example of the irrationality of rational systems. The lines at thefast-food restaurants can be very long, and waiting to get through the drive-thru can even takelonger than going inside. In addition, Ritzer explains that in Mcdonaldization establishes control through thesubstitution of nonhuman for human technology. He explains that ...these two elements areclosely linked. Specifically, replacement of human by nonhuman technology is often orientedtowards greater control. The great source of uncertainty and unpredictability in arationalizing system are people-either the people who work within those systems or thepeople who are served by them (Ritzer, 148). For example, in my telemarketing job,individuality is frowned upon. The idea is to read the screen and deviate as little as possible. The human employee is not required to think, just follow the instructions and push the buttonnow and then. What this means is that the skills and capabilities of the human actor arequickly becoming things of the past. Who we are and how we interact is becoming definedby our dependence upon and subordination to the machine. Even so, there is a great perception among American consumers in particular thatMcdonaldized systems succeed from their own point of view based on those criteria: thesystems are perceived to be more efficient, the benefits calculable, the goods and servicespredictable. But it's rare that the consumer will ever feel himself to be more in control.Mcdonaldized systems take away a great deal of consumer autonomy, making decisions andimplementing processes on a mass-market scale with little room for individual involvementon the part of a single customer or even a single store or plant manager. The benefit of controlis one that accrues exclusively to the company. Why would so many Americans value asystem that robs them of even the right to make the simplest decisions? The answer iscomplex. Ritzer points out that in a society ...
