McCulture is corporate culture gone wild with branding. I like to envision a far-off future era wherein an archeological dig here on earth is uncovering scores of “golden arches”. These symbols of two bent french fries could easily be mistaken for religious iconography and so it was. Their omnipresence and their height, high above the trees so that they can be seen on every highway over the horizon, glittering in the sun, suggest a metaphorical bridge or gateway to a heaven in the sky. The archeologists and social scientists would hypothesize a great spiritual movement once existed where travelers would “drive-thru” to receive their enlightenment. Their theories would be stretched as they dug further and found burgers, fries and soda as the main remnant of a once great church. Possibly, they would say, daily tithing, was reciprocated with edibles, the body of the divine. Once this theory was avowed, there was no turning back and the logical progression of religious zealotry and fast food would meld.

And why not a religion of fast food that was bad for you? Since all that mattered was the suggested heaven, the spiritual haven of the soul, why not pollute the body, the cows, the fields and the world. It is only secular after all. And so the theory goes, as this once great McCulture, worshipping two bent fries, kills off their planet. A tacit suicide to reach that nirvana of corporate profit. Amen.