If Jeremy Clarkson says at the end of his most recent show, “Don’t go to America,” then we have lost the sympathies of even the most libertarian Brits.
Top Gear is one of the most popular shows on BBC2. It appeals to immature, testosterone fueled, wannabe car jockeys for whom, I am ashamed to admit, I have a grudging admiration. I feel that watching someone else driving an Aston Martin is a helluva lot cheaper than owning one. The Guardian opinion pundits don’t agree. George Monbiot hates him with some cause, for encouraging speeding and irresponsible driving. After Richard Hammond’s high speed crash last summer, there was even some question as to whether the show would return. It did. The first show was largely about the crash, with the final disclaimer being that, “Speed Kills.” No kidding.
The second show of the season was on last night. It was purportedly a road trip from Miami to New Orleans and pushed every negative stereotype about the South: crime, fat people, rednecks: it was all in there. Considering that there is a whole subset of British humor that consists of poking fun at the ignorant colonials, this was not surprising.The counterpoint to this was that the cars the presenters were driving were $1K beaters that they had bought in Miami, so they had some faint praise for the engineering that kept their cars on the road despite their age and decrepitude. At the end of the trip they were to sell them in New Orleans, and here is where the show departed from the expected.
As they drove through New Orleans, the final minutes showed the absolute devastation of the city. Clarkson, Hammond, and May seemed sick, disgusted, and amazed, in turn. In the end they gave their cars to charity. I’m paraphrasing here, but in the final minutes Clarkson said something about the shame of the richest country in the world letting a tragedy like that continue for all this time. His final words were, “Yes, you can buy a cheap car instead of renting one…but no, don’t go to America.”
I could write the BBC a sad little letter about all of the efforts put in by people I know and people here to try to do the best we could by the people of New Orleans. Somehow I doubt it would do any good. NO is the dirty piece of toilet paper hanging off America’s shoe, and everybody notices it except the U.S. government. We do. People the world over do, even Jeremy Clarkson.