The girl who silenced the world for 5 minutes

"Stroking" the "Void"

Does money fill a ‘void’ or the emotional connection to our happiness? In the book "Fast Food Nation" written by Eric Schlosser (chapter 3)“Behind the counter”, he discusses a technique called “Stroking”. “Stroking” could be compared to a sort of emotional propaganda that made franchise employees feel a sense of pride and loyalty in their work. This technique prevented employees from creating unions and demanding increased wages. In the following chapter entitled “Success”, Schlosser takes us to the Peter Lowe “Success Authority” convention in which many influential figures such as, Henry Kissinger and Barbara Bush come to speak. Dave Feamster,an injured hockey player turned Little Caeser’s franchise owner, encouraged his employees to come to the convention to let them know about “a world out there, a whole world beyond the south side of Pueblo, CO.”. At the convention, Christopher Reeve, the 1980’s “Superman” talks about the millions he acquired and how they did not attribute to his happiness. He told them the emotional bonds he created after his accident, were way more important than any money he had ever made. Many audience members wept. What caused this weeping? It could possibly be that even though many people at this particular event were millionaires but at what cost? Are they happier from their success? Or is it that they agree with Mr. Reeve and his idea of happiness. On one hand, kind words or "stroking" minimum wage workers helped employees work harder and feel happier about their job without any financial gain. On the other, here we witness millionaires and wealthy people weep when they realize and sympathize with Mr Reeve that money and success don't necessarily equal happiness. The emptier pockets of the minimum wage employees could be no emptier than a wealthy persons happiness.

Dallas Corbin English 103

“Shock Doctrine” is a story written by author Naomi Klein in 2007. This book introduces the phrase “Disaster Capitalism”, a tactic utilized by capitalist go-getter's in times of crises. She illustrates this tactic by introducing three different cataclysmic events (Hurricane Katrina, Tsunami in Sri Lanka, and invasion of Iraq). Each tragic event presented not only devastation but displaced millions of individuals. However, some didn’t see just devastation, they saw opportunity. Opportunity to “reconstruct” places hit hard by tragedy that could be fixed as “Machiavellian” as possible. In other words, “Strike while the iron is hot” and while no one is looking. This is known as disaster capitalism. Calculating capitalists would cease opportunities such as the tragic tsunami that occurred in Sri Lanka in 2004. Investors, developers and international lenders used the tsunami’s destruction to subsequently “rebuild” the coastline. This prevented swarms of the fishing population to rebuild near the water. Large resorts were built instead.

In some ways, the fast food industry can be compared to the idea of Disaster Capitalism. In the book, Fast Food Nation, written by Eric Schlosser in 2001, corporations got their big break from WWII. At the time the US entered the war, the US government spent millions of dollars building bases and roads in Southern California. With new roads and affordable vehicles, Southern Californians were given a new sense of “freedom and control”. Thus, fast food restaurants were able to emerge and capitalize on a lucrative situation. WWII accelerated the success of not only the fast food industry but motor vehicle sales thrived as well.