American Mindset and Fast Food Nation

The American Mindset and Fast Food Nation

         American children are taught at a young age that America's greatest asset is its democratic government. How the founding fathers would have disagreed. When the Constitution was written and ratified, they knew that a certain mindset needed to exist in the public majority if this democracy was to thrive. The people needed morals and education, and they needed to care about the world around them. The morals and concern for contemporary issues already existed. We were a predominantly Christian society that had just successfully revolted against the most powerful army and navy in the world. Education would come in the era of good feelings. The America of today is much different from the America of 200 years ago, and the morals and concern of the public can now be questioned. Even worse is that the people most directly affected by the modern issues of Fast Food Nation may not even be Americans at all. While the current issues formed by the fast food industry may have been avoidable, they will probably not change any time in the foreseeable future. The American public is currently not in a state to fight the status quo.
         Fast Food Nation does an outstanding job of displaying how massive and how intricate the various negative effects of the fast food industry are. The situation goes far beyond those teenagers behind the counter and the questionable properties of the meat. Even worse is that the immediate effects of most of the industrial problems cannot be found in the cities, but in the rural communities where there are less people to rally to one cause (and less people to read the book). Resolving the issues of fast food would require the masses to target not just a few major corporations with clearly distinguishable neon signs, but a chain of lesser known corporate powers who work behind the scenes. The issue with the modern American public is that we simply hold too much apathy to search for the full story and act on it. If people cared about the concealed topics discussed in Fast Food Nation, then outrage, boycotts, and possibly riots would have obliterated the reputation of Hudson Foods in 1997 (Schlosser, 211). The public, however, did not demand the company to disclose any information required for mass hysteria. It may be true that the government cannot force companies to disclose information on meat distribution, but if the majority of the public wanted it, democracy would ensure that they received it (Schlosser, 213). This is the reason prohibition failed, the draft is no longer used, and America lost the war in Vietnam and Laos. The people will get what they want, but we already have out bread and circuses.
         Many of the workers in food processing factories come are from foreign countries, many are illiterate in English, and many - maybe up to 25 percent - are working in the country illegally (Schollser, 162). The three factors combined with the situations many of them are faced with heavily discourages them from standing up for their rights. Many of these illegal aliens come to work in America just to make more money than they could back home, and some of them have their own families to support. Trying to take a stand against the employers alone could result in being fired, in which everything the man has is lost (Schlosser, 174). The workers can also not bring their issues to court because they could be uncovered as illegal workers. In this case, they could be deported and, once again, they have lost everything (Schlosser, 266). This places these illegal factory workers in a position disturbingly comparable to the factory laborers of the gilded age. These workers have no way to fight for themselves and nobody else will fight for them. American society, already wary of illegal immigrants, will never fight for a dreaded adversary without a change of heart.
         The people affected by the fast food industry can roughly be divided into two categories: Those who cannot stand up to McDonalds, and those who care not to stand up to McDonalds. The democracy of America allows the majority to rule the land, and the corporate leaders are not the majority of people. They are a few dozen while the workers are millions strong. The citizens, however, no longer care about the issues with their society and no longer care to fight the river of change. A society needs leaders, but when a nation's leaders do not lead, who does? Eric Schlosser's epilogue is titled "Have it Your Way". America's way is bread and beef from an unknown, rural plant and circuses in a desert metropolis somewhere in Nevada that turns night into day and drains your wallet more efficiently than a Senator's salary.

Works Cited

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side Of The All American Meal.          2012 ed. New York: First Mariner, 2001. Print.