The Starbucks dichotomy

In the movie Full Metal Jacket, Joker is questioned by a Marine General on why he has both the phrase Born to kill and a peace sign on his helmet. His answer very eloquent but not worded in a cliché or in a manner that the General can comprehend so he just dismisses Joker. That great scene from that Kubric’s classic I only mention because it is the standard for how one ought to expound on how one feels strongly about two conflicting ideas.

Cognitive dissonance is a psychological term which describes the uncomfortable tension that comes from holding two conflicting thoughts at the same time. More precisely, it is the perception of incompatibility between two cognitions, where "cognition" is defined as any element of knowledge, including attitude, emotion, belief, or behavior. The theory of cognitive dissonance states that contradicting cognitions serve as a driving force that compels the mind to acquire or invent new thoughts or beliefs, or to modify existing beliefs, so as to reduce the amount of dissonance (conflict) between cognitions. Experiments have attempted to quantify this hypothetical drive.

Until Starbucks stopped their free WiFi access for laptops, I suffered from this cognitive dissonance. I had been torn on how to feel about Starbucks. Let’s start on a positive note on Starbucks because that won’t take long. Their product is very good, their staff well groomed, perky and very eager to please. You know that what you order in your hometown will taste like a similar item that you might order in an airport while leaving town. That’s it is all bad from there. They have relaxed on the “Starbucks speak” so that when you order a small, they don’t correct (as much) and say, “OK, one grande, milk no sugar”. That is just semantics and a gimmick to ones snob appeal. Their coffee is over priced, they pretend to support the little coffee growers of the world and they really don’t and they have spawned in NYC, killing off local coffee shops merchants. NYC isn’t the only place. I don’t have anything against ones choice to go where they want for coffee. I just don’t personally like them. By making a buck at the expense of their customers on some internet racket with some service provider, they could offer a free service to their customers.

The price that they will pay is my business and like minded people like me who see Starbucks for who and what they are, a money grubbing multinational based in America turning a buck at every angle.