We live in a world of phonies. I think when most people think of what made America "great" we tend to idealize it. When men were men and women were women, when hard work paid off, when kids could play in the street from dawn to dusk and no one had to worry. Then our rose colored glasses got stripped off. Men beat their women to pulps and everyone turned a blind eye. Hard work didn't pay off. It meant you worked for the guy who was a total asshole who would back stab you if you crossed him faster than diarrhea. Where rich men got rich off other men's hard work. Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Edison, JP Morgan, Westinghouse. These were our idols growing up. Successful businessmen. We are only now realizing, in spite of books and news articles of the times, often portraying these men as vindictive, uncaring, making their money off other people's hard work, we somehow began to idolize the idea of being an asshole to be successful. As far as kids being kids, well, I left the house regularly in the summer at the break of dawn on my bicycle, bag lunch in tow, to go hangout with my friends on the shores of Lake Erie several miles away. We thought nothing of this. But I remember when they first started putting kids pictures on milk cartons also. I don't remember ever seeing the same one twice, although I'm sure I might have. To my point, there were a lot. We just didn't realize how big of an epidemic abductions were. The world of phonies had re-written history quietly turning themselves into heroes and scarring our make up for the last 100 years, if not the next. Phonies and bullies are who we idolize most.
The first time most people got a glimpse, and some still haven't, at what phonies were in control back then was when the Tesla story came out. We knew him, if we knew him at all, as a brilliant scientist that died a destitute drunk loner. These images couldn't be further from the truth. Tesla is the reason we have just about everything we have developed in the last 100 years. Tesla in his creative ideas expanded our capabilities exponentially. Wireless power? Tesla. Water power on a mass scale? Niagara Falls ringing any bells? Tesla. Wireless communication and radio? Now credited correctly to Tesla instead of Marconi. DC, aka. direct current? Many people gave Edison credit for this even now. However, this is in fact laughable upon closer examination. Edison was notorious for running around the country stealing other ideas (more than 2000 of his patents invalidated due to theft). Tesla was under his employ when he supposedly "developed" direct current. In fact, Edison did create one thing--the intellectual property contract. Everything that Tesla developed under Edison belonged to Edison. In fact, Tesla's rarely mentioned in anything Edison "did" while Tesla was in his employ. It is therefore to this day in debate whether Edison or Tesla actually created DC. We know the famous light bulb was a mistake--not even Edison's mistake. A glass blower's. We also know that everything that Edison's labs created from DC were in fact Tesla's from Tesla's research books. Therefore, it's highly unlikely that Edison ever created anything except a mistake and a contract. In support of my opinion, I would point out that even the patents that have not been revoked that still remain in Edison's name would require that he was submitting a new patent for approval every 3 days from his first to his last. Add in the known stolen intellectual property that resulted in half being revoked, he would've been creating a new patent every 1.5 days. Really. Yeah, any idiot that knows anything about new ideas, 1.5 days would have been impossible, even for Tesla. And Edison, in spite of all his blustering, was no Tesla.
Why then did Edison for a century have this admired reputation? Because Tesla was a genuinely nice guy. He worried about other people. He had empathy. He was not a loner. One of his best friends was Mark Twain. In fact, when Edison was telling everyone how "dangerous" the Tesla coil was, Tesla's initial experiment to prove wireless power was safe, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemmons for you pickier people) volunteered to help Tesla prove to the world otherwise.
Mark Twain holding a Tesla Coil 1894
Almost all of you have touched a Tesla coil. They were super popular in the 1970's and 80's and anyone could buy them at their local mall in Spencer's. None of you died from it as Edison had claimed. Surprise, surprise. But Edison had made it his life's mission to "end" Tesla and erase his name from history. Tesla had several patents on the radio way before Marconi. Yet, for decades, even after the Patent Office had invalidated Marconi's patent for the radio in 1943, schools and universities, yes universities, were still teaching Marconi had invented the radio in 1901 as late as 2010. In fact, Tesla had done so 5 years earlier, patent and all. Yet, again, Edison would praise Marconi for decades. Edison was a vindictive, petty little man, and when I was 7 he was my idol. If you didn't know he was a fake, you probably still are idolizing him.
