The Irrationality of Rationality

In this week's reading, The McDonaldization of Society, George Ritzer provides an analysis of modern society in an unorthodox manner: he uses McDonald's as a paradigm for societal trends. He states that rationalization occurs in any forward thinking society and it stresses "efficiency, predictability, calculability, substitution of nonhuman for human technology, and control over uncertainty" (372). These trends have positives, as society becomes closer to maximizes its productivity, but the negatives are far more drastic. Ritzer says, "the irrationality of rationality is a seemingly inevitable byproduct of the process" (378). The measures civilization takes to increase output and use more rational procedures end up hurting the individuals the system is supposed to benefit. Just like McDonald's, society is in a process of dehumanizing its people, and making individual lives less exciting and meaningful. Quality takes a backseat to quantity, as the latter is more applicable to the social world. This disturbing trend has even been mentioned in my previous blogs, as commodity farmers have been forced to produce as much as possible, forgetting about quality. When he concludes, Ritzer makes it evident that the solution to this rapid "McDonaldization" of our population is not to return to a less rational form of society, but to gain greater control over the process of rationalization.

This is one of the most interesting articles I have read in a while; not because of the originality of the ideas, but because of the way in which Ritzer conveys these ideas. By using McDonald's, a symbol of the past few decades of global societal change, the author is able to make generalizations about society in a lucid manner. I agree with his idea that it is impossible for our society to try and move backwards to reverse the ongoing trends and that we must learn to control the irrationalization that comes with rationalization. We need to continue to think rationally about moving forward and becoming more productive, but must do this in a way that prevents dehumanization.

If current trends persist, will our society be controlled completely by robots at some point in the future?
How can we improve society and become more productive through technology, while limiting the negative impact it has on our well-being?