The True Purpose of Potlucks

Many of you likely participated in Thanksgiving potlucks over the last week or two. Some of them were sponsored by church groups, and some by companies. They probably told you it would be a good way to mingle with your friends and have some good food. Most of you probably took this at face value and did not stop to think about the true nefarious purpose behind these potlucks.

The idea of a potluck is that each person will bring something to eat. In a true potluck there are no assignments made, but most people who organize potlucks don't like to leave everything to chance and therefore make some assignments, such as who is to provide the main dishes, who is to bring rolls, and so forth. If you're thinking to yourself right now that you see nothing nefarious whatsoever about this, you're not alone. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that 95% of respondents were unaware of the dark side of potlucks.

The idea of everyone bringing food to share with everyone else is a great idea. The problem arises in the unequal consumption of the food products. Take, for instance, a young person that makes a fruit salad, takes it to a potluck, and takes it back almost whole. What does this do to this young person's self-esteem? What about the person whose ego is inflated because his or her fruit salad is consumed completely at the potluck? If an event such as a potluck can cause so much strife and division, can it be truly harmless? We think not. We believe that potlucks are just the natural continuation of childhood "picking teams" that tend to perpetuate differences in social status to make the winners feel good about themselves at the expense of the losers.

Next time you are approached with an offer to participate in a potluck, please keep this in mind. Please eat equal portions of all of the dishes so that none of the participants will have to suffer the shame of not being picked. At the GNU Public Dictatorship we are nothing if not egalitarian!