The reason the Tesla versus Edison story is so poignant? It illustrates the greed, vindictiveness, lies they were willing to tell, just in their petty grab for cash and notoriety. Tesla is also unique in that he crossed paths with Westinghouse and JP Morgan, who also would abuse Tesla and his memory relentlessly. Westinghouse's contract with Tesla is well known today--he paid Tesla $60,000 for his patents (1887's $60,000) and $2.50 per hp (horsepower) of electricity sold, plus a salary as a consultant. Edison and Westinghouse had long been rivals prior to Tesla entering the picture, but Edison's attacks in the news media and his propaganda ads purchased in various medium had some people terrified of both. Westinghouse went to Tesla with a sob story about losing everything, and Tesla famously tore up the contract. Westinghouse no longer paid him the $2.50 per hp, and Tesla's money dried up. Arguably, this shows Edison was a petty little man and Westinghouse's greed trumped any friendship anyone thought they had with him. Tesla' interactions for funding then lead him to JP Morgan who had become a true believer in wireless power. That ended abruptly when Morgan found out that Tesla had no way of measuring the power once delivered and Tesla in fact wanted to distribute "free" power to everyone on the planet. JP Morgan had no vision. No real intellect. An actual intelligent man with any vision would've realized that once the wireless power was created a tracking system could be created. He was not as vindictive to Tesla as Edison or scheming as Westinghouse, albeit he did make it impossible for Tesla to gather any further funding. These men were not visionaries. They were greedy and they didn't care how they got rich so much as they got rich.
Rockefeller Political Cartoon in reference to concerns of his creating a monopoly via legal and illegal means
All 3 of those men though didn't hold a candle to Vanderbilt, Carnegie and Rockefeller in their quests for money and power. These men didn't work hard. They were notorious bullies earlier in their quests. We now know that Vanderbilt was horrible in their treatment of the Irish and Chinese immigrants they brought over to build the railroads. These men and their families treated like indentured servants, little more than slaves even after we abolished slavery. Carnegie was known as a brutal boss who hired Pinkertons to bully (possibly even kill) workers' leadership and workers who didn't like the long hours and shitty pay. Ironically, he's the most hypocritical of all, with one famous saying attributed to him, "The man who dies rich dies disgraced." Perhaps, that is why Carnegie in his old age began to fear for his soul. One of his most famous donations was to his wife's cousin to start a university in Tennessee that we now know as Vanderbilt University. His extensive giving includes the now famous Carnegie Hall and an endowment that keeps it up to this day. It's certainly debatable whether it was more on his wife's fears for his soul than his own that he became such a benefactor of the arts and education, but in Vanderbilt's case, he was actually demonized fairly regularly. Older than the other two, we as a society let the bigger dogs eat the smaller dogs back then. So Vanderbilt's only philanthropic donation of his entire life, shortly before he died, was to a university made in his name to the same cousin Carnegie donated to (yes, these families were so intertwined it's a bit of a straight tree back then). In fact, both Carnegie and Vanderbilt are given credit for the "founding" with their initial donations for the university to Minister Holland McTyeire. Who? McTyiere's wife was second cousin to Vanderbilt's second wife and Carnegie's wife. Seeing a pattern here? It was the wives more likely that pushed for their husbands' souls. Eventually both families turning into quite active philanthropists, but a couple generations later--not the men who we supposedly revere. William Vanderbilt was more demonized than his father Cornelius, albeit this was arguably because newspapers of William's time were no longer owned by only a handful of rich people that used them exclusively as propaganda. William faced even more trouble in the papers with his anti-people rhetoric. These men we somehow have been convinced were "good" because they wore a smile, while stabbing their friends, their competition, and anyone who they perceived as crossing them as disloyal and something to be crushed, bullied, ended...Sound like anyone you know?
