How many people here have heard of John Henry?
America being a relatively young country doesn't have much folklore, but of the few examples there are, the story of John Henry, has been on my mind all day.
John Henry, a free black man, worked for the railroad. When the tracks had to be built through a mountain steel driving men, like John, would hammer at the back of a bit held by other men, called shakers, in order to break apart the rock of the mountain and carve a tunnel. John Henry was said to excel at this task, some tellings say he did the work of a dozen men, other tellings are a bit more modest, but he always worked with a song. The story goes that some industrial type came to the railroad one day trying to sell a stream powered drill. The railroad owner scoffed saying that no drill could match John Henry. Trying to sell his invention the drill seller bet the drill could outpace Henry and put the drill itself up as prize. The race began with the drill and Henry each on the side of a mountain racing towards each other. Henry determined to win pushed himself to his limit. When the dust settled Henry had won by just three feet, but had died from the exhaustion.
The story is told as one meant to inspire. “Mighty is the laborer, such that they may overcome anything with hard work and determination.”
The problem with this story, why it has been on my mind all day, is the result:
Henry is dead, the railroad owner has a new drill, and Henry's coworkers may find themselves out of a job replaced by automation. The audience is meant to be happy that the inventor lost, but the workers are all worse off or dead. The moral of the story seems to be: “work hard and someday you too might make someone else richer.”
This is the propaganda the capitalists want us to believe in.