Not including Penicillin, can you name Two things that changed the world? There are probably a lot of them but these two are fun, and I think maybe had an effect of the most people. In a way, with a little stretch anyway, these are both related to art. Well, if Formica and yellow arches can be considered art.
Can you even imagine a world without McDonald's? They have taken cuisine art, made it bland and standardized it to mush. It wasn't easy and they revolutionized economics, gave us "Happy Meals", taught the world to smile and even introduced ketsup as a vegetable. They created a huge industry the likes of which had never been seen. They taught farmers how to grow potatoes and built canneries to process them.
They created paper mills and plastic processing plants all over the world to supply them with napkins, plastic forks and stirring sticks. They introduced pickles to areas of the world that had never seen a cucumber.
In some countries they created schools, teaching their employees how to smile and be polite. The biggest McDonald's in the world is in Moscow, Russia. After you have had a "Big Mac", the Berlin Wall can't even contain you.
Pepsi followed and then Coke and now even Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Pizza chains. You can even get a bad Pizza in Italy now where Pizza was invented but never standardized and mass produced. It is the "American Dream" gone amok and people all over the world have tasted it. Bitten from this apple.
The revolts and street protests in Egypt and other parts of the world are about this very thing. It is not about Democracy. No one is protesting to read Jefferson or Adams or John Stuart Mill or anyone. They want stuff. They want it "supersized" and they want it now. I am not sure it can be prevented. Revolutions always occur when things are getting better.
There are no secrets anymore. The Internet ended that. Everyone knows everything, everywhere, all the time. In the thickest Jungles of Africa they know we have flat screens.
Before the Internet we had the Beatles and that "British Invasion" which conquered the world in song and music. They were spreading ideas! and changed the world in the process.
What else has changed the world? for better or worse?
My Other Blog is Here.
Can you even imagine a world without McDonald's? They have taken cuisine art, made it bland and standardized it to mush. It wasn't easy and they revolutionized economics, gave us "Happy Meals", taught the world to smile and even introduced ketsup as a vegetable. They created a huge industry the likes of which had never been seen. They taught farmers how to grow potatoes and built canneries to process them.
They created paper mills and plastic processing plants all over the world to supply them with napkins, plastic forks and stirring sticks. They introduced pickles to areas of the world that had never seen a cucumber.
In some countries they created schools, teaching their employees how to smile and be polite. The biggest McDonald's in the world is in Moscow, Russia. After you have had a "Big Mac", the Berlin Wall can't even contain you.
Pepsi followed and then Coke and now even Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Pizza chains. You can even get a bad Pizza in Italy now where Pizza was invented but never standardized and mass produced. It is the "American Dream" gone amok and people all over the world have tasted it. Bitten from this apple.
The revolts and street protests in Egypt and other parts of the world are about this very thing. It is not about Democracy. No one is protesting to read Jefferson or Adams or John Stuart Mill or anyone. They want stuff. They want it "supersized" and they want it now. I am not sure it can be prevented. Revolutions always occur when things are getting better.
There are no secrets anymore. The Internet ended that. Everyone knows everything, everywhere, all the time. In the thickest Jungles of Africa they know we have flat screens.
Before the Internet we had the Beatles and that "British Invasion" which conquered the world in song and music. They were spreading ideas! and changed the world in the process.
What else has changed the world? for better or worse?
My Other Blog is Here.
4 comments:
so many things are mixed blessings! hate wal-mart, yet love cheap buys. (have managed to visit walmart only 3 time in almost three years, tho!)
damn mickey d's yet love sausage mcmuffins...and paper plates are great!
for my music, love old vinyl. still have my teenage-era record player!1970's...
For me, Most of the changes are for the good. Knowing where is my family all the time, talking to my brother abroad in a way like we are sitting in one room. Awesome, something people hundred years back would think as a magic.
Probably comes as no surprise to you, Jer, but I so often wish I'd lived in an earlier era. Maybe Victorian times when the Industrial Revolution was going strong and new ideas were spilling over in abundance. But when life was maybe more even-paced and certain values were cherished. TV and the internet have also changed the world.
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