It is a well documented fact that in the months leading up to and during the invasion, the propaganda corps deftly engineered a sandwich craze within a culture that had, up to that point, literally no experience with such fare. The introduction of foodstuffs peculiar to sandwich-making and of a quality vastly superior to other foods available during the blockade virtually assured the ascendancy of the sandwich.
The logic behind this peculiar and subtle act of war was as diabolical as it was inspired. If the traditional practice of a communal family meal could be reduced to or replaced by an essentially individualistic act; that of eating a sandwich, then the society facing invasion would be that much the weaker. What was once a time for sharing not just food, but the burden and the bounty of collective living became largely a solitary act of self-preservation.
The results were devastatingly effective. The months following the introduction of the sandwich saw a drastic increase in the production and consumption of pornography, astronomical increases in prostitution and drug use, an almost total cessation of communal feasts and celebrations and the rapid disintegration of a centuries old patriarchal structure which was not and has not been replaced with a new, sustainable social order.
The results were devastatingly effective. The months following the introduction of the sandwich saw a drastic increase in the production and consumption of pornography, astronomical increases in prostitution and drug use, an almost total cessation of communal feasts and celebrations and the rapid disintegration of a centuries old patriarchal structure which was not and has not been replaced with a new, sustainable social order.
-Susan Sontag, 1967
