Fast Food Nation

I just saw the Jeff Skolls produced movie Fast Food Nation and it struck me as very illustrative of how we have landed ourselves in the current credit crisis and global economic meltdown. Somewhere on our path towards industrialized modernity, we have forgotten what matters and what is important.Our attention has fixed itself on materialism and consumption. Consumption requires very little of us. I can't think of a more lazy activity to pass the time and Western culture has become synonymous with this laziest of endeavors. But what is even more disturbing is how this seemingly innocuous activity is in fact harming our economic stability and social infrastructure with the boomerang effect of unemployment; every day a different company announces more layoffs.
One of my favorite lines from the movie is when rancher Kris Kristofferson points out to hamburger fast foodchain marketing executive Greg Kinnear that the dirty state of the meat packing industry and presumably our society isn't about being good or evil, it is the story of a machine that doesn't care if it destroys animals, people or anything that stands in its way and all for more pennies on the pound.
And all I want to know is how did we get here? And isn't this current shakedown an opportunity for us to readust our lifestyles and our unsustainable expectations?
This doesn't even begin to touch one of the major storylines of the film which follows the journey of Mexicans into the promised land of the US. The machine depends on the abundant availability of vulnerable and needy humans to feed its insatiable appetite and greed. In this unregulated mechanism of capitalism, no one is safe. I can't help but feel that as human beings we need to work with each other more and stop seeing each other as floating dollar signs and competitors for resources. It appears that we have not strayed very far from the cave; however, now is our chance to stop and reflect on where we have landed and where we aspire to head next. We do not need to be a machine. It is our choice and our responsibility to do better for ourselves and for others and the planet.

Am I having a crisis of conscience? Yes. I want to believe that we are capable of better, although right now much of the evidence says otherwise.