You said:
"The people who matter"? An interesting description for the people who, as individuals, precisely *do not
matter*, but who, by some magic, in vast aggregates,
are, as you say, what matters.
Vast aggregates do not eat hamburgers - people do.
In the case of McDonald's, the people who have gone to there and ordered hamburgers by the billions are what matter is a decision as to whether Mcburgers are worth eating.
Votes in:
Billions say that the burgers are good.
One says they aren't,
Of course, the one who says no is so excruciatingly superior in his judgement of hamburgers that his opinions must surely outweigh those who buy the billions.
Bah!
Harry -------------------------------------------
Brad wrote:
Harry Pollard wrote:Brad,
It's a face-off between a restaurant critic and 600,000 Italians who each day eat McDonald's food.
Somehow I did not read the piece as saying that 600,000 angry Italians were pummeling one other Italian.
It sounded like "men in Armani suits" from McHeadquarters earning their corporate salaries and fringe benefits by initiating a legal proceeding (you know, filing papers to try to get this guy's life ruined through means that leave no marks on the flesh....) via functionaries (Sartre's waiter: remember him?) who get their paychecks from another bureaucracy....
It didn't sound like the McBacchae to me. But maybe I got it wrong?
> You work it out, Brad. One restaurantcritic, who no doubt spends most of his time in the best restaurants and 600,000 Italians who probably couldn't afford to enter those restaurants where the critic spends his time.
[snip]
While an intellectual may take the side of the critic, the people who matter buy McDonald's by the billion. Definitely, mutually beneficial intercourse.
"The people who matter"? An interesting description for the people who, as individuals, precisely *do not matter*, but who, by some magic, in vast aggregates, are, as you say, what matters.
But we styill have not gotten to the bottom of the interaction between Joe Hungry and Sally Bagger (or Sally Hungry and Joe Bagger, etc. -- I'm EEO...)....
Is Bagger operating in the same way behind the counter as Bagger operated *as an individual* (i.e., as Hungry)? Let me give you an example: Bagger's identical twin (Baguette?). who either doesn't have a job, or else is doing a Laurie Anderson act, walks into the Mc, puts on a McUniform, and starts bagging burgers. Now, in every detail except for the contingent attribute of being on the company's payroll, we can discern no difference between Bagger and Baguetts. Question: If Bagger's shift starts at 8AM and Baguette starts bagging at 8AM, also, do Bagger and Baguette's days proceed more or less identically? Or does McManager ask Baguette to leave (even though Baguette is in every way acting like a McEmployee!)? And, if Baguette doesn't leave but keeps on bagging, doesn't McManager finally call the police? Whereas Bagger continues to bag all day -- indeed, if Bagger doesn't keep bagging all day, doesn't Bagger get fired?
So I think there is something going on here besides the free consensual and mutually beneficial intercourse of individuals. Or do you disagree, Harry?
(We can next proceed to see if there is any difference in what happens, when each of the following enters the Mc:
(1) Baguette (this time coming only to purchase a burger as an individual consumner,
(2) Bagman (you know, a "homeless person"), and
(3) A person who *looks* identical to #1, but whom someone has tipped off McUpperManagment that this person is an agent of PETA or some other institution, secretly collecting "evidence" and not merely seeking to injest colories.Isn't it?
\brad mccormick
Harry ------------------------------------------------------------ Brad wrote:
McDonalds in Italy is suing a food critic for saying McDonalds food doesn't taste good.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2853384&src=eDialog/GetContent
Is this faceoff between the corporate hoard and one little mouse an example of what Harry talks about when he says that the free market is a place where persons always and only engage in mutually beneficial intercourse?
All "persons" are created equal? --Whether it is a naked food critic or McGlobalCorp?
Humpety Dumpety sat on a wall Humpety Dumpety had a great fall All the kings lawyers and all the king's spin doctors Proved that Humpety Dumpety never fell off at all.
The "intelligence community" seems a bit displeased today with how Bush et Cie. jerked them around to make the case for attacking Saddam Hussein just because we wanted to but needed a reason to give to the public....
\brad mccormick
**************************************************** Harry Pollard Henry George School of Social Science of Los Angeles Box 655 Tujunga CA 91042 Tel: (818) 352-4141 -- Fax: (818) 353-2242 http://home.attbi.com/~haledward ****************************************************
--- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.486 / Virus Database: 284 - Release Date: 5/29/2003
