Skip to main content

Eric Schlosser's dire prediction ...

I just finished reading Eric Schlosser's seminal book titled "Fast Food Nation - The Dark Side of the All-American Meal". In my opinion this is one of the two best books on how we should live and eat after we inform ourselves about the food that we eat - the other book in this genre being Micheal Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma.

In the afterword, Eric makes a very honest assessment of our current way of life that I found to be very chilling in its prediction. Given my previous post about the amorality of businesses, I though the following was something I should share.

Excerpt from Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation: "The history of the 20th century was dominated by the struggle against totalitarian systems of state power. The 21st will no doubt be marked by a struggle to curtail excessive corporate power. The great challenge now facing countries throughout the world is how to find a proper balance between the efficiency and the amorality of the market. Over the past twenty years, the US has swung too far in one direction, weakening the regulations that safeguard workers, consumers, and the environment. An economic system promising freedom has too often become a means of denying it, as the narrow dictates of the market gain precedence over more important democratic values."

Powerful words, eh? Comments?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Om Shanti Om ...

Wow - It is Nov 17th already and it has been 16 days since my last post ... what hectic lives we lead - no wonder we all sooner or later succumb to some stress related disorder. But morbid thoughts aside, here is my "detailed" Om Shanti Om experience. Kutti (those on a need to know basis know who I am referring to) and wife called us to go catch the Om Shanti Om flick at my brother's deserted theater - (begin footnote) it appears some of the local mainstream cinema halls have stumbled on the fact that screening Bollywood movies is a sure way of generating copious quantities of moolah given the zillion or so well-heeled fanatic Bollywood fans in the bay area but this is a topic best left for another blog (end footnote). Anyway, the rotund and 24 weeks pregnant mrs and I made our way to the "deserted" theatre 10 minutes before the agreed upon time. Turns out that the zillion fanatic Bollywood fans also decide that this was the movie to see on a Friday night at ou...

My 2025 Reading Profile

This year has been an interesting and fleeting one. To hide from the world's current events, I immersed myself more into audio books this year - 56 to be precise. Did not have much time for hard copy books this year. Will try and read actual physical books in 2026.  December 2025 The Starless Crown — James Rollins Subterranean — James Rollins Contagious — Scott Sigler November 2025 Enchanter's End Game — David Eddings Castle of Wizardry — David Eddings Dark Matter — Blake Crouch Magician's Gambit — David Eddings October 2025 Queen of Sorcery — David Eddings The Olympian Affair — Jim Butcher The Aeronaut's Windlass — Jim Butcher September 2025 Pawn of Prophecy — David Eddings First Lord's Fury — Jim Butcher Princeps' Fury — Jim Butcher Captain's Fury — Jim Butcher Cursor's Fury — Jim Butcher Academ's Fury — Jim Butcher August 2025 Furies of Calderon — Jim Butcher Battle Ground — Jim Butcher Brief Cases — Jim Butcher Nexus — Yuval N...

Baby names - trials and tribulations ...

A certain world traveling friend of mine requested my thoughts on pre and post fatherhood. Since I am still in the pre-fatherhood phase, I shall enlighten my friend with some words of wisdom as someone who is actively making all the wrong choices and the right mistakes :) Choosing baby names can be an interesting experience. First time parents-to-be like yours truly and the wonderfully rotund mrs are often perplexed with the myriad choices for baby names. Now throw in the rigors of Indian names and you are looking at several zillion permutations and combinations that is likely to cause the parents-to-be run screaming for the exits. Thanks to my mother, I am blessed with a _long_ name. While it does inconvenience me from time to time, I have always looked upon my long name as a blessing since it pretty much guaranteed that I will never suffer from identity theft or fraud. One look at my name and most people just give up :). So given that the baby will have at least one long name (the f...