Philo vs RCA

It sounds like the storyline from a movie.

The hard working, slightly awkward, all American boy discovers something great and hopes to spread it to the world.

Then along comes the evil Russian who steals his idea and claims it as his own.

Unfortunately, the ending isn’t as happy as one might like.

Philo T. Farnsworth is the hard working American in this storyline and Vladimir Zworykin is the evil Russian. These days, few people know that Philo T. Farnsworth is the creator of the television. Why? Because big business won.

There are similar themes between the Farnsworth story and situations we’re learning about in this cluster. Philo is the subordinate group with no power. Even though he had the knowledge, he did not have the money which, in this situation meant power. RCA dominated him because it was a powerful corporation.

We could also see Philo as the minority group and RCA as the majority. Philo did not have enough pull as a single person, while RCA had many members and lots of influence. Philo was not strong enough as a single person to own the design of the television. RCA, however, was.

More specifically, let’s compare the Philo storyline to The Bluest Eye. Philo would represent the African American characters. No matter how hard they tried, they were always at the mercy of the white majority. They were just as capable, but didn’t have the status to pull themselves out from the bottom. It’s a classic case of little guy/big guy. And the big guy won.