Essay - Mcdonaldization: Resistance Is Futile, or Is It? in Mankind's Attempt...

McDonaldization: Resistance is Futile, or is it?

***** Mankind's attempt to unify the world under binding peace and lasting prosperity, we may homogenize ourselves to the point that we lose creativity, individuality, ***** certain inalienable freedoms. That's ***** subtle message and warning from George Ritzer, a Professor of Sociology ********** the University of Maryland and author of the stunning, eye-opening book The McDonaldization of Society - An Investigation Into ***** Changing Character of Contemporary Social Life. The book is not designed to attack the fast*****food restaurant giant or its ilk: it is designed to address a system ***** h*****s been inc*****porated into American society and commerce that increases aspects productivity while ***** certain *****. This system has ***** only spread throughout this country but is slowly infecting ***** world: people see this American system or model - first created by Henry Ford ***** honed and enhanced ***** Ray Kroc of McDonalds in the 1950's - as pro-active/can't ***** money generat*****g proposition. But this McDonald's Model, as Ritzer points out in his book, comes with a price tag: it simply affects various *****pects ***** our *****, ********** ***** and the laws, that - while produc*****g some benefits (building *****, creating jobs, improving *****) - are harmful overall to the whole community and of who we are as Americans, or as a people.

To begin to understand McDonaldization, Ritzer ***** identifies what this concept is. McDonaldization is a form of rationalization. Ritzer claims he longed "believed that bureaucracy represents ***** ultimate form ***** rationalization. However, it gradually began ***** dawn on me that something new was on t***** horizon, some*****hing that was destined to replace the bureaucratic structure as ***** model for rationalization. That 'something' turned out to be the fast-food restaurant, most notably *****" (R*****zer, xi). Ritzer updated German sociologist Max Weber's definition of rationalization, as he saw in a bureaucratic context, called *****al rationality, which "means t***** search by people for the optimum ***** ***** a given end is shaped by rules, regulations, and larger social structures for ***** best means of atta*****ing a given objective" (Ibid, 19). Weber's theories, which were based on his research in the late 19th Century, felt that "bureaucracy ***** embedded in his broader theory ***** the rational process ***** the idea of the iron cage of rationality...emerged from it....[and] ***** particularly upset by the irrationality of rationality, a concern th*****t lies a the heart ***** this book" (Ibid, 18-19). Weber purported that rationality existed in one form or another through many societies and civilizations over the centuries, but ***** it had produced a unique f*****m that fit his *****, which was ***** existence of "rules, regulations, and structures ***** either predetermine or help them discover the optimum methods" (Ibid, 19). ***** found ***** as a maj***** achievement in the way Mank*****d acts within a society. In the p*****t "people had to discover such mechanisms on their own or with vague and general guidance ***** large value *****s. After the development ***** formal rationality, they