This one's about freegans. Or at least it has a freegan in it (in case you don't know what I'm talking about, here's the Wikipedia article on Freeganism).
A freegan visits Goode Family neighborhood and indicts them as wasteful consumerists. The freegan is a misanthrope, spiteful of everyone he comes into contact with.
A point is sort of made that while we can always do more and be better people than we are, doing so means becoming miserable in the process.
I take issue with this. I think that someone who tries to do good for good reasons usually gets personal satisfaction from the acts of doing good. I'm happy with veganism, for example. I don't see veganism as a sacrifice. I don't know a single miserable vegan. But it's a stereotype that gets promulgated all over the place. I think this happens for two reasons:
1. Ignorance: People don't know about the wonderful foods vegans eat and they don't understand the reasons for going vegan. So they think vegans are self-loathing and masochistic.
2. Wishful Thinking: There are those who hope that vegans are miserable. It makes it easier for them to remain comfortable with their worldview. If a vegan is miserable, unhealthy, sikly, pale, anemic (and again, I don't know a single vegan who fits this bill), then it's easier for them to write off veganism as something that just doesn't work. Something they should never consider.
The same could be said for Freegans, is what I'm getting at.
The creators of the Goode Family, I think, have a case of number 2.
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Oh, and here's something I've been meaning to do with past reviews and will start now. I'll call it the Vegan Watch, in which I report if there were any veganism-related jokes in the episode.
Vegan Watch: There were no jokes about veganism in this episode.
Well ... that was uneventful.
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1 comment:
I have yet to watch this -argh! I was reading, which I guess is always better than TV, at least for the brain...but I'll try next week!
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