagine the economic turmoil the Chinese could cause were they to retaliate against a Brooks-type "friendship circle" by unloading this debt.

I don't own an iPhone, but should I stop buying other goods manufactured in China? Unfortunately, the selection of items available to me in certain sectors would be severely limited.

How does America regain control of its destiny and put a stop to predatory tactics? Only by regaining control of its debt, but then there is no sign of this happening.

How to avoid the "brutality cascade" in sports, school and politics? I suppose you need to succeed at your own game, but it is not always easy to drop out of the "rat race," declare your personal set of rules, and stand tall on your own.