Karl Marx, in Critique of the Gotha (1875), famously described the utopia of communism as a society of “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need(s).” As he envisioned it, once society has changed to communism, via a workers’ revolution, it will produce enough goods and services so that everyone’s needs can be satisfied.
Even though the phrase is commonly attributed to Marx, he was not the first to use it. The slogan was common to the socialist movement, the origin of which has been attributed to the French communist Morelly, who proposed in his 1755 Code of Nature that under communism, nothing in society will belong to anyone, either as a personal possession or as capital goods, except the things for which the person has immediate use, for either his needs, his pleasures, or his daily work; and that every citizen will be sustained and supported by the public expense.
Of course, the reality of communism is quite different, as attested to by the hundreds of millions of human beings who lost their lives to the 20th century’s experiments in communism across the globe — in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Communist China, Cambodia (renamed Kampuchea), Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba . . . . (See the doleful account in The Black Book of Communism.)
But like the heads of the mythic Hydra monster, though one dream of communism dies, another sprouts up.
The latest incarnation of the undying communist Hydra is in none other than the United States, by a capitalist business — the Chipotle Mexican restaurant chain.
Trey Sanchez reports for Truth Revolt that Chipotle, the “sustainable” Mexican Grill, has a new look for their to-go takeout bags. Chipotle’s new effort is courtesy of best-selling novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, who is the “brainchild” for the Mexican grill’s new “Cultivating Thought Author Series.”
According to a video announcing the series, Foer met with Chipotle CEO Steve Ells, 48, and suggested adding “something thoughtful” to the surfaces of the cups and bags used at the restaurants.
So Chipotle enlisted the help of authors and “personalities” who contributed sayings and stories — or “little gifts to people” as Foer calls them — to the chain restaurant’s to-go bags and cups in order for customers to “feel engaged.”
Celebrities such as Sarah Silverman, Bill Hader, Judd Apatow all contributed. Apatow’s bag says: “Don’t be a jerk. Try to love everyone. Give more than you take. And do it despite the fact that you only really like about seven out of 500 people.”
Steven Pinker, an experimental psychologist who is “inspired by…science, reason, and humanism,” writes on his bag: “We will never have a perfect world, but it’s not romantic or naive to work toward a better one.”
But the one that should raise the most eyebrows was penned by fiction-writer and Syracuse University professor George Saunders: “Hope that, in future, all is well, everyone eats free, no one must work, all just sit around feeling love for one another.”
Jonathan Safran Foer, 37, is the author of the bestseller Everything Is Illuminated, named Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and the winner of numerous awards, including the Guardian First Book Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, and the New York Public Library Young Lions Prize. Foer was one of Rolling Stone‘s “People of the Year” and Esquire‘s “Best and Brightest.” Foreign rights to his new novel have already been sold in ten countries. The film of Everything Is Illuminated, directed by Liev Schreiber and starring Elijah Wood, will be released in August 2005. Froer’s other novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, also has been optioned for film by Scott Rudin Productions in conjunction with Warner Brothers and Paramount Pictures. Foer lives in Brooklyn and teaches creative writing at New York University.
l to r: Jonathan Safran Foer, George Saunders Steve Ells
George Saunders, 55, is the recipient of numerous awards, including a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the World Fantasy Award in 2006; and the National Magazine Award for fiction in 1994, 1996, 2000, and 2004. The film rights to his novel, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, were purchased by actor Ben Stiller in the late 1990s, and as of 2007, the project was in development by Stiller’s company, Red Hour Productions.
How ironic that communist George Saunders and Jonathan Safran Froer are being lionized by the corrupt but capitalist media of a capitalist country, and getting very very rich from their awards, book sales, and movie rights.
How ironic that Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., a capitalist fast-food business that made sales of a whopping $3.21 BILLION in 2013, nevertheless espouses communism on its to-go bags.
As Trey Sanchez notes: If everything was free and no one worked, Chipotles would not be around.
And if everything was free and no one worked, Saunders and Foer would not be filthy rich from their lucrative awards, books sales, and movie rights.
Truth Revolt has a petition asking Chipotle to not spew communism in their stores or on their products. To sign the petition, click here.
Speaking of Chipotle, I’m reminded of a post I did in June, about the POS eating at a Chipotle Mexican Grill near the White House.
Hmmmm….
Birds of a feather really do flock together.
~Eowyn
