When he was head of the State Department policy planning staff during the early years of the cold war, the noted author George Kennan revealed the ruthless realpolitik mentality of those dedicated to social inequality within and between nations. Kennan maintained that a wealthy United States facing an impoverished world could not afford “the luxury of altruism and world benefaction” and should cease talking about “vague and unreal objectives such as human rights, the raising of the living standards, and democratization. … The less we are hampered by idealistic slogans, the better
