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Sam
I Am (Nov/Dec 2006)
“Wal-Mart,”
a proponent of nuclear armaments and state-sanctioned torture
told me recently, “is the embodiment of everything good
about America.”
To his credit,
this was a former employee of the company who appreciated their
diverse hiring practices. He touted the standard mantra of any
big-business apologist. Low prices. Job opportunities. Convenience.
Maybe years
of watching that bouncing yellow smiley face spout peppy PR BS
impeded his ability to notice the irony in selecting this blue
behemoth as a metaphor for American life. For beneath the glossy
façade of corporate accountability and exemplary capital
gain lurks the true face of brand USA.
Oh, Sam Walton,
behold your vision of global domination in all its splendor.
Gaze upon the monster you’ve spawned.
Relish in the
triumph of monotony, the accruement of a new aesthetic. That of
bland and bloated rectangles surrounded by lakes of asphalt, partitioned
and sectioned. Nature’s sinuous curves replaced by hard
edges. Know that, within your dominion of sequestered squares
a treasure-trove of plastic possessions guarded by state-of-the-art
surveillance awaits purchase. Some of these goods are the necessities
of life, unable to be obtained elsewhere because the family-operated
competition has been crushed. Others are amenities made available
in an attempt to fill the holes dug in our souls after any semblance
of local culture was subverted and strip-mauled.
Either way it
was all made in China. Perhaps Bangladesh. Shipped via greenhouse
gases.
Oh, Mr. Walton.
Roll in your grave, knowing your brethren – with a combined
net worth of over $90 billion – are among the top ten wealthiest
individuals in the homeland. Your dear family has given less than
1% of this wealth back to communities while the average Wal-Mart
employee lives below the poverty line. Your valued “associates”
struggle to afford overpriced healthcare, and are encouraged to
turn to state-funded programs for assistance. Please, deride them
for their desperation, ridicule these socialist free-loaders,
while the maniacal yellow smiley reaps $1.008 billion in tax-payer
funded subsidies nationwide.
What better
way to illustrate two-faced foreign policies of imperial interventionism
than through comparison to Wal-Mart’s ruthless expansionism?
False promises of salient employment and economic betterment wielded
as soft power. Manipulation, bribery, and heavy-handed lobbying
wielded as hard power. The result: a subservient populace permanently
indebted to the whims of a bureaucratic juggernaut. Because when
no one is paid a living wage, box stores are the only place you
can afford to frequent.
Cheers, friends
of laissez-faire capitalism: to Wal-Mart. An expensive toast to
the embodiment of the American Dream.
-Jason M Glover
Editor
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