I am amazed at how little society changes, most of the time I think nothing in life has changed except the speed at which it moves. Life just moves fast these days, Trips that took months to cross the Rockies by covered wagon, are now completed in the time it takes me to enjoy a couple cups of Starbucks Coffee. A few words spoken by a president when he thinks the microphone is off can now be published before he has completed his sentence. Thoughts that once took time to construct, then set in type carefully, printed a page at a time, dried, then folded, and sold singularly on the street corner to its eventual audience, can be read before complete thought has been given to what is being written.
Life is just faster today, but not much else has changed, we still like ice cream but few make it at home with a time consuming hand crank. I drink fresh brewed coffee much like my parents and grandparents, but I can make mine in seconds. I can borrow a book from the library without leaving the house, without the couple miles of walking it used to take, without the detour to the 7 – Eleven for a Slurpee.
Unless you are a hermit and never listen, watch, or read the news, you have heard about Pink Slime. Even if all your news comes from late night comedy shows or Facebook posts it would have been very difficult to avoid hearing the label “Pink Slime”. Until this month I thought Pink Slime was that homemade strawberry ice cream that hadn’t quite been cranked long enough, frozen in a state somewhere between an oozing liquid and a gelled glob. Sugar rich with a half dozen raw eggs a perfect medium for bacteria.
Beef processors, the people that sell the stuff, would tell you its name is “lean finely textured beef” a beef product that we have been eating for the last 20 years and has been present in as much as 70% of the hamburger we eat. The detractors call it “Pink Slime”. Like most people I like finely textured beef, not sure about pink slime, wither it be the beef or dairy kind.
What I do know is that derogatory names and sensational news travels fast and today it travels even faster, faster than good judgment. Because of public outcry McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, schools, and a host of major grocers have discontinued the sale or use of this product, enough so that 3 plants have been closed, causing the loss of 850 jobs and I am sure millions of dollars. All because of public outcry and that outcry likely generated only because of the name the detractors have given to its target.
Names really do hurt, unlike the brave saying that we quote, that we repeat to steel ourselves. Baseless, thoughtless name calling has always hurt more than the sticks and stones. Some of us would repeat what our friends said, if they called someone “fatso” we did, “stupid” ditto, “hick”, “redneck” almost involuntarily we repeat the name calling and phrases without any personal knowledge. Nothing has changed. We still repeat what our friends say except now it is easier and faster. We can quickly repost, retweet, or forward, faster than our brains can function.
We each should take care when using social media, slow down. If each detractor had to slowly type his own words, had to turn the crank to make his own ice cream so to speak, had to let his thoughts brew like an old fashioned cup of coffee, had to take that long walk to the library past the 7 – Eleven we would likely not have heard of Pink Slime at least not yet and I’d be enjoying this burger right now.
I hate the pace we live in
David
