Letters to the Editor
foodie
Published Letters: 2 Editor's Choice: 1
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Everyone deserves a better life
[Read the article: It's a McWorld after all]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]This article bothers me for some reason. On the one hand, I do feel saddened that unique, valuable cultural practices are subsummed by the pervasive and powerful force of industrialized Western culture. In this particular case, the methods of food preparation (e.g. toiling for half a day to bake a loaf of bread), which are certainly tied to traditions and unique geography, are lost to new generations. That is a cultural loss.
On the other hand, how many contemporary Americans bemoan the loss of the horse-drawn carriage or the equine-dependent skills that we have obviously forgotten as the result of the development of the internal-combustion engine-driven automobile? My point is- for many of the families referenced in the article, if you don't have to spend half a day baking bread or pounding millet, that time can be better devoted to gaining an education or working to better the future of your children. I think it is arrogant of us as Westerners who have clearly benefitted from the advancements of industrialized production to question whether developing cultures should be allowed the same benefits. That doesn't imply that obesity is not a problem or that overconsumption is not a dire issue for the future sustainability of our energy-hungry culture, but we do need to understand that the rest of the world's cultures are as entitled to a middle class as we are to ours.
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glug glug
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yeah, HH's commentary is obviously tongue-in-cheek, sardonic, witty, etc... but why does it always end up making me really depressed? Is there no room for optimistic media commentary in the world today? Does watching television in the 21st Century doom all viewers to a life of boredom, unfulfilled hopes and eventual alcoholic despair? Maybe that's why I cut the cable...