Mirroring the McDonalds paradox

The McDonald's Paradox is an ironic, but also tragicomic phenomenon. Let’s go back a few years in time: It’s a Saturday afternoon. Thousands of young people are marching through The Hague. They are demonstrating for the climate. Against pollution. Against the system. Against companies that squeeze the Earth like an orange at brunch.

Signs held high: “No More Fossil Fuels,” “Make Earth Cool Again,” “System Change, Not Climate Change,” and of course the most catchy one: “Our future is at steak.” The atmosphere is combative. The energy is high. The ideals even higher, and by now most of the young people have worked up quite an appetite — protesting takes a lot of energy. Within fifteen minutes, the same young people who just shouted against the system are now standing obediently in the long line for a McKroket. The irony drips thicker than the sauce on the Big Tasty — extra large, of course. After all, McDonald’s symbolizes fast food, globalization, meat consumption, and CO₂ emissions... Oops.

Welcome to the McDonald's Paradox

This is not an accusation. Not a condemnation. But rather a mirror. Because it clearly shows how incredibly difficult it is to hold onto ideals in a system that offers you very few alternatives — especially when you're 17, hungry, and hanging out with your friends who you usually chat with on your phone.

We live in a world where the very system we criticize is simultaneously our comfort zone. And this doesn’t just apply to hamburgers. It applies to clothing, vacations, social media, and the newest gadgets that can be ordered from China at almost no cost.

But who are we to judge? We who buy a new iPhone while the old one still works fine, but hey — those 120,000 8K photos, right? We who boast about how healthy the globe-trotting avocado is, about that delicious (real!) Californian almond milk, and how cheap those seasonal green beans from Kenya are.

Keep a look in the mirror

The truth is: being consistent is hard. Period. No matter how green, sustainable, woke, or conscious you are, no matter how long you’ve been hugging and talking to trees: there is always a ‘but’ or a ‘see?’ At Logicall, we have the same discussions, except that lunch doesn’t consist of a Big Mac, but rather a ready-made salad from AH (Albert Heijn supermarket). No, it’s about the discussions we have regarding goals, targets, and time frames. What is good, what is realistic, are we going far enough, can we do better, etc. Hundreds of millions in revenue, but always the same reflections, whether you’re big or small. At Logicall, we try to keep looking in that mirror, and that’s going quite well.

Acknowledging the McDonald's Paradox

And about those young people? It’s important that there are people who do shout that things need to change. Because better an idealist with a milkshake than a cynic on the couch (who of course knows better). And let’s be honest: if we wait until everyone is perfect before they’re allowed to speak up, it’ll stay very quiet on those barricades.

So yes, maybe we shouldn’t laugh away the McDonald's Paradox, but acknowledge it. And then set up a sustainable alternative menu. A system in which it’s not strange to live engaged, affordable, and plant-based at the same time.

Until then?

Let them protest. Let them dream. And let them — briefly — have their snack; after all, we still need to fill up on HVO100…