ForumGarden

anastrophe wrote: Ford, of course, is also notable for being viciously anti-semite.
I don't nderstand. Agreeing with Ford makes one an anti-Semite? sorry. Truth is truth, no matter who says it.

spot wrote: Japan, post-WW2. You'll remember that the US gave them a considerable leg-up, financially, through the 50s. Have you the slightest idea how much the Japanese people want the US bases closed? That is the one great overriding concern, the removal of the stain of humiliation by foreign occupation.



Perhaps we might extrapolate from that notion to the prospects for Iraq?
That's hardly the same thing. Japan took our help, capitalized on it, and are now whipping our butts on the open market. They are also generally strong allies, though their constitution kind of hog-ties them into a financial only role. Calling their wanting us to remove our military from their land as ungrateful, is like calling a 21-year-old ungrateful for wanting to move out and get his on flat.



I'd say the Soviet Union would be a better example of what charity and the entitlement mentality does to nations. Or look to inner city neighborhoods almost anywhere for a more micro approach.

Accountable wrote: I don't nderstand. Agreeing with Ford makes one an anti-Semite? sorry. Truth is truth, no matter who says it.Actually, I wasn't going to even bring antisemitism into it. I was more interested in the degree to which Henry Ford's view on charity was central to his Fascist tendency. I know, fascist is a nasty label, and I don't like labels. I do feel that his basic approach to social issues informs both territories, though, charitable practice and right-wing disregard for the underclass.

The picture under this post is an informative one, in terms of the inspiration the Third Reich took from Ford's autobiography, "My Life and Work". Henry Ford was the fourth person ever decorated with the Grand Cross of the German Eagle. The photo shows him (centre) receiving the award from Nazi diplomats (Karl Kapp, German consul-general of Cleveland and Fritz Hailer, German consul of Detroit) in the USA.

A portrait of Ford was hung at the Nazi party's headquarters in Munich. In Max Wallace's 2003 book The American Axis, he recounts how a Detroit News columnist named Annetta Antona arrived at the headquarters to interview Hitler in 1931. When she asked the future Führer about the portrait, he told her, "I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration."In 1923, when Hitler learned that Ford might run for President, he said, according to the Chicago Tribune, "I wish that I could send some of my shock troops to Chicago and other big American cities to help in the elections ... We look to Heinrich Ford as the leader of the growing Fascist movement in America."

I hope the quote is accurate - I can't get to the Chicago Tribune archive to verify it.

Attached files