Philosophy
Yes, I've read Howard Zinn. Yes, I get that history is written by those with power who in turn construct myths based upon ideals that elevate their own interests and goals. But I am still at a complete loss as to why the name Henry Ford is celebrated and not vilified in American culture.
A successful captain of industry. A pioneer in transportation who changed the world. Creator of an eponymous brand that survives to this day. An innovator in business efficiency. O.k. But also a scumbag bigot.
O.k., I know Godwin's law. Yes, we carelessly and ignorantly throw around Hitler's name and call people Nazis for the dumbest things. But to say that Henry Ford was like Hitler is literally true. Hitler kept in his office a framed picture of Henry Ford. In all of Mein Kampf, there is only one American named. That American? Wait for it...
He acquired The Dearborn Independent, a newspaper that would them give him a platform for his overtly anti-Semitic writings. He collected his hateful columns into a single volume, The International Jew. In the preface, Ford writes,
We know that this book was not only translated into German, but that Hitler owned a copy in which he left ample laudatory marginal notes. The Germans were the bad guys and Henry Ford objected to American entry into WWII because he supported Hitler. I know we worship money and those who gain a lot of it, but please explain to me how his name did not suffer the same fate as that of Benedict Arnold. Why do most Americans have a warm fuzzy feeling around the name of this horrible human being?
- Betty Ford's Contribution
Let us raise a glass to the memory of Betty Ford. Yes, a bad joke. What Betty Ford did is to bring the notion of addiction into a new cultural place. Before Betty Ford, the alcoholic was the drunk, someone dirty, unable to hold down a job, living in the...
- One's Private Reading Room Reveals A. Hitler's "mein Kampf" Is #1
Roll over Dickens and Asimov. What is next...quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung's Little Red Book or Karl Marx's Das Kapital? "Mein Kampf becomes an ebook bestseller" Digital editions of Adolf Hitler's fascist screed, in less public format,...
- Nice Going Ford India And The Figo Hatchback--idiots
"Ford India Needs to Fire Its Advertising Execs" by Katy Waldman and Megan Wiegand March 22nd, 2013 Slate Today in horrible advertising ideas, Ford India plugs the cavernous trunk space of its Figo hatchback by depicting captive women stuffed inside....
- "mein Kampf"...a Best Seller?
This is a curious news story. Book sellers will market what they think will sell. After all, the end product is revenue. This controversy is mute. Perhaps Muslims are horribly offended by lavish displayed bible marketing or by mass marketing techniques...
- 14 Grand For An Einstein Letter
"Albert Einstein's letter on Nazis sold for $14,000" October 12th, 2011 BBC NEWS A 1939 letter from Albert Einstein warning of the "calamitous peril" to Jews posed by the Nazis has been sold at auction for nearly $14,000 (£9,000). The Nobel-winning...
Philosophy
Henry Ford: Evil Bigot
Yes, I've read Howard Zinn. Yes, I get that history is written by those with power who in turn construct myths based upon ideals that elevate their own interests and goals. But I am still at a complete loss as to why the name Henry Ford is celebrated and not vilified in American culture.
A successful captain of industry. A pioneer in transportation who changed the world. Creator of an eponymous brand that survives to this day. An innovator in business efficiency. O.k. But also a scumbag bigot.
O.k., I know Godwin's law. Yes, we carelessly and ignorantly throw around Hitler's name and call people Nazis for the dumbest things. But to say that Henry Ford was like Hitler is literally true. Hitler kept in his office a framed picture of Henry Ford. In all of Mein Kampf, there is only one American named. That American? Wait for it...
"Every year makes them more and more the controlling masters of the producers in a nation of one hundred and twenty millions only a single great man, Ford, to their fury, still maintains full independence.""Them," of course, are the Jews. Hitler presented Ford with an award, the Verdienstkreutz des Ordens vom Deutscher Adler, the Grand Service Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle, the highest honor that could be awarded to a non-German. An award Ford proudly received.
He acquired The Dearborn Independent, a newspaper that would them give him a platform for his overtly anti-Semitic writings. He collected his hateful columns into a single volume, The International Jew. In the preface, Ford writes,
"We confidently call the reader to witness that the tone of these articles is all that it should be. The International Jew and his satellites, as the conscious enemies of all that Anglo-Saxons mean by civilization, are not spared, nor is that unthinking mass which defends anything that a Jew does, simply because it has been taught to believe that what Jewish leaders do is Jewish. Neither do these articles proceed upon a false emotion of brotherhood and apology, as if this stream of doubtful tendency in the world were only accidentally Jewish."
We know that this book was not only translated into German, but that Hitler owned a copy in which he left ample laudatory marginal notes. The Germans were the bad guys and Henry Ford objected to American entry into WWII because he supported Hitler. I know we worship money and those who gain a lot of it, but please explain to me how his name did not suffer the same fate as that of Benedict Arnold. Why do most Americans have a warm fuzzy feeling around the name of this horrible human being?
- Betty Ford's Contribution
Let us raise a glass to the memory of Betty Ford. Yes, a bad joke. What Betty Ford did is to bring the notion of addiction into a new cultural place. Before Betty Ford, the alcoholic was the drunk, someone dirty, unable to hold down a job, living in the...
- One's Private Reading Room Reveals A. Hitler's "mein Kampf" Is #1
Roll over Dickens and Asimov. What is next...quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung's Little Red Book or Karl Marx's Das Kapital? "Mein Kampf becomes an ebook bestseller" Digital editions of Adolf Hitler's fascist screed, in less public format,...
- Nice Going Ford India And The Figo Hatchback--idiots
"Ford India Needs to Fire Its Advertising Execs" by Katy Waldman and Megan Wiegand March 22nd, 2013 Slate Today in horrible advertising ideas, Ford India plugs the cavernous trunk space of its Figo hatchback by depicting captive women stuffed inside....
- "mein Kampf"...a Best Seller?
This is a curious news story. Book sellers will market what they think will sell. After all, the end product is revenue. This controversy is mute. Perhaps Muslims are horribly offended by lavish displayed bible marketing or by mass marketing techniques...
- 14 Grand For An Einstein Letter
"Albert Einstein's letter on Nazis sold for $14,000" October 12th, 2011 BBC NEWS A 1939 letter from Albert Einstein warning of the "calamitous peril" to Jews posed by the Nazis has been sold at auction for nearly $14,000 (£9,000). The Nobel-winning...