评论
打印
The automobile illustrates the Point With great clarity. A technological innovation like streamlining or all-welded body construction may be rejected initially, but if it is important to the efficiency or economics of automobiles, it will reappear in different ways until it is not only accepted but universally regarded as. Today's automobile is no longer unique to a given company or even to a given national culture, its basic features are found, with variations, in automobiles in general, no matter who makes them.
以汽车为例即可非常清楚地证明这一点。诸如流线型或全焊接式车身结构一类的技术革新，一开始可能不被人接受，但假如 这种技术革新在提高汽车制造业的工作效率和经济效益方面确有巨大作用，它便会一再地以各种变异的形式出现，直到最终它不仅会被接受，而且会被大家公认为是一种宝贵的成果。今天的汽车再也找不出某个汽车公司或某个民族文化的标志性特征了。一般的汽车，不管产于何地，其基本特征都大同小异。
A few years ago the Ford Motor Company came up with the Fiesta, which it called the "World Car." Advertisements showed it surrounded by the flags of all nations. Ford explained that the cylinder block was made in England, the carburetor in Ireland, the transmission in France, the wheels in Belgium, and so forth.
几年前，福特汽车公司制造出一种菲爱斯塔牌汽车，并将其称为"世界流行车"。这种车出现在广告上的形象是周围环绕着世界各国的国旗。福特公司解释说，这种汽车的汽缸活塞是英国产的，汽化器是爱尔兰造的，变速器是法国产的，车轮是比利时产的，诸如此类，等等等等。
The Fiesta appears to have sunk Without a trace. But the idea of a world car was inevitable. It was the automotive equivalent of the International Style. Ten years after the Fiesta, all of the large automakers were international. Americans had Plants in Europe, Asia, and South America, and Europeans and Japanese had plants in America and South America, and in the Soviet Union Fiat Fiat (= Fabbrica Italiana Automobile Torino ) workers refreshed themselves with Pepsi-Cola). In the fullness of time international automakers will have plants in Egypt and India and the People's Republic of China.
这种菲爱斯塔牌汽车现在似乎已完全销声匿迹了，但这种制造世界流行汽车的设想计划却是势在必行的。这表明汽车业也像建筑等行业一样在向国际流行风格的方向发展。菲爱斯塔牌汽车问世十年后，所有大型汽车制造公司都已国际化。美国人在欧洲、亚洲和南美洲都设了汽车厂。欧洲人和日本人也把他们的汽车厂设到了美国、南美洲以及苏联(菲亚特公司的工人在那儿可以喝到百事可乐来消乏解渴)。当时机成熟的时候，这些跨国型的汽车制造公司还会把他们的汽车厂设在埃及、印度和中华人民共和国。
