This week it's a bit difficult to be as visual as I was last week, but there were some interesting things in these chapters. The most interesting concept was the idea of Culture Codes, unwritten laws of culture that are basically unnoticed, but very evident in our lives. Berger mentions on page 208 that these codes are covert and that someone who recognizes the codes can modify and arrange them to suit their purposes.

You'll see this everywhere in advertising. The whole art of advertising is using peoples' understood signs to make them desire a certain product or service. If you look at the iPod and iTunes commercials you see how the whole package is idealized and symbolized. The iPod itself has become a symbol of convenient entertainment and advancing technology (look at the iPod Touch). Steve Jobs and his crew have done a great job of manipulating our sense of desire by creating iconic commercials and an easily recognized product to take the digital music market by the neck.

An even more extreme culture code manipulation, but definitely more obvious would be Adolf Hitler's almost magical ability to control the German people. He and his men did a masterful job of playing up and reestablishing pride to the German population. He then began modifying and eventually replacing their symbols for newer, more dramatic images. These images have transformed not only the German people, but have had far reaching effects on today's western society. Who doesn't do a double take when there is visible swastika? Communist Russia, or any communist state really, uses peoples' communal sensibilities in much the same manner, to control and manipulate the hard working, dedicated proletariat population.

I was also intrigued by the notion of Food as a Sign. I never really thought of this, and at first was quite taken back by the man's statement on the inferiority of American food to Mexican and French. I will argue the Mexican cuisine point, considering that everything Mexican is some type of meat with beans, cheese and maybe rice, placed in or on a tortilla of either flour or corn. This tortilla can be hard or soft, but it all seems to boil down to that. I have Navy friends who are Mexican and Texan. They took me to an "authentic" Mexican resaurant, and the food didn't deviate much from that formula. I do love Mexican food though.

American food, not just fast food, but real American food is diverse and flavorful. Each region has a specialty, or common ingredient. Using fast food, particularly McDonald's, to represent American food as a whole isn't quite a scholarly approach to the subject.

It's true fast food is a large part of our lives. His explanation of the mechanization of our food was interesting. Particularly if you consider many renditions of our future world, like Star Trek and the Jetsons, remove food from the equation. On Star Trek they replicate everything. Other sci-fi shows even have us taking pills for sustenance. This however, reflects more of our fast-paced lifestyle, not our taste in food. And at least McDonald's seems to have a bit more variety than your typical Mexican restaurant.