How McDonalds took over our lives

The McDonaldization of Society by George Ritzer addresses an important, yet damaging, transformation in our society: rationalization. In the article, Ritzer uses McDonalds as the epitome to exemplify 5 different aspects in which this is occurring: efficiency, predictability, calculability, substitution of nonhuman technology and control.

Firstly, the rationalization of our society focuses on efficiency; getting things done as fast as possible in an organized manner. In doing so, quantity is often substituted for quality which can be shown by the fact that slaughterhouses and production mills mass produce without much attention into the quality of their produce. Secondly, society focuses on making sure things are done in a predictable progressive manner, to ensure that efficiency can be accomplished. It attempts to eliminate any unnecessary unpredictable variables which could obstruct things being produced as quickly as possible and thus, emphasizes discipline, routine, consistency and such. In attempting to quantify variables in daily life, encouraged by the development of modern technology, society enforces numbers on many things which are ambiguous and cannot easily be confined to a single category such as the quality of a physician or teacher. This can be related to the assembly line in a production mill where each step is carefully calculated to ensure that it progresses as swiftly as possible with the most gain. Society also attempts to eliminate human autonomy in the labor force by implementing certain techniques, methods and machines on them; in doing so, this dehumanizes humans and turns them into “robots”, which ensures that predictability is present. Finally, the rationalized system was designed to control one particular factor – people. It’s geared to making sure everyone does things in a certain manner so that as a whole, it is quick, efficient and most importantly, profitable – for both consumers and producers.
In my opinion, I do not perceive rationalization as a progressive step in society’s evolution; rather I see it as a setback. Being in a “McDonalized” society means that life is less appreciated; it feels as though we are just puppets in its show. People fail to forget that having free will and autonomy are what makes life so beautiful and without this sense of uniqueness in the world, everyone appears the same and mundane. Sooner or later, there would be no need to create mechanical robots to replace humans in jobs as essentially, we ARE the robots.
In relation to food, it is a shame that such an art is being thrown away in preference for more time doing other things. Here in the US, meals are considered a “waste of time” as people rush through them to proceed to other activities. Even family meals are now seen as a “mandatory sit-together” rather than an enjoyable time. In contrast, back in Thailand, it is required that the entire family stays at home, cooks the meal, and eats it together together rather than just going out to a restaurant or making a frozen meal just to get it “over and done with”. Being from a different culture, I sometimes have difficulty enjoying my own meals with peers as they seem to be able to finish so much quicker than I do, usually pressuring me to gulp my food down so that they don’t have to wait for me. I feel that if we are to survive as a species in the future, we need to overcome this spreading obsession for “speed, mass producing, and efficiency”, which will only let to our downfall as with it come greed and corruption. We need to stop quantifying things which can’t be put into numbers and rediscover originality and creativity. Although this may be a bit off topic, an example of this rediscovery in architectural planning is called New Urbanism where planners aim to reconstruct communities so that they resemble old towns. They aim to deemphasize the notion of modern skyscrapers, traffic, and overcrowding and bring back the simplicity of life in past decades. It is proven that such a lifestyle brings about more happiness than in an overpopulated populated city. The emphasis is on quality rather than quality. A link to what this topic is all about is on the following link:

Nevertheless, although I’m not a supporter of it, an advantage I do see in this rationalization transformation is that it reduces starvation. The fact that food at fast-food chains , such as McDonalds, is produced so efficiently means that it is cheap and can be afforded by those who live below the poverty line. As the world becomes increasingly populated, it is important that everyone is fed so that famine and violence do not become an everyday issue.

Questions I have regarding “McDonaldization” include the following:

- Can the obesity pandemic in the US be mainly blamed on this rationalization?
- Is rationalization driven more by technological advancements or human desire to control things?