Jeremy Clarkson Hates America. Again. Still.

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

Jeremy Clarkson’s review for the Sunday Times reverses his usual formula. Normally, Jezza’s prose travels from the general to the specific, often reaching its rhetorical destination so late in the process that the car bit seems like afterbirth. I mean, an afterthought. The curmudgeon’s criticism of the Chrysler Sebring is, of course, pith-compliant. And entirely deserved. But as Top Gear’s alpha heads for home, he launches into yet another attack on the U.S. “Because America is a new country, the people who live there have no sense of history. And if you have no concept of ‘the past’, it is extremely difficult to grapple with the idea of ‘the future’. If you think a bar established in 1956 is ‘old’ then you will not understand the idea of next week. So why bother building for it? We see this short-termism in everything from the average American house, which falls over whenever the wind gets up, to the way chief executives are treated… And this brings me on to the war in Iraq. They went in there, knowing that pretty quickly they could depose Saddam Hussein. But nobody in power stopped for a moment to think about what might happen next. And there you have it. The insurgency problem in Baghdad and the wonky gearlever on the Chrysler Sebring. They are both caused by exactly the same thing.” Sort of like the British Empire and the island nation’s domestic car brands.

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • GS650G GS650G on Oct 06, 2008

    Who cares what "Jeremy" thinks anyway? Where is the precious auto industry in his beloved England?

  • Willbodine Willbodine on Oct 06, 2008

    I loathe Clarkson. The quintessential central casting silly-ass-Englishman. One would think that a Brit would be the last to cast stones, but that's what bullies do, attack obvious targets in order to feel somehow better about themselves and their countrymen. For sure, the Sebring is one of the shittier stinking piles out there. Duh. And American cars of the last 2 decades have not been built to last. Only the Japanese seem to be doing that anymore. But in the US's golden age (1940-1970) our cars were built to last and were the envy of the world.

  • 2ar-fever 2ar-fever on Oct 07, 2008

    yeah willbodine, thats where clarkson was going with that bit. he was trying to make himself and his countrymen feel better about themselves. jc is a funny guy, but not as funny as how SOME of you react when someone clowns the states. not to mention the "lets begin with history" rant by domestic hearse. a classic. no one knows how the states, or north america for that matter, will look in 5 years thanks to greed and short-sightedness.

  • Rijmus Rijmus on Mar 14, 2012

    The Seabring is crap... I think the funniest thing is that, for all his criticism and all his american car bashing, he buys an american car. I believe he purchased a Ford GT40. Granted, it broke down on him quite a bit, but look how he drives, he breaks everything! Watch the audience's face and even Clarkson's face when they have famous americans on Top Gear. Clarkson gushed like a teenage girl when Cameron Diaz and Tom Cruise were on! Americans know very few british celebs, the british know nearly all the american celebs... Secretly, the british are closet americans. And don't worry, it's ok because secretly, americans wish they had british accents *cough* Madonna *cough*. Before all you tea-sucking brits fire back at me with the fat, lazy, slow, stupid, wasteful, greedy etc. comments. Save it, I can guarantee that your comments are unorigional and fit neatly within the confines of set stereotypes as do mine. Truth is, I love the british. I love all of their sports, I love their beer and spirits, culture and wit and most of all, their stubborn nature. It's what makes them great. Clarkson is the middle-age british poster child, bad teeth and all. Wouldn't be Top Gear without him. *Edit* -- I dont like chavs or drum and bass or british hip-hop slang

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