Submitted by “Today International Business Machines celebrated a relative rarity in the tech business – its one hundredth anniversary. By contrast Google is a mere 12 years old, Apple is 35, Microsoft is 36, and Hewlett-Packard is 72 years old.” One of the most important companies in the computer industry. Congratulations, IBM, on to the next century! And we get to use our IBM logo for once. Yay!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust
’nuff said.
I think that’s the first time I’ve seen a discussion Godwin’d on the first post.
From the wiki article:
“Richard Bernstein, writing for The New York Times Book Review, wrote that Black’s case “is long and heavily documented, and yet he does not demonstrate that IBM bears some unique or decisive responsibility for the evil that was done.”[37] IBM quoted this claim in a March 2002 press release “Addendum to IBM Statement on Nazi-era Book and Lawsuit”.[34]”
So, IBM sold Germany computers so they could conduct a census, prior to war breaking out, and prior to anybody knowing about the death camps. Saying they had a part in the holocaust is like saying a shoe company had a part because Nazi soldiers wore boots while rounding up civilians.
I think thrusting blame on any organization that is only indirectly and tenuously related such atrocities is petty. It devalues the victims, and devalues the lessons that need to be learned from such events.
‘Godwin’s law does not claim to articulate a fallacy; it is instead framed as a memetic tool to reduce the incidence of inappropriate hyperbolic comparisons’
The very uncontested situation that IBM colloborated knowingly or possibly (but less likely unknowingly) through a 90% owned subsiduary leaves at very least a serious question mark on corporate responsibility and management ethos.
As for the boot analogy, no, I wouldn’t sell boots to to a genocidal dictator, its called a moral decision. Much as I won’t buy products tested on animals, I avoid IBM hardware and software wherever I have the purchasing decision. That is a moral stance I have taken because I value the victims.
If you choose to sell your boots to genocidal dictators, that is your moral stance – I judge you not. After all, the B in IBM stands for business.
Technically, you are indeed judging
I guess you avoid all German products as well? And Japanese products, they were really nasty in the war. And those nasty Allies, levelling several German cities killing civilians indiscriminately, along with the two atomic bombs also killing indiscriminately, I suppose rules you out of buying British and American products as well?
While I very much appreciate a strong moral stance, I can’t resist to doubt its integrity. Where do you draw the line when doing purchasing decisions?
Is a government invading a country under false premises and effectively causing the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent people so much better that it doesn’t deserve to be “avoided”? (And calling Hitler a “dictator” is somewhat misleading as he had the backing of the larger part of the Germans.)
*Achievement unlocked* : Instant Godwin
Always one of the most interesting companies with its research.
Edited 2011-06-16 23:44 UTC
Also a very interesting company to work for; where else can you have 430.000 colleagues worldwide (ok, I didn’t connect with all of them), or round up 10.000 persons as beta testers for a solution in a couple of days?
I really enjoyed my time there.
We have an IBM server at work for our previous ERP system. When I unplug its network cable to put in to another switch IBM calls me to tell me the cable was unplugged. Changing my number in the system didn’t help either, because then they called me to tell me the number was wrong.
How annoying!
IBM: We know better!
That gave me a good laugh.
Maybe their tech support doesn’t have enough to do?
I indeed think they may not have much to do.
I’m not that fond of IBM as a company (party due to their website and Lotus Notes/Domino), but their hardware has never failed on me.
And the original IBM PC was kinda cool in a geeky and evil way. I liked the metal case and the also metal case badge. OS/2 was cool for its time. And the Thinkpad.
They recently redesigned it. And it looks very good…
IBM has a lot of remarkable achievements since they are – unlike most other companies – doing basic research.
Personally I’m most impressed by the quality of OS/2 and the ThinkPad. (Although they abandoned their software child, it is still alive and serving me well.)
The lasik picture in the article is creepy.