William Vanderbilt Political Cartoon circa 1890's: Running over and holding up the average man
Arguably, anyone that worked for one of these men, hard work didn't actually pay off. Finagling, learning when to dodge a bullet, kissing ass, doing questionable things both legally and morally questionable, was the order of their day and failure to comply was the end of a career. Worse with a vindictive nightmare following you around until the day you died preventing you from being anything but a milkman. Their companies had notorious harsh work environments where men and women from the lower classes would work 12-20 hour days, often 6 to 7 days a week. Where children would start working as young as 9-14 years old. There was no medical coverage. There was no dental coverage. There were no breaks, just a lunch once a day. Workers were expected to do as they were told regardless of the danger that might entail and regardless of whether there was a better way. Ideas from non-management were non-existent. They didn't want to hear your ideas. "Shut up and do your job" was how both my grandfather and my father describe most managers. Why both eventually went to work for themselves one in the late 40's and one in the late 70's. Not much had changed in 30 years. Hell since the 1800's. These men would walk through and smile at everyone, and then arbitrarily tell managers and supervisors to fire people because they didn't like the way they looked. God forbid you tried to explain you had an idea that might make your job easier or more efficient. They might blackball you from town. This was the world for almost all workers, regardless of education into the 1980's. Hell, who am I kidding? This is still the world for some people here in the USA. Except we do have laws to protect the hourly. You can't work 20 hours a day legally unless you are salary. You get health benefits if you work a full time job (40 hours or more). You have legal recourse if certain laws are not followed. So, yeah, not exactly the same. Unless you are salary. Then you better work for a good company and good boss or some of what I'm describing might still be part of your daily routine. Things weren't better then. People just didn't have enough time to think about it and they were too tired to fight about it if they did.
Pullman (which would eventually become Pullman-Eastman then Kodak): Using the "mill hill" to keep wages low and then charge the same workers high rents for property owned by Pullman.
What we did find time to fight for? Our kids' futures. My grandmother was a young girl, pre-teen when women were fighting for the right to vote. She and her older sisters had spent more than one night in jail for being "difficult" young ladies "fighting" for the right to vote. We call them Suffragettes. Yet, it's hard for most of us to fathom that women only were given the Right to Vote 100 years ago this year. She had also been a welder in the Jeep plant during WWII. The "taste" of her own accomplishments, her own "real" paycheck (female welders in WWII were still paid way less than male counterparts), and her own sense of dignity? It was priceless. To be sent back to being just a teacher? I think it was humiliating. My grandfather would often tell me while sitting in the barn working on Bertha that my Grams was the best welder he had ever seen. Her other grandchildren had no idea. She never talked about it, like when a piece of you dies because you know you will never be able to see, do or hear something again. The one time I asked years after my grandfather had passed. She looked at me blankly, a tear rolled down her faee, and she said, "I haven't thought about that in years." Why not, I had inquired. "It's not something I like to think about, but you girls can do anything you want to do now because of us." It was a bit gut wrenching (still is) when I think there were others just like her that found they could do something a man could do and love it...but couldn't, simply because they weren't men. Half of our population limited in what they could contribute because of one chromosome. Wrong chromosome meant you had to fake being happy being a housewife. Sounds silly, doesn't it?
1920's political cartoon: "PROTECTION Motherhood is the noblest profession in the world. Therefore, You must be given inferior jobs; the lowest pay and your hours for work shall be limited. (Except in the HOME)"
Sure, we knew, at least the women of the day knew, that we were needlessly limiting our children. But there were men also who knew. How difficult would it be to have a son who you knew was an Einstein, or at least a genius, that was never going to be anything more than a coal miner in our society because you were a coal miner? True story. Homer Hickam Jr. (b. 1943) was the son of a coal miner who was very intelligent and didn't quite fit with your average coal miner. Inspired by watching the launch of Sputnik, young Homer wanted to figure out how to launch a rocket. His father more than once told him it was a pipe dream, accept his lot in life. Born to a coal miner meant you were going to be a coal miner. End of story. Lucky for the United States that didn't happen. Homer Hickam Jr and his friends solved a rocket propulsion issue. Hickam Jr would eventually join NASA and work on the Space Shuttle missions. Where would we be if some of these geniuses were pushed into their "lot in life"? I don't know. I still hear idiots who say to their own children, "It was good enough for me; it's good enough for you." That is what is killing the American Dream and has been slaughtering before it got started even when we look back 100, 200, 400 years. What if Homer Hickam had decided to fake it as a coal miner to appease his father? The only reason the Dream keeps living are the Homer Hickam's out there that ignore nonsense talk and march to their own drummer.
