I Will Pay You to Be My Friend

Two days ago, I decided to branch out of frosted wheat cereal and bought "Honey Bunches of Oats." What convinced me to make such a risky leap? Price cut. I placed in the rear of the pantry and did not decide to open it until this morning, when I discovered a heart warming story on the back of the cereal box: a history of how Honey Bunches of Oats came to be.

I felt like I was part of history. Each spoonful of 'honey-oaty' crunch made me feel like I was part of the Post Cereal historical enterprise, when in reality, I was probably just another consumer. But herein lies the irony: if we take a look at the rise of organic and fair trade products, we can see consumers being tired of being consumers. We like the whole idea of locally grown, locally baked, locally harvested, doing something good for the world, &etc. - but still, we never actually meet the people that grew, baked, and harvested.

Sure, it feels good to push 'for the little guy.' But the little guy is as foriegn to us as the big guy (e.g., Post). The chief difference is that we feel like we're part of a local community without the whole community aspect at all. If anything, that seems to be all the more dangerous. Our kitchens are filled with locally produced goods that only make us think we are part of the local community. What can be worse than decieving yourself? I'd rather someone else decieve me. This probably sounds like another banter against post-industrial revolution society - and it probably is. But the industrial revolution was never meant to make us decieve ourselves - it was never there to make real live people into consumables. Maybe next time we should be more focused on the cashier or bagger than our groceries.