the changes taking place in the Soviet Union have happened too recently to predict whether the forces that move nations toward democracy will prevail. One third of the world's nations practiced torture between 1980 and 1986. It is estimated that world military expenditures in 1986 were $850 billion (Harper's Index Book). The top three countries in the world in per capita percentage of their population in prison in 1985, and in order, are the Soviet Union, South Africa and the U.S. In 1985, sixty-nine percent of the $2.1 billion federal antidrug budget went to law enforcement compared to 1% to drug education to reduce use (Harper's Index Book). The number of people in prison in the United States has more than doubled in the last 12 years. Do you feel safer on the street? Violence, and the portrayal of violence, is one of our chief forms of entertainment in the U.S. Sports, (where people suffer many injuries), violent television and the physical punishment of children are widely accepted and supported. The average American child has seen 16,000 murders portrayed on television by age 16. Eighty-three percent of American parents reported that they spank their children in 1985, though only forty percent said they consider spanking effective. There is a great deal of controversy regarding how much physical punishment school, juvenile detention, prison, etc., personnel should be allowed to administer. Physical punishment for law or rule breakers has strong support. The U.S. is one of the few industrialized countries in the world that has no universal health insurance, no state supported childcare for every child who needs it, and that allows the death penalty. A FEW OF THE FORCES AND BELIEFS THAT SHAPE US AS A NATION AND AS INDIVIDUALS, PARTICULARLY REGARDING INTIMATE RELATIONSHIPSIn 1985, fifty-seven percent of American women believed in love at first sight, and sixty-six percent of men did. Thirty-nine percent of American fifth-graders repo...
