Richard Wagoner's Gtterdmmerung

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Watching the pressed suits in front of Dodd’s Committee made me sad last night. (Yes, we can watch CSPAN in China. On-line. Amazing. Probably a ploy to dissuade the Chinese populace from wanting democracy.) Sad I was, because I had expected an “are you or have you ever been tearing out the very heart of America’s industrial base?” I missed that a lot. Gettelfinger made me sad. How could he throw GM under the bus by giving the employer of his $73/hr union sisters and brothers last rank on the viability scale? Saddest made me Rick Wagoner. If he would have done the Iacocca, if he would have said, “Yes, I work for $1, I’m not worthy of more,” the bailout package would already be in the can. He blew it. Now there I sat, tears in my face, and German as I am, I thought: Rick Wagoner? As in Richard Wagoner? As in Richard Wagner with a typo? Last night was Richard Wagoner’s Götterdämmerung. You watched the funeral march of General Motors. Someone got a napkin? Danke.


Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

More by Bertel Schmitt

Comments
Join the conversation
4 of 11 comments
  • Bazza Bazza on Nov 19, 2008

    highrpm: Of course we can't advocate murder but you can certainly expect some incidents as the economy bottoms out (no we aren't there yet). Ritual seppuku would be wholly appropriate but as we all know it is patently impossible for American executives to feel shame. For all the talk of our "entitlement class" as it relates to the poor, corporate leaders are now the archetypal examples of entitlement mentality...they can never be convinced that they don't deserve whatever is asked for whenever it's asked for.

  • Psarhjinian Psarhjinian on Nov 19, 2008
    ...as we all know it is patently impossible for American executives to feel shame. Not true. It's not shame, its liability. An executive cannot be wrong about one thing, because then they might be wrong about everything. And that weakens their position. Therefore, the only solution is to spin things in such a way that they never appear wrong about anything. It's a bit like the old doctrine of Papal Infallibility. It's just as stupid, too. You see a version of this in politics: It's considered better to be a strong-opinioned, bull-headed idiot than to be a flip-flopper. For some perverse reason, we've decided to respect people who are wrong but not people who are thoughtful.
  • David C. Holzman David C. Holzman on Nov 19, 2008

    Or at least that's the way it' sbeen for the last 8 years (re psarhjinian). Seems we may be changing.

  • Psarhjinian Psarhjinian on Nov 19, 2008
    Seems we may be changing. Interestingly, being a flip-flop was one of the charges levied against McCain. Personally, if he was willing to admit he was wrong about things after seeing both the outcome and a greater volume of evidence, and deciding upon a different course, then more power to him, in my opinion. I'd be very worried about people who profess absolute certainty of conviction, even if I agree with them. Because, at some point, they're going to throw you under their ideological bus.
Next