Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Zeitgeist, or Being Lemmings

We're in the process of exchanging cars this week. We're getting rid of a Toyota, and acquiring a Ford. Let no one accuse us of not following trends.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

where are the Fords you are buying in Israel produced/assembled?
Silke

Anonymous said...

If its ok for an israeli jew to buy a Ford (given Henry's Ford's anti-semitism), is it ok for an American Jew to buy a Volkswagen? Just asking.

Yaacov said...

Silke -

I honestly don't know. It used to be UK, but that was years ago.

Annon- what can I say. My irst car was a VW. Long ago.

Avigdor said...

Yaacov, hijacking the thread here...

I seem to remember you writing something about your book, Hitler's Bureaucrats, being a rejection of the "banality of evil". Is it sufficiently self-contained that one could pick it up and read it, or would you recommend a primer on the "banality" argument first?

Rob said...

Yaakov, forgive my ignorance of the zeitgeist, but why is buying a Ford and dumping a Toyota evidence of a trend ?
Shabbat shalom.
Rob

Rob said...

ok, i just twigged it - toyota safety fears, recall etc.

Re. car makers and antisemitism: it is interesting that Ford the man's antisemitism was as vicious as they come yet his marque was never boycotted, unlike "evil" German cars.

I also remember being shocked, many years ago, upon seeing the standard Mercedes taxi in Israel and wondering how it was possible, only to learn that in Israel at least, evil German cars were never a problem since their mea culpa governments had agreed to pay reparations to Holocaust survivors.

Yet another Israel-Galut divide.

Yaacov said...

victor -

I tried to set up the argument of hers that I was objecting to, but never pretended to be able to replace her. If you haven't read some of her books, this is probably the most accessible. Wrong,but accessible.