On Tuesday, the Ford Motor Company was awarded the Motor Trend Car of the Year Award for its Fusion, beating out 22 other contenders, including the new Toyota Prius, Nissan 370Z, and BMW 7 series. Those folks who bought Ford stock when it was hovering at a $1 a while back now look like geniuses! The car has had impressive sales, its hybrid has garnered enormous interest, and the fact that Ford claimed "Truck of the Year" honors last year only strengthens its position among a broad range of consumers.
The Ford achievement has significance far broader than the auto industry, however. We are living at at time in which American is seen to be a colossus in decline, with a bankrupt government, a high unemployment rate, fighting a two front war that seems without end -- a mighty power in retreat on many fronts, particularly if we compare ourselves to the rising Chinese economy. Concurrently, Chrysler seems like it doesn't have a hope in hell -- at least if we are to believe the recent statements by Senator John McCain -- and GM is experiencing enormous growing pains as it moves from a culture of consensus to one of decisiveness but also conflict.
Americans must focus on the horizon, at the expense of leaving our past in the background. for if we focus too much on past achievements and not think creatively about future possibilities, we are doomed to drift, if not fail. That has been the case of my place of residence of the past 25 years -- Dayton Ohio. Once a great manufacturing city and a center of innovation, for too long we have been looking back to the great work of C.F. Kettering, John Patterson, etc., etc. And so now we are in quicksand, with a largely apathetic community, many of whom which they could pick up and move to greener pastures. We need more science, technology, business and less humanities, social sciences lawyers, and the arts with the exception of the elite few. In sum, away with laborious thinkers, and on with thinking laborers!
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