Eating on the street--even when undertaken, say, because one is between appointments and has no other time to eat--displays [a] lack of self-control: It beckons enslavement to the belly. ... Lacking utensils for cutting and lifting to mouth, he will often be seen using his teeth for tearing off chewable portions, just like any animal. ... This doglike feeding, if one must engage in it, ought to be kept from public view, where, even if we feel no shame, others are compelled to witness our shameful behavior.
Jeez, you'd think everyone at your local hamburger joint or sandwich shop was a Homer Simpson in the making. Americans do have (compared to many other parts of the world) rather unhealthy relationships to food, money, time, culture, etc., characterized by impulse and indiscipline. But that's essentially the point of freedom -- each of us gets some latitude to figure it out for ourselves.
It's kind of amusing that Kass chooses this particular area in which to excoriate us for our animalism, thus exposing his more pertinent issues. There's almost an associative psychosexual frisson to the whole thing. But if anything (and I am most definitely a burger/sandwich/ice cream type of person), most people -- even children -- generally go out of their way with hand-held food to not look like slobs. This is one of those old-school cultural hangups, like some people have about the wearing of shorts, or the showing of feet and/or soles.
No doubt Leon would disapprove of Heidi Montag working a popsicle for all it's worth, essentially teasing her dickless, chin-cozy-faced douchey sidekick.
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