It’s hard to imagine where we would be today in terms of economic progress, industrial production capacity and labour dynamics if Henry Ford never existed. The revolutionary system he pioneered in the early 20th century, largely known for implementing the concept of the “assembly line” (which, notably, was actually invented by Ransom Eli Olds, and merely popularized by Ford), forever changed the way companies thought about production processes.
It massively increased efficiency and it introduced the idea of standardized output. It delivered affordable and reliable cars and later, various consumer goods of dependable and consistent quality to the masses, while at the same time it significantly increased profitability and productivity for the companies that adopted it. All these benefits and progress, however, came at a steep cost, which would soon accumulate and compound. It undermined and denigrated human creativity, it stifled and demonized individuality, free, independent thought and autonomy.
The sharp and perceptive observer will no doubt detect some of the most fundamental, core ideas and principles of Fordism in today’s society and in our current political and economic system. We can see a clear example in public education: Much like Fordism, the education “factory” is also all about uniformity. And much like Ford’s assembly line, which didn’t just produce identical cars, but also demanded identical workers and reduced people to mere cogs in a machine, with no allowance for creativity or deviation, public education also focused on churning out conforming minds filled with pre-approved, sterile and harmless ideas, modest and sheepish ambitions and a sense of duty to follow a narrow, designated path.
It is a system that leaves no room for questions, doubts or challenges and it vehemently suppresses dissenting voices and “dangerous” opinions: if anyone dares to go against the grain or refuses to wholeheartedly embrace the “received wisdom” that is expected to be instantly accepted as the absolute truth, they are immediately dismissed as “problematic”, “fringe” or “antisocial”. They are singled out as pariahs and they soon become a cautionary tale to ensure that other potential dissenters will keep their unsanctioned thoughts and disruptive ideas to themselves. “Go along to get along” is the main lesson that public education imparts and drills into each young citizen, future voter and taxpayer.
This is why at the higher levels of this system, e.g. in academia, we see the Orwellian environment that has so brutally discredited it today. There are intellectual “no-go” zones and there are areas of permitted research, but even in the latter, the researcher must refrain from coloring outside the lines. In order to get the approval of one’s peers and one’s superiors, to climb the academic career ladder and to get the grants to sustain such a career, one’s “scientific findings” must align with and confirm certain views and expectations and that is true in a terrifyingly large number of academic fields, including biology, medicine, economics, sociology and history.
This is not just humiliating and dishonorable for those within those fields. It is extremely dangerous and toxic to society as a whole. After all, it was this blind intellectual subservience and lemming-like behavior that gave us the covid response laws and mandates that ruined the lives of millions of people, as well as the economically catastrophic policies against climate change.
We find similar parallels in the media. Fordist ideals and principles are virtually ubiquitous if one knows what to look for, not just in the legacy news outlets, but in online media platforms too. Adherence to clearly defined narratives is vitally important, as is the nearly robotic repetition of said narratives. It matters not if there are plain-as-day facts that directly contradict it, if there are legitimate questions and sound, logical reasons to challenge and dispute it, or even if the majority of target audience clearly does not believe it.
Sure, total uniformity and conformity of human thought, together effective orchestration and synchronization of human action, can and do yield impressive and predictable results, just like an ant colony would. But it also violently contradicts and oppresses human nature itself, which is why, thankfully, this misanthropic system has no hope of ever being entirely and sustainably enforced. There will always be defiant individuals, free thinkers and brave objectors to challenge and disrupt it and to ensure it will never have a decisive grip over the human race.
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