I think it would be cool to bring an old style phonograph back to Beethoven and Mozart during their heydays, record their performances and play the tunes back to them. I’m sure they would have quickly grasped the idea of selling these records and making more money than they ever dreamed of.
That’s kind of the point. Henry was not really a visionary like his son, Edsel. But seeing what the world, and the cars, turned into 100 years later might have given him inspiration. Much of the technology would have been hopelessly in the future for him but he could have at least steered designs in the right direction.
I have no idea of his Nazi feelings. Were there even Nazis back then? I’m talking about 1900 Henry Ford, not 1935 Henry Ford. And a quick brief about how the Nazis turned out might do wonders for his alliances.
I’ve had that on t-shirt I got years ago. When people read it they give me a thumbs-up – metaphorical or literal.
Regardless of whether they were called Nazi back then, they were definitely Nazi-adjacent feelings.
WTF? Henry Ford is widely given credit for creating much of the modern automotive industry. He went so far as to buy rubber plantations in South America so he could control the supply of raw materials for the tires his vehicles needed. He would totally “get” Elon Musk.
ISTM that’s a waste of effort.
There are still significant swathes of the world where things are still done almost exactly like in Henry’s time.
And plenty of privileged men still abuse women with near total impunity in the English-speaking world as well. Although beheading is right out.
His reaction would be one of simple annoyance at the disaster that’s occurred to people if his class as seen from his POV.
Same thing with bringing Hitler back to see modern Germany and it’s rejection of almost all aculturated nastiness. In his book that’d just be failure, not progress.
It would be fun to bring back Johannes Gutenberg, and see his reaction to the Internet.
…then have him browse some porn sites and say, “see what you started bub!”
Also Hans Lipperhey (probable inventor of the telescope), and show him images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.
I’ve often thought that if Beethoven had been born in the late 1940s he would have become a heavy metal musician.
Assuming he existed (as a charismatic caring mortal or otherwise), Jesus Christ and show him what his church became, and take to GOP rallies and show him their Christian philosophy.
That might result in a sudden 50% reduction in the US population. And not in a good way.
Do not rile the Jesus.
[Which would be a pretty cool bumper sticker. I may have to publish those].
I bet Marco Polo would have some great stories.
Hope you don’t get a cease and desist letter from John Turturro.
I often like to play these little thought games with myself, like what if I could snap someone from the past into my passenger seat as I drove through a city. Most often the person I think of is Benjamin Franklin. I’m not sure why, but I think he might actually not implode from shock and actually enjoy it.
It might be fun to bring Cleopatra to 2023 so she can see that new Jada Pinkett-Smith documentary about her.
First name that came to my mind.
Second name: J.S. Bach, if only for him to see how the world eventually recognized what a towering genius he was.
Or show them this
They’d spontaneously invent the term “wtf”
From Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing:
If Beethoven had been killed in a plane crash at twenty-two, the history of music would have been very different. As would the history of aviation.
Would Moses get into a dither about Dylan Mulvaney (the Bud Light spokesperson), or would his head have blown off long before he became acquainted with that particular cultural event?
“Moses! Don’t cross the street in the middle of the block!”
Let me amend this. Yes, Henry Ford was enormously creative and got the whole “cars for everyone” thing started nicely. But then he stalled. He was happy the way things were even as the Dodge brothers and other manufacturers made increasingly modern cars. Edsel fought him tooth and nail over this but Henry wanted the status quo. He was at a dead end.
And Fordlandia was a disaster. He didn’t understand how to grow rubber, he didn’t understand South American work ethics or culture. He thought he could bend nations and nature to his will. He couldn’t.
Ford’s anti-Semitic activism dates from long before the thirties. He was getting into the act in the late teens, if not sooner. Ford’s production of war material for the Nazis and substantial revenues from that came much later.