By Jim Dickson
I am sure that some of you will remember the 1965 Academy Award winning movie “Ship of Fools” with an all star cast including Vivian Leigh, Lee Marvin, Michael Dunn, Jose Ferrer, and Osker Werner.
The movie is set aboard a German passenger liner that leaves Veracruz Mexico bound for Bremerhaven Germany in 1933. On board is an eclectic microcosm of per-war society, dominated by a large group of enthusiastic German ex-patriots who are returning home to be a part of the rising “Third Reich” led by Adolf Hitler.
During the voyage the Jewish passengers are excluded from Captain’s table and are treated with disdain by many of the German passengers. Upon arriving in Bremerhaven two of the Jewish passengers disembark discussing conditions in Nazi Germany. One warns the other that there could be trouble ahead. The other answers, “We are Germans first, and Jews second…. there are nearly a million Jews in Germany, what are they going to do, kill us all?” The other replies, “You may be the biggest fool on the ship.”
Then he looks at the film’s audience and asks if they are thinking “What has any of this to do with us?” “Nothing,” he declares with a sardonic smile and walks away. The end.
At the time when I first watched this movie I was a young man starting out on what turned out to be a wonderful new career. I was filled with hope for the future and an abiding love for the country that I was fortunate to be a part of. That I have never lost.
Knowing what happened in Germany and the rest of the world after the rise of Hitler, I couldn’t help but be emotionally moved by the film, but I knew that America would never be led so far astray by any of its leaders, and that our system of checks and balances would prevent it from happening here. Looking back on it some 60 years later and seeing what is happening in America today, I sometimes wonder if I was right.
The 1960’s were a turbulent time in America and those of us who lived through it saw some dramatic changes take place. We saw assassinations, burning cities, civil unrest and for the first time a questioning of American values. As disturbing as it was at the time there is no question that some good came from it.
We elected a few very questionable leaders who made some very bad mistakes which led us into a long and costly war in Southeast Asia that lasted far into the next decade. In the 1970’s we suffered through the Nixon Watergate scandal to be followed by President Gerald Ford, who to most peoples’ amazement turned out to be the right man at the right time. He was followed by what was arguably one of the most well meaning but inept Presidents in our history up until the present time.
However, as devious and bungling as some of these men were, I never doubted that they did what they did because they considered it to be in the best interests of the country. No doubt that you become a little more cynical with age, but I am not so sure that’s true today.
Looking at the situation in the country today I can’t help but think that we may be on a “Ship of Fools” captained by leaders who stumble from one mistake and crises to the next. People who think that trillions of dollars in deficit spending, feckless foreign policy around the world, offending allies, comforting enemies, promoting hopeless dead end domestic spending projects, allowing open borders, ongoing inflation, and creating policies and programs that divide rather than unite the nation have the best interests of the country at heart.
These people are not friends of constitutional government and the rule of law. It seems that they are doing everything that they can to tear it down and change it to something far different than most of us want. Worst of all we “Fools” who are on the ship keep electing these people to captain the ship.. “What you ask, has this to do with any of us?” Everything!
