The plight of the Jews during the holocaust is another example of the fact that politic and morality do not mix. The author Edwin Black that the politicians and the president back then FDR were influenced by the big business involvement in helping the Nazi further its cause of European domination. This is an aspect that rarely mentioned by nay books about WWII.
The reality is so complicate that telling one side of the story is enough to satisfy the need of fodder for thought of the readers. Black goes beyond the limit and outside the box to dig up the reality. He mentions that IBM is the only one that refuses to apologize for its past deeds. It is a result of relentless pursue of business opportunity on the part of John Watson Jr. of IBM.
General Motor, Ford and Chrysler all are participating in helping the Nazis in carrying out the plan of genocide of the Jew. But they admitted their past wrongful deeds and apologized for them. The motivation of the US industry is all about anti-Semitism and money. The IBM motivation is all about money.
The thesis of his book is that it is an ongoing struggle of the money and morality. And politic and morality do not mix is resurfacing again in the past and nowadays. Without the helping hands of the US corporations, the scale and scope of the holocaust would be much less smaller and lower.
There is a contradiction of the past of the US policy and the current staunch support of the Zionism of the Jewish people. The US government isolationism is a fact that rarely discussed in any books that I happen to come across so far. This book of Edwin Black sheds a light of this issue. The isolationism is a smart business move to capitalize the conflict among European to benefit US industry.
This is the same theme that Charmer Johnson has posited in his works about the US hollowing out of its industry during the Cold War and the exploitation of war of the Japanese and Korean industry to emerge as industry power house of the world.
This jives with the thinking of Joseph Kennedy while he was the US ambassador to UK in the period leading to the WWII. This answers my own question why these people from the isolationism camp have such an attitude toward the conflict of Europe. Then why FDR changes from support the isolationism of US to active foreign involvement? Is it because his advisors made it clear to him this is an opportunity for US to expand its influence around the world and grabbing the crisis of the world to become the leader, super power of the world.
There is another reason for it. The emerging of the Soviet Union as the hegemon of the world is also the reason why FDR want to involve US in the world affair. If FDR still stick to the isolationism of the time, US may be relegated to the second rank power of the world. And it will lose all the opportunity to make a buck in the world market when the European power collapsed as a result of their own madness.
The role of the Arab world during the WWII is also mentioned partially in talk by Black in a NYC synagogue. He would call the current effort of Iran president Mahmud Ahmadinajad as the continuation of Nazis job. He also exposes the fact that US policy of oil addiction is set up for future collapse of the economy when Iran blocking of any export of its oil and oil from this region.
He also exposed the fact that GM plan of get rid of the electric cars and truck industry of the past to monopolize in combustion engine. The current hydrogen technology has been around since the end of the 1800s. He said that submarines, ships and cars had employed hydrogen technology back then. There is no such thing as inferior technology back then. And it is no such thing as inferior technology now. It is simply a matter of ���political will��� or special interest strangles hold of the economy.
The social and marketing aspect of the switching of electric cars to combustion engine, gasoline based cars is simply psychological: Electric cars are too quiet and feminine. To sell more cars, the industry needs to create a macho image of a car with a roaring powerful combustion engine.
���Go down Together��� by Jeff Guinn is a book about Bonnie and Clyde of West Texas, near Dallas Texas.
The thesis is to explore the social and economic setting of that time (Great Depression) and the fascination of the US public to this kind of story.
It is the lack of a bright future for the people of the west Texas region and the bleak economic situation of the Great Depression that prompts media outlet to come up with a story to sell news papers. The banks are the subject of despise of the public in fostering the creation of Great Depression. Robbing banks would be a popular subject of the day for the general readers. So here comes the birth of the myth of Bonnie and Clyde. It is a way to take the mind of public of the depressing economic reality.
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