GREATEST GENERATION IS NOW! -- An Exchange of Views on the American Connection to the German Culture

THE GREATEST GENERATION IS NOW!

An Exchange of Views on the American Connection to the German Culture (First published as an email)


James R. Fisher, Jr., Ph.D.
© April 6, 2008

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?”

Rabbi Hillel



REFERENCED EMAIL: "Alan Bloom was right! We have a German Connection!"

The late Alan Bloom, professor of social thought at the University of Chicago, shocked American society in general, and the education establishment in particular with his book, "The Closing of the American Mind" (1987).

Bloom's indictment of this institution's failure sent tremors through society. But that was not what was most surprising to me. I had taught graduate school as an adjunct professor at several universities for more than ten years, so was well aware of the American college student he described.

What surprised me was the indebtedness we Americans have to German culture.

I had always thought that the Irish and Italians made up the largest immigrant segment of the American population, when neither is even close to matching Americans with German ancestors. More than 60 million Americans out of a population of 300 million can trace their ancestry back to Germany.

The oldest German community was established in 1683 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, outside of Philadelphia. Coincidentally, my son is the head tennis professional there and director of one of the largest and oldest tennis clubs in the United States, the Germantown Tennis & Racket Club.

Our American culture was greatly influenced by Germany in the transplanting of German’s symphony and opera to the United States. Much of our art and literature shows a strong German influence as, indeed, does our science, philosophy, medicine, and engineering.

We are aware that King George III of Great Britain had acquired an army of Hessian or German mercenaries to fight against the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War. What is not common knowledge is that George Washington's bodyguard was a German, as well as many of his soldiers had German ancestry.

The hamburger and hot dog are German confections and staples of our fast-food culture, as are several other dishes.

It is also true that the German “know how” is evident in our railroads and the steel industry as they have the stamp of the German influence.

Bloom ends his chapter on "The German Connection" with his acerbic prose, which as I say, alerted me to how many German thinkers introduced me to myself. Bloom writes:

"We (Americans) are a bit like savages who, having been discovered and evangelized by missionaries, have converted to Christianity without having experienced all that came before and after the revelation. The fact that most of us never would have heard of Oedipus if it were not for Freud should make us aware that we are almost utterly dependent on our German missionaries or intermediaries for our knowledge of Greece, Rome, Judaism and Christianity; that, however, profound that knowledge may be, theirs is only one interpretation; and that we have only been told as much as they thought we needed to know. It is an urgent business for one who seeks self-awareness to think through the meaning of the intellectual dependency that has led us to such an impasse." (p. 156)

I have nearly 3,000 books in my study, and it would not surprise me at all if 600 of them are of German authors or ancestors of German heritage.

Be always well,

Jim

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SOME GENERAL COMMENTS ABOUT MY EMAIL EXCHANGES

One of the most satisfying experiences I have had in recent years is that of exchanging thoughts and ideas with stimulating people; people who think beyond the headlines of the daily print and television news, and don’t limit themselves to legends on the Internet; people who have real experience in real time doing real things while making meaningful contributions. Sometimes these people do things well beyond what will ever be known of them or their work. They do it because they must.

This has been my audience on these emails for the past more than ten years. I am greatly impressed with the quality of their minds and their quest to make a difference.

And, yes, there have been those, too, who copy me with emails that fit the narrow limits of their biases; people who refuse to think or believe that their enemies may be more like than different to and from them.

I am suspending this direct linkage for all intent and purposes because it takes more time than I have available at this late stage in my life and I would like to complete my novel on South Africa before my powers totally recede.

I am confident that many of my ideas will survive me, and that many of my projections will become realities. It is the luxury of a thinker being able to look at all sides and ruminate about them into some kind of a vision.

I will still write on my blog, where you can find me if you like. I am changing directions a bit, just as I have recently pruned my email list. A horticulturist has informed me that pruning is good for the soul. I think she is right and I thank her for the support.

Having said that, I wish all my readers remain forever well as they discover their own center. I am a provocateur, not a sage, and my advice from the beginning has been not to let anyone, including me, point out their own centers to them. We can never know another person much as we have been programmed to believe the contrary. We can with some effort get a glimpse into our own souls.

Every thinker, social, psychological or political interprets events in the context of his or her limited perspective, knowledge and experience. Wise as some of these constructs may appear, even as reliable as they may seem, they have true resonance only to and with their creators. This is as true of Freud as it is of Nietzsche as it is James as it is of Skinner. We should give pause as to why someone’s idea resonates with us before we swallow it whole. It can cause mental constipation or diarrhea of the soul.

