“So we are to honor politicians who changed the world, but not great inventors and businessmen who did the same? To honor Carnegie, Ford, Edison, and Jobs is not to shortchange Jefferson, Adams, and Madison.”
Martin Luther King was NOT a politician, neither was George Washington, who only reluctantly accepted the job of President. Many of the founding fathers, like Adams, were not professional politicians, either. So let’s get one thing straight here. People like Jobs and Carnegie did not go into business to “change mankind” or for some other altruistic reason. They went into business to make money. Plain and simple. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong in wanting to make money AT ALL. But you can’t compare that motivation with someone like George Washington or John Adams, men who literally dedicated their lives to this country and shaped it as well. I’m sorry, I don’t worship businessmen. I’m very happy if they succeed in life and I’m even happier if their inventions have a big impact on the way we live our lives (I’m sure the guy who invented refrigerators is smiling right now from heaven). But they are NOT the leaders that change the way nations are formed or how laws are made. It is one thing to lead a company, quite another to lead a nation and have a vision as to how that nation should be run.
Businessmen like Jobs are now the new celebrities. They are the flavor of the day. Though they’re contributions to society (though many) may make our lives more comfortable, remember they also got well paid for their efforts too. You can’t mention them in the same breath of a Washington, Lincoln, Adams, or Teddy Roosevelt. It’s a question of priorities, and to lump everybody in the same stack is insulting to say the least. Even YOU can probably see that.
