You see, I could say I don't think your scoffing is "anything other than elitism", if I wanted to be tendentious.
Where it stops, Doug, is locally, and as much and as often as the locals can sensibly manage, and it's just a shame they have to waste their time and energy on the project. There are MacDonalds-free zones in Australia, and good on 'em; there are Wal-Mart free towns elsewhere; and each of us can try as much as possible to patronise the local strugglers instead of the styrofoam-wielding invaders of our crossroads and neighborhoods -- if only to maintain the spirit of resistance in ourselves, and our sense of community by patronising the local deli, the corner shop.
Mr bulldozer, whatsisname, the French farmer who also showed up in Seattle -- he had the right idea about MacDonalds. The stuff's not only dumbed down food (what makes it attractive is a carefully calculated confluence of sugar, salt and fat -- no wonder kids go for it, but the pet food companies get dogs hooked on kibble in the same way), it's also a waste: the bang for the buck is necessarily low, or MacD's wouldn't be riding on such a sea of cash.
So we should slap each others' wrists when some of us refuse to add to their riches? At the expense not just of our wallets but also of our health, our self-respect, our local grocers and sandwich shops?
Leo, it ain't out of college town, it's out of common sense.
Just because you're poor doesn't mean you shouldn't be allowed to care what you put in your mouth. I think the fact is, Americans come out of the Anglo tradition which sees food as fuel, more or less. Used to be we never tasted inspired cooking until we went overseas; now we pay a lot for it at home because most of it still comes from overseas. So of course good eating takes on a monied scent. But if you were raised in a country where complex flavours were the norm, where fabulous bread was expected at rates anyone could afford, where wine cost 40 cents a litre in the family bottle filled at the corner shop, then the attitude that the people should take what they get and like it seems offensive. An affront to basic human dignity.
We may have to take some of the colonisation by corporations, okay, depending in part on how much disposable time and energy and cash we have, but we don't have to take it all. And we sure as hell don't have to feel guilty for resisting!
Joanna
At 04:24 22-01-01, kelley wrote:
>At 11:33 AM 1/21/01 -0500, Doug Henwood wrote:
>>John Thornton wrote:
>>
>>>On another note, what the hell are you people doing
>>>patronizing McD's? I suppose you shop at WalMart too?
>>
>>Hmm, so where's it stop? The computer I'm typing on was made a giant
>>multinational and assembled in Mexico. There's a stereo next to me made
>>by Sony in China. The coffee I'm drinking came from Kenya, a country
>>filled with poor and hungry people, and the beans were grown and picked
>>under god knows what exploitative conditions. You don't really believe
>>that individual consumption choices can clean an unclean world, do you?
>>
>>Doug
>
>i don't think the outrage expressed here was anything other than elitism.
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