The Age of Rage

In my Interdisciplinary Studies Capstone class last semester, we focused on ethical dilemmas surrounding our lives and at one point the decisions we make about what we put into our bodies. We read a book called In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honore. He continuously noted how our culture was consumed by the need for speed, which was becoming detrimental to our lives in many aspects. We somehow got the notion that everything is better faster, which he applied to our eating, parenting and schooling notions. One chapter I remember in particular was titled, “The Age of Rage,” which further developed Honore’s ideas about our constant need to press fast forward. The key concept throughout his book is not to go too slow, or too fast, but to recognize the right speed. We need to begin to savor the moments in the present and not constantly be trying to get ahead. Honore also includes the idea of the concept of quality over quantity. This concept especially I feel we need to apply to our current philosophies about food.

Fast Food Nation has highlighted how our notions of food came to where they are today. TheOmnivore’s Dilemma notes what is currently going on and how the decisions that we are making will heavily affect our future. Carl Honore believes that by living at the right pace we can solve many of the problems we are currently encountering. Imagine if we created and ate every meal slowly. We would be more aware of what goes into our food, what goes into our bodies and over time I feel we would recognize how drastically different our bodies would feel. We spoke about in class how vicious of a cycle the food industry is, that we can’t seem to break the tumultuous path we have created for ourselves. By making our own food, i.e. growing our own vegetable gardens or making our own dinner, we can help to break the cycle because they are small forms of resistance to the fast food super power we have created.(Photo Credit)

Technology has helped us in a way dig our hole deeper. I feel technology is one of the main reasons why our world is under pressure to keep up because there are constantly new technologies emerging to make our lives “simpler,” but in all reality, is more of a detriment because they take away face-to-face interactions. Think about all of the jobs that technology has replaced, especially in the food industry. The impersonality of our food and the process that goes into making it has become a commodity. The reason our food can be so cheap is because there are shortcuts taken to remove “unnecessary” expenses. That means removing all of the love, care and compassion from the food process and replacing it with artificial flavoring. How tantalizing. Unfortunately, amyl acetate, amyl butyrate and methyl heptine carbonate have now replaced real strawberries in my Burger King strawberry milkshake to provide just the illusion of the taste of real, handpicked strawberries. (Schlosser 125) The real question is, if we know all of this why do we keep buying and supporting this lifestyle? The more money we put into this industry the more, in reality, we are continuing to hurt ourselves in the long run. We have successfully shut down millions of family operated farms, sold them to corporation tyrants and all because there is demand for McDonalds products. The demand we are placing on McDonalds French Fries and their now all white meat chicken nuggets has given the non-verbal go ahead that this lifestyle is acceptable and even encouraged. (Photo Credit)

After reading an article I found online called Social Media Addiction Can Ruin Your Health, by Jonathan Benson it reinforces how technology runs our lives. This “keeping up with the Joneses” and always being available notion has become an addiction, just like our need for speed and our fast food dependence. Benson notes, “Researchers from HUST recently performed a social experiment in which they deprived the university's entire 800-student population from using social media for a week. What they found is that social media addiction is similar to drug addiction, in that people go through similar withdrawal symptoms.” (Benson) I feel this reaction would be similar if we removed all fast food from our campus. This would mean goodbye Subway and Taco Bell, hello Whole Foods and a farmers market.

Overall, we are consumed by the Age of Rage, as Honore named it, and as Benson notes addicted to the certain lifestyles we live. When will we finally be pushed to the breaking point and realize that we are hurting not only our own future, but our children’s as well. It may be too late if we continue at this pace. (Photo Credit)

Blogging Assignment #1

Prompt #1: Which of the Earth Charter principles is the Omnivore’s Dilemma or Fast Food Nation encouraging you to think more deeply about? Explain.


Are our societies doomed beyond belief with the knowledge that history tends to repeat itself, or is the dawning of a sustainable era upon us with a singular document seeking to inspire a wave of change. Personally, I am wary, but never the less determined, of how much hope and belief are established within The Earth Charter. The Earth Charter is a document that I consider as a utopia, a dream we could one hope to one day achieve. I do not consider myself a pessimist, more of a realist and Fast Food Nation is a book that I consider a harsh, but true, burning reality of American culture. So where does the crossover lie? Well, Fast Food Nation has encouraged me to think deeper about many of the EC principles and how the sloth of food is overcoming our nation.


I use sloth in the sense of spiritual emptiness and as EC principle 12 states we need to, “Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities.” The beginnings of the fast food epidemic started with the desire to make a buck and live out the American dream, to become successful primarily monetarily. After reading the first couple of chapters of Fast Food Nation and comparing it to our current situation food use to bring people together, but now fast food segregates us instead. The spirituality in eating is gone. Fast food encourages us to eat in our cars or on the go and therefore loses the spiritual meaning behind it. Food use to be made with love and care, not to maintain the McDonaldization standards of efficiency, predictability, calculability and control. Where has our love and desire for food or a good meal gone? It has been replaced by our need for speed and our lack of priorities. Fast food puts a strain on maintaining bodily health with their processed, genetically modified ingredients and on a natural and social environment. As we spoke about in class we as a society have created such a demand for this style of eating that we spend billions of dollars a year on it! Billions of dollars on ruining principles we ought to be striving for, degrading the concept of family dinner as I use to know it. (Photo credit)


Another one of the EC principles Fast Food Nation not only encouraged, but also forced me to recognize was principle 13E, “Eliminate corruption in all public and private institutions.” This plays hand in hand with EC principle 14, “Integrate into formal education and life-long learning the knowledge, values, and skills needed for a sustainable way of life.” So I’m assuming targeting children in public schools and preying on counties in need of funding would fall in this category. After reading this article, Fast Food Branding Makes Children Prefer Happy Meals by Roxanne Khamsi, it shows how much children are influenced by advertising alone. The youth and future of our nation is being targeted by greedy, billion dollar industries not concerned about the impact their advertising, or food, will render on the children in the long run. As Khamsi shows us, children preferred the food with McDonald's packaging over the exact same food in non-name brand packaging. I’m glad large corporations have realized that they can tap into an age group that is ready to be brainwashed and also prey on working parents who feel guilty about not spending quite enough time with their children. As Schlosser states large corporations have younger target groups, “Hoping that nostalgic childhood memories of a brand will lead to a lifetime of purchases, companies now plan “cradle-to-grave” advertising strategies.” (Schlosser 43) This type of advertising in our formal education I can imagine wasn’t in mind of the many men and women writing the Earth Charter. Fast Food Nation has proven just how much corporate giants can influence a way of life especially when they target public institutions such as schools in order to tap into eager, young minds. I can only imagine if instead of advertising about the latest toy in the kids meal, they put up posters about respecting our planet or key tips to living sustainably. It also wouldn’t hurt if children, younger than the college age, were taught what living sustainably actually means. (Photo Credit)


Overall, the Earth Charter is a living, breathing document that I’m positive will grow as we do, but in order for it to grow we need to make those sacrifices and for a change put others before ourselves. Fast Food Nation drew to my attention the shocking reality that advertising and the fast food epidemic, for now, has no limits. We as a society can create those reality checks only if we come to realize how much is at stake. How far will these boundaries be pushed until they are broken forever?

There is actually this YouTube video I found that you can subscribe to and follow all of the new Earth Charter videos posted. This one I feel has child friendly animation while at the same time carrying the important messages the EC is trying to convey.




References:

The Earth Charter

Schlosser, Eric. 2004. Fast Food Nation. Houghton Mifflin Company. New York, NY.