Even though we've all heard from our doctors that diet and exercise is the healthiest way to lose weight, we also know how impatient Americans can be. According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Americans spend $40 billion a year on weight loss products, and these products range from books and exercise equipment, to food plans, diet foods and of course- weight loss pills/ supplements.
Although so many weight loss products don't work, we still can't stand waiting, and we look for the miracle fix.
America's impatience didn't start with weight loss. As we finish up our Southern Reconstruction unit, I couldn't help but notice that America has had an obsession with "quick fixes" long before Jenny Craig. After the South lost the Civil War, radical reconstruction started to ensue. As explained in Foner's Give Me Liberty!, Africans Americans were give full rights, Confederate leaders were barred from office and the ballot box for life, and coalitions ruled the South. All of this occurred in a matter of 10-12 years after the Civil War, and when political and power roles quickly reversed, massive segregation started to emerge.
Although the ideals of Southern Reconstruction were with good intentions, the non-gradual plan ultimately did more harm than good. Americans wanted a quick solution to the problems that had been forming for decades, but refused to wait any longer. Yes, radical change was needed, but soon so fast?
Nice post Bridget! I do agree that sometimes "radical change" needs time--although it is (as you made clear with your diet connection) something Americans hate to lose. So although the new ideals enacted during the era of reconstruction may have been too "non-gradual," I think it was hard for Americans--especially African Americans--to wait any longer. So maybe the "quick fix" was inevitable, it's just the kinds of "quick fixes" should have been reconstructed stronger.
ReplyDeleteI came to this opinion after reading MLK's essay we were given today. In his essay, MLK makes the interesting claim to his reader that the African Africans couldn't have waited for a, "more convenient season" (as the were African Americans were constantly advised to do). Because as MLK states, "without this 'hard work,' time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation"--a "stagnation" that can only be fought by moving forward in time.