MJ Samuel- "The Anglophone culture is business: not art, cuisine or language, because without a profit to be made there is little interest or pursuit."

Recent attention to CERN’s LHC led me to rediscover their inspirational forefather Nikola Tesla. Without his contributions, we would still be living like a “Little House on the Prairie”. He created transformers and A/C electricity, patented a multitude of piston driven engines, hydraulics applications and the electrical ignition (or spark plug), which drive our cars and he is the undisputed father of wireless communications. But it’s his personal story, a tragedy, which is most relevant today, because he, the father of the 20th century, died penniless, victim of the manipulations, lies and thieving of Anglophone business practices.

Business is Anglophone culture; no one would argue that the English dominate the world of commerce; but it’s fairness and legitimacy should be better scrutinized. This culture, unlike any other, is quantifiable, measured in dollars and cents. And those with the money are decidedly the powers that be, their word law, no matter if it lies. For Tesla this began with Thomas Edison reneging on a verbal contract, claiming the genius “couldn’t take a joke”. Later Edison funded a marketing campaign of propaganda to discredit Tesla’s A/C current as a danger, electrocuting animals in an effort to convince the public that high voltage electricity would kill. But Tesla with Westinghouse, halving the cost of Edison’s proposal, won a contract for the Niagara Falls water turbine power plants.
His patent of the radio in 1897 attracted the financial investment of JP Morgan, who saw a potential monopoly. But Wardenclyffe Tower was to transmit electricity, sound and images to the entire world for free. So when, in 1903, JP Morgan learned that Tesla’s experiments were for wireless technologies, he halted his support of the plan, as “there was no way to put a meter on wireless electricity, hence there is no way to charge for its usage.”

The following year, Tesla’s radio patent was given to Marconi, and in 1905 unable to pay his assistants he was forced to close his lab. Meanwhile, JP Morgan was monopolizing on the financial crisis of the electrical magnates created by their AC vs DC battles, buying up as many of their plants and holdings as he could get his hands on. Westinghouse facing bankruptcy asked Tesla for release from his patent obligations, thus saving his company. Finally, when the war robbed him of his overseas patent royalties, Tesla sued Marconi for the radio patent rights, but the America courts waited until after his death, 29 years later, to make right on the patent.

The Anglophone culture is business: not art, cuisine or language, because without a profit to be made there is little interest or pursuit. Andy Warhol got rich passing off Campbell’s soup cans as art; pre-frozen fast foods make the average American diet, and video media has reduced the average Anglophones reading and writing comprehension and competency to that of a 9 year old. In the pursuit of wealth, the ends justify the means. For example, early cigarette manufactures introduced their addictive cancer sticks with medical endorsements.

The American dream is a lie, created to attract the best of the best, so that their expertise can be exploited. The powers that be cheat and profit off the misery of others. JP Morgan couldn’t let Tesla continue with his plan to give away electricity, not when he had invested heavily to profit from its supply. And as the richest man in America, he had the resources to prevent Tesla from realizing his dream.

Separatists are faced with the same problem as Tesla. Ridiculed, mocked, misunderstood and as with the referendums, cheated. Like Tesla, we keep labouring on, playing by the rules with one hand tied behind our backs. Change has been slow to come, politicians have been bought off, and for every step forward we have taken two steps back, losing territory, control over our education and even our francophone doctors. These same manipulations are why ZENN cars (Quebec made) can’t be sold or licensed in Canada, why Quebec has maple syrup export quotas, when other provinces do not and why the microbreweries complaints against Molson and Labatt’s anti-competition practices were dismissed.

Like some bad joke Harper granted an independent nation status, then nothing changed; Quebecois couldn’t even wave their own flag at the Olympics. My point is that nothing will ever change, so long as we continue to let our adversary dictate the rules of engagement. We have to find our own way to work around the problem. And although I’m not condoning violence or proposing Marxism or communism, the only groups prompting significant change in their self-determination have been the IRA, the FARC and even our own FLQ.

Marconi made millions off the radio patent before the verdict was reversed, just think of how different things would be had Tesla been able to re-invest in his project to develop wireless technology, and give it all away for free. Would we have a gas crisis? Would Paul Desmarais and his PCC have any real power? Would we even have global warming? Think about that the next time you hear propaganda or yourself label and dismiss somebody for having different ideas. The government always knew Tesla’s value, but denied interest in his late research in RADAR and particle beams, instead waiting until he died, seizing and classifying what remained of his life’s work. Canada knows Quebec’s value, in natural resources and able-bodied workers, but they are content to wait, slowly eroding the French culture and language with their own, waiting for the will to fight to die off, so they can come in and take it all, once and for all.