The Big Kahuna of Truth
Scene from Pulp Fiction:
J: I see we caught you boys having breakfast. What ya havin'?
B: Hamburger.
J: Hamburger! The cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast. What kind are they?
B: Cheeseburger.
J: No. I mean where did you get them from? McDonald's? Burger King? Jack-in-the-Box? You know, where?
B: Big Kahuna Burger
J: Big Kahuna Burger!
The burger as the weapon of choice for the evil fast food chains, doesn't add up. Placing blame on any particular entity for our own personal health and happiness is just not the truth of the matter. Now, before you blow this article off as just someone puking out the other side of the argument, let me say right up front that I teach and educate people on the realities of their own truths. Blame is just an all too convenient excuse.
Somewhere along the way, personal responsibility became a thing of the past: something the general public saw only as a theory to override a lack of any semblance of discipline. The article "Fat Profits" by Joe Keohane in the February issue of Conde Nast Portfolio (to which I subscribe), very convincingly and cleverly made a great point about the consumption (closeted though it may be) of Americans and the Big Evil Burger Empire ready to kill off everybody in America for the sake of the bottom line.
Perhaps there is a real truth to this, but that is highly suspect. Good business is not reflected in killing off your clientele - using a subversive plot to gain profits no matter what - with no premeditated outcome and an utter lack of responsibility. Well, maybe that's what this country has come to, but more likely the Big Kahunas of the burger empires are just as unconscious about their actions as the rest of America... and that's where Joe's article lead me - beyond his agenda and limited intent to the real truth of the matter.
What really matters here is the fact that the media, (and to a larger extent the government) has foregone any real semblance of truth for the sake of politically correct, socially conscious agendas... "Damn it! We Care!" Truthfully, these are just hollow gestures that are weak attempts to address the issues that actually do matter. Going green may sell magazines and elevate the careers of politicians, just as concern about the health of our nation's people seems like a pretty just cause, with diabetes and heart disease rampant in the U.S. and children and adults expanding physically at an alarming rate. But the medical community as a whole (another disturbing group to say the least) truly is void of REAL solutions, in part because of the bottom line - just like this magazine. There is more money to be made shoving Lipitor down our throats than there is in telling the truth, which by the way, the average American does not want to hear.
The dumbing down effect of people allowing authority figures to relegate their outcomes in life is just incomprehensible to me, yet it is the status quo in America. Driven by the powers that be, or the powers that pretend to be (media, medical community, politicians), we are consoled into a nice toxic fog of non-thinking. "Don't worry folks, we'll take care of it for you!" And they will. They'll bleed your wallet just as fast (or faster) than any big oppressive burger company will. So far so good! The truth is the truth. If this is making you angry, you might want to really look at why.
THE SOLUTION to obesity, disease, hate, anger, blame, and on, and on, and on... is the simplest of simple. Do the words PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY ring any bells? Blame is the easy, lazy, wrong way to go. At my school I see people change daily because they are reminded of the very simplest of facts: They control their own little slice of heaven. What a concept, huh? Cause and effect! Wow. Amazing...and simple...and the TRUTH. All walks of life come through my door: explorers, authors, SWAT teams, Fire Fighters, military...but the majority are just average working folks who seek to take control of their lives and stop blaming some monolithic entity for their unhappiness. We teach personal responsibility, and nothing on the planet makes a person feel more in control of themselves than the true nature of self-control and the ability and discipline to apply it.
Look, this is not some commercial for me. It is an honest response to something that is out of control in this country: half-truths, blame, and a lack of personal responsibility. PERIOD.
So lighten up, Joe! Rent Pulp Fiction and have a Big Kahuna burger on me. Remember: if you give people the real truth, most will run to the nearest G.P. begging for a Zanax prescription but some (the ones that matter) will eat up the truth like it was a big greasy Juicy Lucy.
Now where's my Happy Meal?!