Amerika

At the end of The Wizard of Oz, the semi-benevolent dictator of Oz tells his visitors “do not look behind that curtain.” If they were to look, they’d see he was just one guy manipulating machines that controlled the masses.

Most modern narratives involve The People peeling back the curtain and seeing how it’s just one guy, then overpowering him and living happily ever after. Of course, that’s not how it happened in France, Russia, Greece, Rome and India, but that’s another story.

What I think is important today is that people are in denial of the curtain in another way — we literally have no idea how our society’s infrastructure works.

As she began making dinner using a bag of frozen peppers, she looked into the pan and recoiled with horror.

‘My partner poured the peppers into a pan and was startled to find a clump of mouse fur and intestines falling out of the bag,’ said the 37-year-old.

I think the memory is going to stay with me for a long time,’ said Miss Smith.

The Metro

You do know, Miss Smith, that the reason you can afford those is that we have hordes of not-so-bright people to pick them in the fields of their third world nations?

You know that we then ship them in big refrigerated ships or planes across the ocean, stuffed thousands to a box?

You know that we then run them through big machines that wash them,slice them and bag them, all while paying minimal attention to them?

I mean, we have sensors to detect improper temperatures or clogging of the line.

But if a mouse ran out onto that line — or had been in one of planes or boats and chewed its way into a box — the people we pay very little to watch our vegetables would probably not notice.

And so you get sliced mouse. Because one sliced mouse per 100,000 packages is actually a pretty good rate. Why are you shocked? You knew all these things. And you know we do them to keep costs as low as possible. So why are you surprised?