I’ve been away from this blog for awhile because of the death of a close family member.
Anyway, having got the holidays over with (low-key this year, considering), we are coming up to a new year, and it’s going to be a year when things change radically for me. To begin with, I’m thinking about food. Found an interesting article by Alice Waters, on the necessity of eating Slow; it has many implications for workers, too.
She also addresses (albeit perhaps too briefly) the argument that Slow Food is elitest. But whether or not you agree with her, I think it’s time to consider the full consequences of our national diet.
When we pledge our dietary allegiance to a fast-food nation, there are also grave consequences to the health of our civil society and our national character. When we eat fast-food meals alone in our cars, we swallow the values and assumptions of the corporations that manufacture them. According to these values, eating is no more important than fueling up, and should be done quickly and anonymously. Since food will always be cheap, and resources abundant, it’s OK to waste. Feedlot beef, french fries and Coke are actually good for you. It doesn’t matter where food comes from, or how fresh it is, because standardized consistency is more important than diversified quality. Finally, hard work–work that requires concentration, application and honesty, such as cooking for your family–is seen as drudgery, of no commercial value and to be avoided at all costs. There are more important things to do.
It’s no wonder our national attention span is so short: We get hammered with the message that everything in our lives should be fast, cheap and easy–especially food.
–Alice Waters. Read more here…
Waters’ idea here seems to be in line with values of mindfulness and attention. “Fast, cheap and easy” also applies to our treatment of the poor and working class laborers, who we increasingly move to the periphery of our attention by relegating them to temporary worker status with little or no benefits (might as well designate them members of “Temp Nation”), by laying them off at the slightest provocation, and out-sourcing in order to pay as cheaply as possible.
