Clarence Birdseye: An Unsung Hero Gets His Due
7th July 2012
Modernity is amazing. We are surrounded by innovations, gadgets, and ideas that make life better. And just as a fish doesn’t notice the water he swims through, we are often oblivious to the incredible things that surround us. For example, we used to only be able to eat certain foods when they were in season. If your grandparents had a hankering for asparagus when they were young, they could only satisfy it if it was April or May. If they wanted a tomato, they’d have to wait until summertime.
Today, we can eat whatever we want, when we want. People don’t really appreciate it, but for most of human history, that just wasn’t possible. It takes all kinds of technologies to make that happen. Faster transportation is one of them. Trains, planes, automobiles, and boats with engines rather than oars make it possible to ship fresh food from all over the world to supermarkets.
Even the poorest of ‘the poor’ can eat fresh veggies, if only as garnish on a Big Mac, rather than subsisting on gruel and porridge as they did in times not so long ago. And yet there is no end of whining by limousine liberals about the lack of access to organically-grown arugula by the Underclass — as if they would eat it if they had it.
July 8th, 2012 at 13:19
Yet another in the endless comparisons between the poor of today and those of Long Ago and/or Far Away, in an effort to demonstrate that the poor aren’t really poor, just lazy and foolish. (Read: “Unworthy of the blessings of the Invisible Hand”.)
When will this nonsensical trope disappear?