litmus test

Mr.Fundamental went to McDonald's for dinner last night. 

How does this strike you?  How does this alter your perception of Mr. Fundamental?

When you think of McDonald's, what comes to mind? 

Come now, be honest.

When you see or think of a burger, fries and a shake from Mickey Dee's, what do you see?  Do you see 1500 calories of death?  The trigger point of our national obesity epidemic?  How about the blight and scourge of our landscape?  Americana at its finest?  Do you see the height of economic and technological efficacy?  Or the conclusion of a linear, energy intensive, industrialized, polluting, heavily subsidized food processing schematic?  Do you see the sad end of an industrial torture, maim and murder machine?  Do you see an addictive substance?  Or the logical end of free market capitalism/globalization in the form of cheap food for the masses?  Or the feeble offerings from a national corporation bent on profit at all and any cost? 

At what point do you stop seeing processed cow meat sandwiched between a kaiser roll with American cheese, some white lettuce, tomato pickles onions and special sauce? 

What is your excuse?

At what point is the burger complicit in all of the above?

Break it down for me. 

Comments

[the quitter]

i see food which has no appeal for me.

oh and lots of dead cows.

[comandante agi]

So the burgers come out of the asshole, eh? Here's from a book I had to read for a "sociology of bureaucracy" class:

McDonaldization is clearly with us for the foreseeable future. While such a future will bring people many benefits, the profound irrationalities associated with McDonaldization raise serious questions about such a future, particularly about the "iron cage of McDonaldization," as Max Weber might have phrased it. By "iron cage," I mean that as McDonaldization comes to dominate ever more sectors of society, it will become ever less possible to "escape" from it.

-- from The McDonaldization of Society by George Ritzer

I personally don't like McDonald's food, except their McFlurry. I prefer In N'Out for burgers, fries, shakes, etc. I also enjoy the hidden bible verses on their cups and wrappers.

Oh, and this might come in handy some day.