The Platonic Form of McDonalds

'They pretend to pay us; we pretend to work'

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McDonalds is the same all over the world. The same food, the same design of the "restaurants", the same colours, and even the people are trained to say the same things: "Have a good day, please come again". Fuck off! It is very odd to hear a Punjabi being so polite and one can almost see them gritting their teeth as they switch to McDonalds training mode. Follow the rules and repeat after me: I am a human being..I am a human...I think the background "music" may vary but it must be an equal music...i.e. equally mind-numbing.

The funniest thing at McDonalds is their attempt to add a "cultural element" to their "menu". This year it's 'the Brazilian' because of the World Cup. Ain't no way I'm going there to order one.

In this way capitalism resembles communism-and that isn't too surprising when one considers that both are deeply (though not necessarily exclusively) materialistic in nature.

It is perhaps surprising, unless one thinks about it, just how conformist and mechanical capitalist societies are. Of course, the state has played a large role in the homogenization of the population (education, national myths, language, exclusive loyalty..Simone Weil: the state and money are the new gods). But the market also requires standardization (property rights) and commensurabilities (how else can exchanges take place?). The false universalization of the market (and economic theory): we are rational, self-interested individuals.

At the Camps: "I was just doing my job". Each being is just another number, replaceable by a machine or another "human". Does it make a difference? When does it all begin, though? Is this not just a continuation of the practices and thought of the war machine? Line 'em up. The disciplining of bodies. The speaking up for "one" nation, the zeal to lose oneself in abstractions, to imagine the map is the reality.

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Nature likes diversity. Was thinking about this when a  friend said: the mullahs' attempts to enforce uniformity (from dress code to profession of faith) go against nature. Is that why fundamentalism leads to so many deformations, so many warped souls?

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The role of the unstructured in our lives. The permanent background of it (death, laughter, play, the imagination, grace). The law vs the lawless heart. The unsayable. The name that names least is the name. Of course, one might also say that it is a different kind of order. Eco: the open work is still a 'work'. A broken circle.

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Will Self has a fab. article on the end of the novel.