Dipping Into The Past And Connecting The Dots

New research poses an interesting theory about crime. Violent crime in America rose in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, peaked in the ‘90’s, and then declined steadily. This pattern was consistent in most big cities, and researchers think they know why – the introduction and later removal of lead from gasoline. Boiled down, the theory is this: A 1950’s post-war boom in auto sales caused lead to be spewed into the air and absorbed by young people. Lead poisoning causes learning and behavioral disorders (and might also explain why Led Zeppelin left out the “a”). So, twenty years after this lead onslaught started, heavily exposed kids turned into violent criminals. In the ‘70’s catalytic converters and stringent EPA rules started reducing lead levels is gas; twenty years later the crime rates started dropping hard.

So it appears that something we absorb into our bodies can make us violent and stupid (think Fox News at the physical level). This got me thinking about the Iraq War and Abu Ghraib. Could something most of us absorbed into our bodies during youth have lead to the group blood-lust and brainlessness that facilitated those events in ’03 and ’04?

Yesterday I got my answer. I was reading a New York Times obituary on a guy who was responsible for McDonald’s rapid expansion. He came up with the drive-thru and invented Hamburger University (a school for fast-food managers where the grades handed out are “undercooked”, “medium”, and “well done!”). But the one innovation that jumped out at me was the Chicken McNugget.

This boneless delicacy was introduced in 1983. It was a huge hit. Americans consumed them by the ton, absorbing god-knows-what toxins from factory kill-floors into their bodies. And twenty years later we watched the horrors of Iraq and Abu Ghraib unfold.

Coincidence? I think not. Someday researchers will conclude that the McNugget was a stupidity pellet. I for one want to know how many Lynndie England (aka The Lady With The Leash) wolfed down when she was a kid. I’ll bet it was a ton, the poor soul. But she’s far from the only one who pigged out on the things.