McNuggets, Hugo Chavez, etc.

Victor S at Apostate Windbag has an excellent (if lengthy - but stick with it) post following up his earlier thoughts on the "McRevolutions". (Those "earlier thoughts" being cited approvingly by the MoD's Conflict Studies Research Centre, but apparently turned down for the New Statesman. I'm not sure what this tells us.) The comparison in treatment between the "mob" apparently backing Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, and the the "people power" overthrowing regimes across Central Asia is telling. Victor writes:

When I was a kid, I thought it grossly unfair that my Dad was allowed to have the Nine McNuggets box while my brother and I could only ever have the Six McNuggets box, so when I was old enough, I went to McDonalds and bought for myself not merely the Nine McNuggets box, but the Twenty McNuggets box, which not even my Dad was ever allowed. The box of twenty McNuggets is always a mistake. Not only do you feel bloated from all the deep-fried reconstituted chicken parts (did you know that one of the McNugget 'shapes' is a near-perfect representation of the province of Alberta? Fact.), but after so many of them, your mouth feels coated with this greasy, oleaginous, faux-chickeny pastey goop. No matter how much root beer you guzzle, the coating just will not wash down. While after eating twenty McNuggets, there is initially a deeply happy sensation derived from all the fat, there follows this entirely unintended suety aftertaste that just won't go away.

Trust me, this is very important and highly relevant. Now read the rest.