If only I had a nickel for every time some idiot made an inappropriate–not to mention false–analogy between our present day reality and World War II, well, I would be as rich as a Swiss bank hording Jewish money. But seriously, one would hope that by now, any relatively intelligent person would be able to perceive the potential minefield these types of comparisons present. Last night’s edition of the public radio show Marketplace offered the latest example. The culprit here was Ben Stein, who really should just stick to those nasally science teacher roles he plays so well. Commenting on the record-breaking performance of the stock market this week, he started like this:
“There’s a wonderfully sad movie from Italy called ‘The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.’ It’s about a rich Jewish family in Italy as the Nazis take over. The family lives lavishly in the garden inside their walls, as if nothing bad were going on outside–until one day, the Nazis storm in, and the wealthy Jewish family is sent to the gas chambers.”
Wait for it…
“In a way, the stock market in America recently reminds me of the Garden of the Finzi-Continis. We’re inside the walls of our beloved America, watching money grow and lining up for Bentleys. But outside, out in that terrifying place called the outside world, disasters not only lurk, but are sometimes happening right now.”
At this point, I pretty much stopped listening. He had me at “Nazi.”
Gal Beckerman is a former staff writer at CJR and a writer and editor for the New York Times Book Review.