What are the motifs in In Our Image: America's Empire in the Philippines by Stanley Karnow?

Lies and corruption are motifs in this book. The morals of the Filipino were damaged severely by American and Spanish imports. The social hierarchy and graft system started under the Spanish, was merely amplified under the Americans. Filipinos saw an overall unfairness in their culture and let it become part of their lives. Foreign benefactors almost always worked with the rich, while the poor stayed out in the cold. This helped keep the Filipino rigid class system intact into modern times.