Me Culture
So last weekend I went to go see Food Inc. (I’ll get a review posted about it one of these days…). It was an amazing, and disturbing film, but part of the experience was seeing it at the Alamo Drafthouse here in Austin (which imho, is the ONLY place to see movies in town). Before the films the Drafthouse people show clips from other related movies. So, for instance, before Twilight we saw clips from really cheezy old vampire movies or before Star Trek there were clips of trekkies and SNL sketches about Star Trek. For the most part, those clips are always the epitome of the strange manifestations of that genre or theme. So at a movie about the industrial food system, we were treated to some pretty scary propaganda pieces and commercials put out by that very food system.
But watching these commercials from 20-50 years ago was disturbing. They were so far fetched, it is hard to believe that anyone ever thought that they might be persuasive in any way. There was one about fortified white bread that was presented as a documentary – explaining that fortified bread has improved nutrition so that children who eat white bread are smarter and better athletes. Or the McDonald’s commercials presenting a parade of uniformed, pretty, white women singing about how much they love serving a stereotypical small town. It was all about these companies providing helpful services that will improve our lives. Well, I don’t think anyone is stupid enough to believe that processed junk food has improved anyone’s life. And as Food Inc. shows, that sort of food is actually destroying our health, our environment, and our country.
So it was amusing to then pay attention to the junk food commercials I encountered over the next few days (which, btw, are all the food commercials, natural, healthy foods don’t have advertising budgets). Every single commercial was about treating ourselves – giving ourselves the break we deserve. No veiled lies to get us to believe that processed junk helps people, but simply the appeal to self-centered “it’s all about me” mentality. And I know how stupid it is to complain about commercials, but they have big money going into determining what people want to hear. Forget building community, or improving lives – that’s so 1978. Now its all about self-centeredness.
It’s hard not to get cynical when confronted with that attitude. There are people I start discussing my upcoming book on justice with, and I get a blank look in reply. I’ve even had people ask, “why should caring about the needs of others be my concern?” Or I stumbled across this book recently, which decries the evils of environmentalists who are “demanding that you turn down your thermostat, stop driving your car, or engage in some other senseless act of self-denial.” Apparently trying to save the earth must be fought because it threatens “the entire American way of life” and envisions for us “a grim future marked by endless privation.” Well, duh, of course it does. But apparently for some it is far better to be selfish jerks than to have to give up anything to help others. I know this isn’t widespread, but some days it sure feels that way.
But maybe 20-30 years from now people will watch our commercials and ask “how could people be so selfish and stupid.”
julieclawson(at)gmail(dot)com 
Ironically, McDonald’s did the “You Deserve a Break Today” campaign even earlier than 1978. It was introduced in 1971.
Have you read Generation Me by Jean M Twenge? Very disturbing and frustrating, but so true.
Mark – interesting.
Amy – I’ve heard a lot about the book. My issue with what I’ve heard is that she makes this a generational thing. I see that as part of it, but it is also across all age groups. Its the baby boomers I see that have the “Honk if I’m paying your mortgage” stickers on their car for example. I don’t think gen x and y have the corner on selfishness.
younger generations always model the previous one that raised them! i agree that’s the issue with twenge’s analysis.
there is a certain spiritual fulfillment about advertising today that is different. it’s therapeutic to find your true self in a product without which you will continue to be lost and worth less. buddhism in reverse-gear. think about how this ties in with the abundance of fractured family life we are more aware of now than ever before.
I haven’t seen Food Inc, but it sounds very interesting. Your mention of fortified white bread reminded me of a video I saw at http://www.ted.com recently. Here is the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/louise_fresco_on_feeding_the_whole_world.html
It’s a intriguing take on mass processed foods that you don’t normally hear. She brings up some very interesting points in my opinion. As do pretty much all the videos posted on http://www.ted.com.
Though I do agree with the main point of your post, that about being self centered.
Just a question though: how do low-income people afford to eat organic or fair trade foods, since these food are always more expensive? It just seems arrogant of us (me included) in the middle class to think that everyone should make self-denying choices when there are people for whom a Dollar value meal at fast food is the only thing they can afford to eat. I don’t blame them, I blame the industry and the social structures in place that caused us to get where we are.
Rob – that issue really is addressed in Food Inc. No, its not a clear cut easy issue. For some switching away from processed foods and eating whole foods is less expensive – depends on what they’ve been eating. But when the question comes down to having to pay $2-3 for a healthy grocery store meal or $1 for a dollar cheeseburger, families generally choose the cheeseburger. What isn’t factored into that daily meal cost is the medical bills and prescription costs of at least $300 a month to take care of the type 2 diabetes they will assuredly develop (or already have). Or the fact that the government subsidizes corn so that it sells below the cost of production – and corn in all its unhealthy forms is the main ingredient in junk food (especially that dollar cheeseburger). Healthy food isn’t subsidized and therefore has to sell at or above the cost of production. So like you said – its a systemic problem. The government ensures the poor (kids especially) become unhealthy and obese (oh and then votes against subsidized lunches or health care).
So I stick to the claim that we need to be eating healthy, whole, organic foods – but that we have to change the system as well. If those of us in the middle class (and in all technicality i live below the poverty line…), stop complaining about making sacrifices and vote with our money for healthy foods the demand for such foods will be raised and they will become more readily available at lower prices. But we also need to lobby the government to stop subsidizing junk, and start making the health of the nation a priority. When 1 in 5 kids are obese, we have a serious looming health crises on our hands which can be laid at the feet of the government. So tell them to make the broccoli, and blueberries, and olive oil cheap not the high fructose corn syrup or the e. coli laced corn fed beef. It’s not arrogance to care about people or want to remove systems of injustice that keep the poor unhealthy and even poorer – that’s called compassion.
I live in Canada and one of the ideas the government here has been toying with is taxing junk foods and processed foods and using that money to provide healthy and organic foods at reasonable prices so ALL families can afford the healthier choices. It is ridiculous that it cost more to buy a veggie burger than a beef burger which had to be raised, fed, slaughtered and processed before ending up in a bun.
I love the idea of more and more communities having their own gardens which they work in together and feed those around them. It shows we do not need to and will not bow to the industrialization of our food and health.
Amy-Lynn,
Good point about community gardens. The Hmong and other Southeast Asians have a tradition of gardening/fresh market farming in many areas of the Midwest. I worked in an urban garden program in the 1980s in Milwaukee, where there were many — albeit older — African Americans who had a plot or several plots of land they could rent cheaply to grow their own food. Even at the time, many lamented that the younger generation was not interested in farming. The years I worked with the program we would have a harvest picnic as a celebration. Different ethnics groups coming together and trying each others’ foods. Delicious, but oh so spicy.