Reason's Jacob Sullum likes to write about college professors like Yale's Kelly Brownell, who prefers to blame a "toxic food environment" for obesity rather than anyone's personal lifestyle choices: ""Instead of taking an individual point of view...we need to think of why the nation is overweight."
With that in mind, today's New York Times is worth my $4.50 (that's what it costs out here in the sticks) for this gem alone:
On another level, fasting can be seen as an example of individualism gone haywire. "It's not political, in the progressive sense of making connections to other people," said Dr. Joan Jacobs Brumberg, a professor of history at Cornell and the author of "Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa." It is "a very self-involved" solution to the problems of the world, she said, "a good example of what happens in a culture of privilege."
Don't you see what's happening here?! Not only are you starving yourself, you're becoming SELF-INVOLVED! Eat some government cheese and you'll feel better.
Posted by digamma at August 24, 2003 06:08 PM | TrackBack