Supersize me!

Everything about America is big - the country itself, the ideals, the voices, the food portions, the malls, the stores, the cars, and yes, the people. Just returned from a showing of "Supersize me", a remarkable documentary about one man's crusade against the McFattening and McSickening of the world, especially America. Morgan Spurlock simply did what several thousands of people probably do on a daily basis - he ate nothing but McDonalds food three times a day for thirty days at an immense cost to his physical and mental health. A really healthy and fit man before the experiment, he put on 25 pounds, raised his cholesterol levels more than 80 points, shot his blood pressure up to hypertensive levels, and lots of other radical increases in health indices I don't know to spell, pronounce or remember!
Along the way, the documentary takes a look at a lawsuit against McDonalds, corporate America's hooking of young kids onto fast food and sustaining their deep pockets using the school system's lunch programs, advertising and marketing aimed specifically at kids. One especially telling scene is when Morgan shows some kids pictures of Jesus Christ, George Washington and Ronald McDonald and guess who the kids recognized?! They all knew the McDonald clown, one kid recognized George Washington and none recognized Jesus. (one kid thought that Jesus was George W.Bush and Morgan says wryly, "Close enough!"!!)
While I do think that the culture of victimization in this country makes people file unnecessary and frivolous lawsuits at the drop of a hat (or a drop of spilled hot coffee on their thigh!), this movie makes me sit up and wonder whether individual responsibility accounts for only so much and corporate (ir)responsibility then takes over. The book "Runaway Jury" by John Grisham that tackles the case of taking legal action against Big Tobacco (the movie chickens out and changes the focus of the lawsuit into gun control!) for deaths due to lung cancer deals with similar issues.
Kudos to film-makers like Spurlock and Michael Moore to remind us that capitalism comes with a price - sometimes a very real physical one, if not always a remote moral one. To do it with the bravado, humor, and sarcasm that they do, reminds us also that America is still a country where one can hold corporations and governments accountable and poke fun at them and make a living doing that!