Aimeriez-vous frisez avec cela? Você gostaria de fritar com isso? Zou u van frituren met dat houden? Would you like fries with that?

In considering Hardt and Negri’s “Empire” the issue of globalization becomes not only prevalent within the text, but integral to the reading of the text itself. If globalization does indeed create a “new world order” as Hardt and Negri posit…how has this order manifested itself within the sphere of popular culture? Well, one potential answer to the aforementioned appears to be situated in between two sesame seed buns.

Indeed, McDonalds has become a global brand; recognized internationally with its iconic logo, standardized mode of production, and identical taste regardless of location. George Ritzer produced a critical analysis of the impact the McDonaldization of society has made on human interaction. The process of McDonaldization demonstrates the ways in which the chain is dominating not only sectors of the American society but has stretched globally as well. It is imperative to understand the concept as not simply the chain itself, but the chain being used as a way of representing the world as a fast food restaurant. The socially structured form of fast food has become the organizational force representing and extending the process of rationalization further into the realm of everyday activity; traditional modes of thinking are replaced with efficiency. We no longer have to go to the chains. They come to us.

If globalization attempts to unite the world into a homogenous culture, can we look at the thesis of McDonaldization as exemplary of this role or as a SINGLE culture which tries to localize itself within a broader context? McDonaldization, like globalization, drives the humanity out of work. The process and means of production are dehumanized and machines can now replace workers. This decreases the opportunity for creativity and instead submits us to a realm of homogeneity. There is a loss of artisanship; now workers are only responsible for a small piece of the production and therefore are seen as a cog in the wheel of the machine. Are these increasing interactions creating a world of SAMENESS where one place is indistinguishable from another? Or is the premise that McDonaldization is a manifestation of globalization too simplistic?

With an increased emphasis on efficiency (self-serve soda, drive-up windows), quantity over quality (would you like to supersize that?), and predictability (menu will taste the same regardless of location) we are able to experience every day interactions as if on auto-pilot or cruise control. We understand daily activities and can engage in them with such ease because they are standardized; like fast food chains. A mall will have the same stores and layout, the layout of the grocery store is standardized regardless of company, and the menu at Taco Bell in Kentucky is the same as the menu in Fairview Mall in Kitchener. If globalization makes the world more interconnected, it also makes the world more limited. Our choices become pseudo-freedoms. The appearance of freedom evident but the realities are heavily regulated options. Since globalization is a process by which cultures become integrated into the networks including circulations of ideas through cultural commodities, perhaps a good site to consider is the effect of the fast-food format being applicable at a global scale. Could the McWorld be seen as a type of New World Order? A structure of rule where standardized means of production are favoured? Where the world becomes an assembly line? Have we found ourselves submerged in a McWorld?