Why So Serious?

Wherein the Author, with no small reluctance and under considerable intellectual duress, doth presume to discourse upon that most exquisitely vexatious and philosophically precarious condition of being called upon to extend the honours of sober consideration unto one whose deportment, sentiments, and public protestations are so egregiously, so palpably, and so monumentally at variance with his own practice as to render the very exercise of seriousness a labour bordering upon the absurd.

Perhaps you are old enough (like me!) to remember when John Mackey, the owner of Whole Foods, wrote an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal, which caused quite a firestorm. The reason for the strong reaction was that he quoted Margaret Thatcher in an attack on Obamacare. This, evidently, created an existential crisis for liberals. The problem was that Whole Foods was a liberal grocery store: it featured organic food, sustainability, and high pay for its employees with quality benefits. What more could a liberal, in 2009, have wanted out of corporate America? Now here was their darling saying that Obamacare was socialism and that socialism was bad. This led to the first widespread instance, that I can remember at least, of a political boycott. 

While I understand the principle of boycotts and objectively have no issue with them, when people participate in them or advocate for them, I usually am left, well, disappointed. 

The reason is that, regardless of whether the boycott works, for me, it generally just reveals an individual's hypocrisy.

I was thinking about this recently as I read a social media post about Henry Ford. I think it was by Slate.com, but I can't find it now, so I could be wrong. It was a very interesting post celebrating the introduction of the 5-day work week and raising the wages of workers. As an example of a similar article, here is a recent one from Time.

Ford is an important figure in American history. He helped revolutionize the global economy with the introduction of the assembly line and by popularizing the automobile. Beyond that, he made substantial contributions to the labor movement by instituting a 5-day work week. This is awesome, and there really isn't any reason to not celebrate it.

I just find it odd that none of the recent articles on Ford and the 5-day work week mention that Ford was a supporter of the Nazis. 

Ford was a virulent antisemite and published lies in abundance on the Jews and their chokehold on the world economy in the newsletter, which all of his employees received. The German division of Ford provided financial support to Hitler and the Nazis during their rise to power. The feeling was mutual. Hitler expressed admiration for Henry Ford, and Ford provided financially for the National Socialists. 

None of these are points made up. It is history, and thus far, it still isn't hard to verify these things. 

Continuing with the low-hanging fruit of the Nazis, think about our world today. When you enjoy some Fanta, you're taking pleasure in a drink created by the Third Reich (their YouTube ad celebrating their history has some amusing omissions to the "tough times" when Germans had to get creative to make a tasty drink).  When you pop some Ibuprofen for your headache, you are experiencing the benefits of Bayer's experimentation on Jews in concentration camps. When you drive somewhere, and your car utilizes GPS, you are indebted to Werner von Braun, the Nazi father of rocketry. Whom, it must be noted, the US immediately pardoned and brought to TX to help their space program. The list goes on, and there is no point in belaboring this point anymore. 

Listen, you don't boycott Bayer because you don't care. 

You don't care.

Therein lies the problem. 

You could say, "Well, I didn't know," but you don't know because you don't care. You think you care and like to get all worked up, but in reality, you don't. Your opinions are shallow and ill-formed. You aren't interested in diving into history because if you did, you'd learn it is very complicated and not black and white. Sides change. Remember when Canada embarrassingly celebrated a Ukrainian who fought against Russia in WWII, and then afterwards, someone pointed out that means he fought for the SS? 

Bad people do evil things with good results that we enjoy. That is just the way it goes. And you don't care because, honestly, it isn't like you're going to stop using GPS or stop taking Ibuprofen for your headache. And I don't think you should. I'm not advocating for that at all. 

But, in my humble opinion, boycotts like the ones initiated against Whole Foods and ever since are shallow and poorly thought out. All they do is make the person look like an ignorant hypocrite. 

Which is why I have so much trouble taking someone seriously when they start talking about a political boycott, or politics for that matter. 

I'm not a fan of the tone of this, and some others I've written lately. But some things have been on my chest, and I needed to just say it. Hopefully you'll stick with me. This won't be the overall flavor of the blog.