One thing desperately missing in this era are the genius inventors. In the past century, the brilliant and often eccentric minds have been lured away from their small workshops with a handful of assistants, in favor of corporate think tanks, university laboratories and government agencies. That is the real legacy of Thomas Edison. The genius has been shackled, burdened with bureaucracy, berated by executives hungry for product and plagued by uncertain funding that evaporates at the whim of a Senators earmark. It was high society, robber barons and a public in awe of the new technologies that gave rise to the great inventors. In short time machines, electricity and brilliant devices became mundane, routine. Departing from the old way of Kings and Princes that sponsored great minds, high society sought recognition through philanthropy, creating charities bearing their name. The robber barons were castrated. Their monopolies divided, rightfully so. The urgent need to endow inventors came to an end. From that point on the process of discovery became sterile, clinical and for the most part, slow.
The last of the great inventors was Nikola Tesla. His imagination, ingenuity and determination are unmatched by any mind, in any era. A great curiosity was his ability to construct in his mind a machine, find the faults and refine the design. When he knew the machine would work, he then set to construction without once putting pen to paper. As if a form of magic, the machine would function, performing amazing results. More than a hundred years later some of his demonstrations with electricity have yet to be duplicated. Many of his devices have been lost and the designs only existed in his mind. He truly was a Wizard of the highest order.
The imagination of Tesla was his greatest gift to society. Some of his ideas were so grandiose that it tickles the spirit. I laughed hysterically when I read of his idea to construct a ring around the equator encompassing the entire earth. I did not laugh because it was absurd, but because it was absolutely brilliant. It would be built on scaffolding and when complete, the supporting structure removed. The ring would not fall, could not fall. An enormous structure defying gravity.
The fact that no one has been able to duplicate many of Tesla’s demonstrations makes me wonder about the power of belief. There’s a line of thought that reality is merely a construct of our beliefs and perceptions. Gravity exists because we believe it does. We cannot believe otherwise. Try as you might, you know that if you jump, you will fall back to Earth. What then would happen if a strong mind set forth to experiment with unknown forces? Tesla often said that he would be stricken with the realization that he knew a solution to a problem, but the idea had yet to form in his mind. He first had the belief, then the reality followed. In the absence of competing beliefs, he formed the laws that governed electricity. Regardless, scientists to this day are finding valuable applications for devices Tesla constructed that were at the time thought to be little more than parlor tricks.
But this is a new, cowardly era. Challenges have been watered down. Defeat, failure are treated as something that can be legislated or managed out of existence. Failure is essential. It is a lesson that must be learned by all, especially the young when they are in those formative years soaking in experience like water to a sponge. Participation trophies, effort grading at primary school, the elimination of competitive activities and government bailouts will lead only to catastrophic failure that the coddled populace is ill prepared to handle. The realization that failure has occurred with be so shocking to their minds that they will be paralyzed to act.
What I find unfathomable is that so many believe the government not only has a duty to save these failing companies, but that the government will actually be able to do so. It was the government—despicable career politicians that crafted banking, bankruptcy and insurance laws on behalf of equally despicable lobbyists—that facilitated the lending market meltdown. Yet the bailout proceeded and only afterward to some realize that the money is being distributed and used in questionable ways.
Now the auto industry is begging for a piece, which they do not deserve. It is essential that those companies fail if for no other reason than to end the current union contracts. The union shares with the executives the responsibility for the failure. There was a time when unions served a noble and proper purpose, but they realized the power they could wield and they abused it. Working conditions were improved to acceptable levels. Pay and benefits were adequate. Once those were achieved, the relevancy of the union became questionable. To retain their power, they sold the idea to workers that more pay should be awarded for less work. The threat of strike supplanted the need to achieve new skills and responsibility to earn more pay. A union membership became the ticket to success rather than education, achievement and effort.
Without a doubt, many jobs will be lost if the auto industry bailout fails. But those jobs must be lost and wages realigned to the actual value of the work performed. Too much labor cost goes into the production of American cars. Too many factory positions exist, protected by labor contracts. The costs must be lowered to be competitive. The workers must also learn that treading water, holding the same position with the same skills for years on end, does not benefit the company or product. In the end their focus should be the product, because without they have no job, no livelihood.
However, I know the auto industry bailout will occur in some form. It’s inevitable given the statements by many powerful Democrats who now hold a majority in Congress, soon the White House and have a mistaken belief that they can fix everything with government spending. Failure will teach these companies, workers and the public a much more lasting lesson. The Democrats will delay the inevitable by spending money that doesn’t exist. In the end the public will be forced to deal with a problem few can even comprehend, stagflation.
We need new Wizards, crafting new discoveries, to step forward and lay the foundations for new industries and jobs. A new era of prosperity and imagination. A future.