“Would you like fries with that?” A common question that employees are required to ask at fast food restaurants all over the world. Employees are a part of a system, which is becoming more common in daily life This system has been termed the “McDonald’s System.” George Ritzer discusses this system of McDonaldization in chapter 42 of Garth Massey’s Readings for Sociology McDonaldization can be recognized by four key characteristics — efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. The humans who work in the fast food industry are “trained to do a very limited number of things in precisely the way they are told to do them.” (Massey, Ritzer, 454), The system of McDonaldization causes dehumanization in modern society.
It also causes a romanticization of the past and creates a longing for a future with human potential that is unobtainable McDonaldization is created by four characteristics, which in turn create a rational system. Ritzer discusses the downside of a rational system, such as McDonaldization, is the irrationality spawned by the system, or the “irrationality of rationality,” Rational systems deny human reason, which can create an unreasonable system. McDonaldization forces those who work in a system based on McDonaldization to put aside their own thoughts and beliefs and follow the rules of the system They are trained to do and act as they are told to create the efficient, predictable, calculable and controlled environment that people seek in modern fast paced societies. The societies that support McDonaldization dehumanize workers and consumers of the McDonaldized establishments.
One critique Ritzer mentions of the McDonald’s System is it may cause a romanticization of past societies. Society may focus on the positive aspects of the past, which society cannot return to because of the McDonald’s system. It may cause people to want to go back to a time “when life was slower, less efficient, had more surprises, when people were freer, and when one was more likely to deal with a human being than a robot or computer.” Another critique brought up by Ritzer is future based, and it states the rationalization of today’s society limits the ability for humans to live up to their potential, as Ritzer puts it, “If the world were less rationalized, or even derationalized, people would be better able to live up to their human potential.
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This critique of the McDonald’s System comes not from the romanticization of past societies but from what people believe society could be like in the future if McDonald’s Systems were no longer in place. Both critiques are valid, and each critique shows parts of the McDonald‘s System that may cause problems in today’s society, Society has no choice but to accept the McDonald‘s System as it is becoming more common in daily life, George Ritzer discusses this system of McDonaldization in chapter 42 of Garth Massey‘s Readings for Sociology. McDonaldization is recognized by four key characteristics — efficiency, calculability, predictability and controlt These characteristics help to create a rational system. The rational system of McDonaldization causes dehumanization in modern society It also causes a romanticization of the past and creates a longing for a future with human potential that is unobtainable.