This is because pointers of the human condition are limited by the limits of their own minds in only being able, if at all, to understand who, what, where and why they are.

By an irony of nature, if we are ever to know, understand, and accept ourselves as we are, we cannot farm it out to a discipline, guru, an ideology, a cause, or another knighted person. It is a singular responsibility and therefore must be a quest by a majority of one. For that reason, I feel it is seldom mounted.
JRF

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THE GREATEST GENERATION IS NOW!

NOTE:

These two responders have differing views to my email -- ALAN BLOOM WAS RIGHT! WE HAVE A GERMAN CONNECTION! -- but are alike in their service to others.

I share them because they demonstrate a healthy sense of who and what and why they are. Both are professors with a different take on the same subject.

What they have in common is that they are doers as well as thinkers.

Responder No. One has dedicated his life in the service of others in a drive to attain social justice; so has Responder No. Two, but from a different perspective.

Responder No. One has been a wealth creator, and has put his mind and heart into attacking poverty and discrimination, not by writing essays as I do, but on the ground from his highly affluent neighborhood. He deals with wrenching poverty with all its concomitant ills only a few miles away.

Responder No. Two, as you will see in reading his comments, has traveled the world for decades giving his heart and mind to making the world a better place.

Responder No. One is only 40, and a member of the current generation coming into or already occupying positions of power in society.

Responder No. Two, although much older, is still working as hard as ever as he moves into his senior years. I find them both members of the GREATEST GENERATION NOW!

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RESPONDER NO ONE

Jim,

What you say about Germans is right, but I'd like to point out that it's not the whole story. Have you read "Hitler's Willing Executioners?" It might temper your admiration for this nationality somewhat.

The Holocaust was not perpetrated by a few Nazis, but by an entire culture and nation that actively facilitated and/or participated in it.

If other cultures, including our own, have done wrongs as well, that does not mollify what the Germans did at all. "Two wrongs..." as the saying goes.

I don't have it in me to hate anyone, especially not an entire nation-full of people. However, I do not hold German culture - especially its authoritarianism - in high regard at all.

Having taught a large number of Germans, there is at least a bit to be said for Churchill's remark that "The Germans are like dogs - they're either at your throat or at your feet."

That played out so many times in my classroom that it became almost trite. A new German (or Swiss-German) student would challenge me on an advanced point of English grammar or even vocabulary; I would set him straight, sometimes embarrassing him if it was necessary, and from then on I'd have a delightfully compliant companion.

Some of my dearest and best students ever are German, including Steffi Keller and her boyfriend Mike, who are simply wonderful friends. My brother-in-law, Ingo, was born in Germany and raised by German immigrants - he is one of my best friends. However, I also have met a number of Germans (including Ingo's parents, aunts, and uncles) who at once deny and defend the Holocaust - an interesting contradiction, to say the least.

I've decided to wait seven generations from 1945 before I forgive Germany for its sins of the Nazi era. It has only been three.

Take care,

T

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MY RESPONSE TO NO. ONE:

T,

I have read Goldhagen's book, "Hitler's Willing Executioners," and still admire the culture that produced Einstein, Goethe, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Beethoven and Schopenhauer, among others.

I have also read Cornwell's "Hitler's Pope" and "Breaking Faith."

Indeed, I have read and have rather an extensive library of twentieth century Germany, including several biographies on Hitler (Bulloch's, Fest's, Speer's, etc.), Aarons & Loftus's "Unholy Trinity: The Vatican, The Nazis, and Soviet Intelligence," Freidrich's "Blood & Iron," Wistrich's "Hitler and The Holocaust," Lukacs's "The Hitler of History," and Machtan's "The Hidden Hitler," to give you a sample.

My interest in Hitler is as a student of leadership, which shows how vulnerable people are to a demigod when pride and survival expose bare bones and baren souls. A best friend of mine, a German of my generation, experienced and survived that nightmare as a boy, and for it I would include him as a member of the GREATEST GENERATION NOW!

It is another lesson in my continuing pursuit to make people conscious of the fact that everyone must be a leader or no one is. We must not surrender our minds to anyone for if we do we surrender our souls.

That said I separate that terrible period of twentieth century from a people that rose from barbarians to establish a climate for cerebral and cultural genius.

I should add that the Irish people have always been admirers of Germany. The Irish Republic refused to declare war on Germany in World War II, although many Irishmen and Irish women joined the cause serving with the British military.

