Happy Meals and the American Way of Life

This little graph on the astonishing failure of the nation's individual states to develop a competent educational system in comparison to the nations of the world was picked at random. http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/.a/6a00d83451c45669e20133f5cbd3b4970b-popup
Any crisis would do, the graph of the Dow vs. the price of gold over the last years, a graph of the national debt, of the individual state debt, of personal debt, of student debt, of the Ogallala Aquifer, of American production over the last twenty years...on and on. This country faces countless problems that demand analysis and action. And what do we do? We ban the inclusion of toys in McDonald's Happy Meals. And why? Because people are overweight.

Ponder that a moment. All the incredible problems facing the culture and the country and a city declares war on a children's snack.

The science is profound: Children seem to be fatter, children like Happy Meals, Happy Meals have calories and other things that currently are out of favor and are associated with obesity, toys in the snack box are enjoyable to kids, stopping the toys will make kids less fat.

Aside from the stupidity of the gesture, why would responsible adults turn to such trivialities when so many important things are screaming for their attention? Has the failure of the educational system trickled up to leadership? Are we led by symbolists? If everyone lights just one little candle? Perhaps some or all of these contribute to this intense shallowness but there are glaring overriding reasons to chose such a soft target: It is easy and it allows for significant posturing.

An easy target. Posturing. The avoidance of the significant. All part of the physiognomy of the un-serious. And the Bathoes.