Manipulating The Masses

Subtle Influence

The subject here is not manipulation of entire people by charismatic leader figures. Rather, it is about the compliance of the masses with something that "one" does. The string-pullers in this kind of manipulation are clever and specialised managers, who succeed in maneuvering their unaware target public into a specific behaviour. I'm talking about that kind of manipulation.

The Restaurant Trick

This paragraph refers only to European restaurants.

As students of the great Brillat-Savarin and other exponents of French cuisine, we have learned that salad is a side-dish to the main course. There are excellent culinary reasons for that.

However, about 15 years ago this rule was sacrificed to restaurant efficiency. The bait today is "Would you like a salad to start with?" And you take it "to start with", the salad, as suggested: together with the wine, which has been silently evaporating on your table. So diners are kept busy and can satisfy their appetite with bread while waiting for their plates of choice. We have now found the reason why salad has suddenly been declared an entry dish, namely the impatience of waiting guests causing inn-keepers to serve something that is quickly prepared. That is why all of us now have to enjoy our salad before dinner, not new nutritional discoveries. Indeed, waiting for the food is a problem for many guests and inn-keepers. Once more the English solution seems preferrable to me. While you talk in the adjoining cozy pub or library the hostess asks you to table with a friendly "Dinner is served". No waiting there. Now that is culture. So you walk to the restaurant and enjoy your meal without the preceding stress.
As my mother used to say: "The first sip of your beer is unsurpassed by those that follow". The first bite into a tender bit of meat, too, seems to give a pleasure whose intensity is not repeated by subsequent bites. If my first bites are into salad, the Filet Bourguinionne following later is at best a hunger quencher and may as well be one of those fastfood horrors.

In the 15 years following the introduction of the salad-manipulation I succeeded in meeting a total of two people who a) remember salad as a side-dish and b) will not accept being ruled when to eat their salad. The remainder seem satisfied following what they are so charmingly suggested to do.