Death comes for the little guy

I was driving down Campbell heading toward one of my favorite Mexican food places after a long day of installing hardwood flooring in 100-degree weather. The best and cheapest double-decker tacos in town were only minutes away from campus at Black Bean Burrito Co., one of the few places left where you could eat for less than three bucks and not be ill afterward. Oh, my stomach growled. But pulling up into the vacant parking lot, I could see only empty windows. I got out of my car, half-stunned, and found that they had closed.

A small sign thanking patrons was taped in the window - a computer-fired black-and-white reminder of the McDonaldized society in which we live.

R.I.P.

That place had free refills. They gave you free tortilla chips. There was a large menu and seven different kinds of salsa. They had free delivery service. The employees were cool. It makes you wonder what the hell went wrong.

They most likely weren't rationalized enough, as University of Maryland sociology professor George Ritzer writes in his insightful book, The McDonaldization of Society (Pine Forge Press, 1993). Unfortunately Black Bean Burrito Co. and many other new local businesses eat the economic pavement these days. These "mom and pop" stores attempt to make up for their "irrationality" by offering superior products and services. Most often, however, they find themselves unable to make up for their lack of totalitarian stress in monetary considerations. They lag like a 15-year-old dog in the efficiency, predictability, quantification and control (the four dimensions of the McDonaldized rationality) that the usual burger flips and Hitler-dog taco stands utilize to offset their vastly inferior food quality, customer service, character, etc. Then the little guys are faced with the dilemma of whether to succumb to the big-ad, bigger-value, bend-the-customer-over tactics (to stay in business) or shut down.

I don't eat at chain restaurants anymore. It's impossible to stop shopping and choking on the conglomerates altogether, but at least I can take a stand on this. Just think of this:

Soon we are going to be so overrun by chain fast-food, drug-o-mats and orgasmatrons (gotta love Woody Allen) that we will lose sight of any kind of individuality. Going to dinner will no longer be a well thought-out choice but merely a picking of directional coordinates to the nearest "refueling station." On Saturday mornings, Ronald and his friends will still be found preaching the gospel to kids while enumerating on the advantages of candy-coated finger-foods, designer movie toys and McDonaldland high-speed playgrounds. It's invading our society, no, it already has taken us by the ear - with one hand in our wallets and the other hand reaching into our humanity. Don't allow yourself to be fed by human robots any longer!

ATTENTION: Go patronize local businesses while you still can.

John Clinebell

Media arts senior