My best students as an adjunct graduate professor, which I was for more than ten years, were often of German ancestry. The same was true with my own career in science in college, work in the lab, in the field, in the corporation, and among the corporate executive ranks.

The atrocities of the Nazis show how low man can go. Stalin and the Soviet Union committed similar atrocities, most of which we know little. What we do know is that millions of Russian Jews perished.

All of that said, we Americans cannot change the fact that much of what we claim to be original is not; and one of our greatest cultural benefactors were of German origin despite any personal bias or experience. That was what I was sharing.

Be always well,
Jim

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RESPONDER NO. TWO

Jim
Thanks for the info on the German influences. You may find it of interest to know that our university has a MBA program that I have led off teaching both in Germany, across the Rhine from Mannheim, and in Pensacola. We are in our fifth year and fifth set of students and I often remind each of our German cohorts that this country owes much to
the German intellectuals over the centuries.

We are also fortunate to attract to this unique MBA program students from across Europe as part of this program but the majority by far are Germans of which several are second or third generation children from the guest worker program that was so important in rebuilding Germany after the war.

These are overall excellent students and tend to take on the additional challenges of my class design. No one in my MBA class for example can receive an A level grade unless they develop a learning project that is self directed. I consider an A grade a mark of a potential leader and the first person a leader should lead is him or her self.

Most of my U.S. students bypass this extra effort so I seldom have an A level grade in my local MBA classes, far more than half of the German students take this challenge on and succeed at showing initiative and self direction and gain an A.

The other notable difference is that my German students often self organize as a class much faster and often better. I believe this is partially due to the fact that in their experience the professor was a more unapproachable figure and students realized to survive they had to work together effectively.

I have taught now in Asia, the Middle East as I lived in Cairo for two years, Europe on both sides of the old iron curtain and have had many South American students.

Our U.S. students are good but there is just beginning to be a recognized awareness that the flat world we have created will make them work much harder and so many are starting to take education much more seriously.

American students can see that the only reason they can expect to make more than about $10 a day -- my rough approximation of the global wage level -- would be because they add value to their organizations by collaborating and creating new forms of organizing to serve great unmet human needs.

Well, as you can likely tell, teaching is still a cause for me and though my first MBA teaching was in 1972, I am not giving up and I will continue to teach around the world and then come home and help our next generation to take on the challenges out there and to make a positive difference.

Many in that next generation give me hope but in every class I also apologize for the mess that they are being left by our generation and tell them to read about the trials and tribulations of earlier generations, and to accept the challenge and enjoy the opportunity to truly make a positive difference.

Making a difference can be a challenging life, and I know how clear that is to you, and what I want most to pass along. Our legacy is important. Neither of us, I am confident, wants this next generation to be given fewer opportunities than we were given.

I take seriously the Chinese expression that crises is both a problem and an opportunity. That is what can make a life more meaningful. Since we are leaving so many crises to challenge them, the next generation of leaders will have to discover this for themselves.

They will learn, step up to some of the same demands and make a bit of difference just as we did. Then, too, they will leave a world behind where there is still much work to be done. But without this work what would humanity become?

We all need a good challenge or two and we are sure making that possible for all of those younger leaders.
K

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MY RESPONSE TO NO. TWO:

K,

Your career and your contributions over the years have sometimes made me breathless. Where you get the energy, the humility, and the drive is a matter I respect and admire, but failed to comprehend. As I mentioned in a piece that I’ve placed on my blog of yours and the responses of others to my email “America’s Connection to Germany, I find you members of the “Greatest Generation.”

I have known you now for nearly two decades, ever since you first read WORK WITHOUT MANAGERS, and invited me to lecture at your university to one of your graduate seminars. I have kept turning out books that most people never read, while you have touched thousands of lives, and by that touching have multiplied your influence, the most positive influence possible, that of the teacher.

One of your colleagues that also responded to my missive is doing great work with the poor, not by writing books and articles as I continue to write, but by being directly involved in the lives of the impoverished and disadvantage. He does this through his philanthropic work, and by direct personal involvement. He, too, I tap as part of the “Greatest Generation.”

You will note in reading your remarks that my hand is in them a bit. I hope you don’t mind. I mean no offense. As a matter of fact, your delight in lower case in your emails reminds me of my late da who stubbornly insisted in writing notes to my mother in lower case, although his son would constantly correct him.

Thank you for sharing, thank you for all your wonderful work, and always be well,
Jim

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