George Ritzer's Rationality

Rationality is all around us but what is it? Rationality is defined as is the quality or state of being reasonable, based on facts or reason; it implies the conformity of one's beliefs with one's reasons to believe, or of one's actions with one's reasons for action. George Ritzer has many suggestions to increasing rationality; some of his suggestions although trying to be helpful are less than par.
One suggestion presented by Ritzer is to do as many things as you can for yourself. This idea at first looks not only simple but easy; it continues to go further to say if you must use services, frequent nonrationalized, nonfranchised establishments. This is an unreasonable suggestion because not everyone knows how to do everything but the local places that aren’t franchised tend to be more expensive. People who are poor, just starting businesses and just don’t make enough to support the whole family can’t look into a suggestion like this because it wouldn’t be beneficial to them.
Another suggestion offered by George Ritzer is at least once a week pass up lunch at McDonald’s and frequent a local café or deli. The health benefits as well as the money saved from doing this could
be spent on other things that may need more attention but one never had the money to obtain such product or service. The suggestion is continued to state for dinner once a week stay at home, unplug the microwave, avoid the freezer and cook a meal from scratch. While this idea seems nice and a better alternative to the standard of dinners at home in America; it is unrealistic. If people had the time to cook a home cook meal from scratch some would, but the time, money and skill that goes into that process is not something everyone possesses. There are people who work twelve or more hour days and some people who couldn’t cook if their love ones life was on the line, for people like this it would impossible to do.
To protect the child Ritzer suggests to keep the child away from television as much as possible and encourage them to participate in creative games. This suggestion is helpful along the lines of getting a child to do something, interact and develop positive relations rather than sit around all day. The suggestion recommenced to state it is especially important that they not be exposed to the steady barrage of rationalized institutions, especially on Saturday morning cartoons. It is impossible in today’s technology driven society to not see a commercial, ad or propaganda of some kind through television, ads, and/or billboards.
Ritzer says when possible avoid taking your children to fast food restaurants or their clones in other domains; fast food is bad for people with the amount of added calories, sugar and fats that may or may not have previously been in the food.
There are healthier alternatives to restaurants like this, but this is where the dilemma arises; most people don’t have the money to afford these food. If they can they are not able to afford enough of it to feed the family. Ritzer goes on to say if there are no alternatives because one is one a highway or the only available options are fast food chains to blindfold your child until the ordeal is over. This is an absurd suggestion; children shouldn’t have to wear a blindfold when they are hungry simply because of the fact the only thing to eat is
unhealthy.
A suggestion that one may find useful is to make sandwiches when on the road or know the trip will be long especially if the person has a child/children accompanying them. This helps face the real problem of people not having enough money; it is a cheaper alternative to going out and along the way having to buy something cheap. For those who don’t have the time to cook, for those who may not have the money to constant likely buy fast food or don’t have the skill they could pay someone who does have the time to cook food for them.
In summary, even though we live in a world of rationality many things and ideas are not always going to have a rational explanation behind it. Rationality is only a real threat to society if we let it be; it is still in the earlier steps to change. While it won’t be just this simple or easy it is not completely impossible.