Herman Pulk, age 9 in 1911, working in a canning company for $0.25/day
Still how many of those Homer's were beaten into submission by their fathers? We have learned over the last 50 years how children have been abused by their own. Abducted and murdered without a single trace. It's not that these things weren't happening. It's that we didn't all have phones that vibrated with an Amber Alert as soon as one goes missing. Remember I mentioned those milk cartons. I know anyone 40 or older remembers these. I honestly never gave them a thought. I would glance as I ate my cereal usually imagining it they were abducted by an estranged parent. We know that's not true now thanks to how quickly we get information now. We lived in a bubble. The bubble wasn't really a bubble though, was it? Those monsters were very real and still existed. We just had rose colored glasses on that made us naive and think those things didn't exist. But talk to an old cop. They all know of that one case, if not more, that haunts them to this day. Child, woman, sometimes even a man, went missing. No trace. I've never met a retired cop that doesn't have one of these stories, and they usually are more than willing to share if you ask. That hope of finding some random stranger that might unravel the whole thing so they can finally bring peace to the families, to themselves. It wasn't a safer place. We just were unaware it wasn't as safe as we thought. The world was worse, because we literally had no idea unless it happened to us or someone we knew. Worse, we know now that many of these predators can fake being the most amiable person you've ever met. We would still be looking at all the homeless guys and blaming them, like was the most common assumption for decades, if not centuries. Centuries? Really, centuries. Little Red Riding Hood got eaten by a wolf? Or was it a story that little girls shouldn't be walking alone after dark because some crazed man might abduct them? Hansel and Gretel? Same story only now a woman abducting a boy and girl. We tell these horrific stories to our children to warn them in some "cute" story...for centuries. These human monsters have been around for as long as we can remember. We just didn't realize how many of them there were, because we allowed them to fake being nice, fake being good neighbors, and if they could fake it really well, we ignored anyone who tried to voice concern. How often have you seen interviews with so many people (ID channel will have you sick to your stomach in just a couple hours) go on and on about some sociopath was such a nice person and only one seems to be like "oh you knew something was wrong with him"? Yeah, fake it till everyone else thinks you are what you are not.
Children in a southern cotton mill working for an average of $0.11/day in 1909
The United States was founded by a bunch of men that didn't necessarily know what all these things were, meant. They were not all geniuses. Some of them just didn't want to pay taxes. Who does? But what the smarter ones in the room knew, and were able to convince the others of, was we can grow. So they wrote the framework, the Constitution, to be a living, breathing document. It was to be the backbone of a society that would endeavor to be better with each new generation. Sometimes, that has been realizing we were wrong. Sometimes, that has been rallying our strength. Maybe the Silent Generation faced both. They were wrong about WWI; it was not the war to end all wars. The verdict is still out whether they set us on the path where WWII would be the war to end all world wars. The Founding Fathers intent was never for us to move backwards in an effort be "great". It was always intended that we would move forward, dealing with obstacles with the knowledge we accumulated as a collective.
Were any of them "faking" it? A new country? Maybe, but probably not. Our systems from Congress, the Courts, even our military structure still follow a very similar structure as the parent they kicked out--England. They built upon what they already knew, and then tried to improve it moving forward. They didn't dream of going back to being a colony. The Silent Generation didn't dream of going back to 1840, like some dream, or delude themselves, that 100, hell 50, years ago is better than now. If you look back at papers we knew who some of these bad men, like Edison and Vanderbilt were, but we let them write their own version of reality. Most of which now we all know was crap. They didn't work hard to get where they were. They did on the backs of those that worked hard for them. We have allowed "fake it till you make it" to become the genre of the American Dream. You can't be a great basketball player by faking it. But unlike in sports, those that have actually worked hard, often go completely unrecognized in our society. They may or may not have mild to middle level success, but that's on us. Men (and women) who are good at what they do, but not cut throat, backstabbing nutjobs, those like Tesla just always doing the "right" thing, still are often mediocre in our collective view. Fake tax cuts, fake economic boosts, hiding real issues like market instability, savings and retirement savings at all time lows, average middle class families one to two paychecks away from losing everything. "Faking it" isn't working, and fake is not the American Dream. There's a never ending cycle to those faking it. It never stops because it's lie upon lie and still another lie upon that. The one thing we all know, whether we admit it or not, no matter how well you fake it, you are still just faking it.
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