A story about great-grandfather, vegetarianism and archness of capitalism,by Alfred Ford.
04:15My great-grandfather has been saying, that the soul lives an endless quantity of lives, reincarnating into different bodies. He too was a vegetarian, preparing himself for the next life in this way. He explained, that his invention of the conveyor assembly was a result of the experience gained in previous lives. “From life to life you are obtaining new skills, transferring them with the soul to the next body, so achieving perfection”, he was saying.
Henry Ford’s secret is not only the conveyor assembly, but also in his humane attitude to people. He was firmly convinced about the live and effective force of fairness and justice in the field of industry. There would be no good without this, as he was believing. Happiness can be obtained only with fairness, following the highest laws of the Nature. Unhappiness lies in all these attempts to turn away from this path.
Henry was sincerely believing that “market economy must have an human face”. He was not only achieving big money and building factories, but also hospitals and social infrastructure. He was taking care of his workers and was convinced that they live not only to assemble machines, but for spiritual purposes. Being a diligent person, he has never imposed his views, still firmly adhering to them. That is why, it often resulted in conflicts between him and his partners: they were carried away by short-term profits and refused to invest in “Ford’s phantom experiments”. His social programs were presented by them as “freak” or “cunning” of the capitalist. At the beginning of 1914 his great-grandfather has made “the greatest ever revolution in the field of workers rewarding”, as he said.
The work day on his factories has been cut from 9 to 8 hours, and minimal pay has been pushed 2 times till up to 5 dollars per day. This was 2 times bigger than average salary those times. At those times, a car manufactured in Ford’s factory, costed 360 dollars. Ford was presented as the “red millionaire” by newspapers and this action has been called “a mistake, if not a crime”. However, this transformed his workers from poor to middle class. It seems like he was understood only by the communist John Reed, author of “Ten days that shook the world”. “Ford is the true face of rural, soft, idealistic and charged with inexhaustible energy“, Reed wrote.
My great-grandfather supported not only wealth of workers, but also paid for self-development: a sober and leading healthy lifestyle worker could receive an additional check of around 25 to 70 dollars 2 times per month. He felt it necessary to awake a responsibility in each person, not only for himself, but for others committing to sanitation of the whole society.
Our family is following these traditions, because they are the guarantee of our future welfare. As my great-grandfather, I also adhere to the Vedic concept of perception and worldview, but I became a vegetarian even before that. Studying in college, I came to the resolution that it is unacceptable to kill animals. My wife is a vegetarian as well. Our children are vegetarians from the birth, and I am sure that it helps their intellectual development.
When adopted to the philosophy of my great-grandfather, I totally changed my perception. Before that I was concerned only by myself and didn’t understood what has been happening around me. Now I am convinced that modern society life must relate to the spiritual wisdom of ancient civilizations. The only technological progress without spiritual development can result in to complete destruction of the mankind.
My great-grandfather Henry Ford clearly knew that and, that is why, he was trying to use his wealth for everyone’s sake. That is why he created many social programs. This is a perfect philosophy of business. Modern businessmen should learn this, otherwise the fruits from this tree will be unpalatable. If leaders ignore spiritual values, the business becomes saturated with pettiness and greed,which results into crimes. It’s clear for me and that is why, spirituality is taking first place in my life. In this way, I continue the family tradition, coming from my great-grandfather, because he has shown me the way to search a perfect way of relationship with the world.
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