Wal-Town
I just watched a documentary on Wal-Mart. It was on TVO (of course) - The View From Here.
Anyway, I've been to a Wal-Mart (once) and I honestly cannot fathom why anyone who had a choice (and you do have one - at least until the Wal-Mart wipes out all the other stores in your town) would choose to shop in one.
It was like being caught in limbo, I thought. You know, that state of non-being religious people describe as the space between heaven and hell. I mean, really. How stupid do you have to be to want to shop in a Wal-Mart? Let alone allow one in your town - given what we know about the effect a Wal-Mart inevitably has on the local economy (the local economy being all the little retailers that tend to keep their profits in town, rather than shipped directly off to a head office in Arkansas).
Well, guess what? It took a few years, but Wal-Mart eventually bought off - literally - enough city politicians in Guelph, Ontario (which had been a conscious and deliberate holdout to Wal-Martizing) so that now Guelph has one, too.
What's wrong with people? Seriously. If we're such zombies we can't even stop ourselves from going for a hideous shopping experience at a crappy soulless megacorp that actually calls itself Wal-Mart (as in - it's not even pretending to be anything other than a crappy soulless megacorp), well, I don't hold out much hope for our civilization.
And isn't the only job of city politicians essentially to grow (while protecting) the local economy?
Well, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone at this stage that Wal-Mart is ruining town after town, city after city - without firing a shot.
I dunno. Even if the terrorists win now and release us from our consuming bondage it'll be too late because Wal-Mart will just switch to selling Korans and burkas because it'll be the only store left standing to do it.
Still, I wonder if the Islamic fundamentalists would force it to pay wages and benefits in line with its massive profits, at least. 'Cause if they did, they'd be better'n what we've got for political representation now, that's for sure.
