Swamp
Confessions of an Academic Pseudo-Giraffe
30.9.04
I saw Super Size Me by Morgan Spurlock a couple of days ago. The film provoked two simultaneous but very different responses in me.
Response 1. It is an intelligent film that reveals a lot about the logic behind U.S. commercialism and its side effects. The huge societal apparatus of corporations and the operational systems of law and sick care (this very apt term was used by a P.E. teacher in the film) are all fundamentally a part of the same all-pervasive money making machinery. The film convincingly shows how this self-generating monster grows and breaths, and where it gets its food. If the rules of the market are accepted as givens (compare: laws of nature, words of God), people end up stupid and inflated. They turn into fat balloons, lose their self-control, and drift in whatever direction the monster blows. The iron grip the fast food business has on the humans waddling on the street is merely one illuminating example.
Response 2. On the question of responsibility: yes, society should kill the monster. But the film also proves that the average person has an immeasurable supply of mental sloth. Why don't these people simply replace a few drives to McDonald's with one to the nearest vegetable market or grocery store? Why on earth don't they walk? How stupid do you have to be to think that you can eat deep-fried or sugar-saturated fast food every day, not exercise, and still be healthy? No education can be that bad. It makes me sick to think that people resort to gastric bypasses and lawsuits when all they really need is to go out and use their bodies for what they have them for. The film does nothing but state the obvious.
P.S. In my opinion, Spurlock's vegan girlfriend stole the show in her sidekick role. I wish the typical Hollywood actress had a face as expressive as hers.
13:23
Response 1. It is an intelligent film that reveals a lot about the logic behind U.S. commercialism and its side effects. The huge societal apparatus of corporations and the operational systems of law and sick care (this very apt term was used by a P.E. teacher in the film) are all fundamentally a part of the same all-pervasive money making machinery. The film convincingly shows how this self-generating monster grows and breaths, and where it gets its food. If the rules of the market are accepted as givens (compare: laws of nature, words of God), people end up stupid and inflated. They turn into fat balloons, lose their self-control, and drift in whatever direction the monster blows. The iron grip the fast food business has on the humans waddling on the street is merely one illuminating example.
Response 2. On the question of responsibility: yes, society should kill the monster. But the film also proves that the average person has an immeasurable supply of mental sloth. Why don't these people simply replace a few drives to McDonald's with one to the nearest vegetable market or grocery store? Why on earth don't they walk? How stupid do you have to be to think that you can eat deep-fried or sugar-saturated fast food every day, not exercise, and still be healthy? No education can be that bad. It makes me sick to think that people resort to gastric bypasses and lawsuits when all they really need is to go out and use their bodies for what they have them for. The film does nothing but state the obvious.
P.S. In my opinion, Spurlock's vegan girlfriend stole the show in her sidekick role. I wish the typical Hollywood actress had a face as expressive as hers.
13:23
