Size DOES matter

posted by The Vidiot @ 8:35 AM Permalink

So, along with Climategate and the escalation in Afghanistan, there's still the economy to talk about.

Teen Vidiot, during one of those lucid moments when he wants to talk about something OTHER than South Park or Family Guy, can't seem to wrap his head around "what so bad about Walmart?" For a kid who used to live within a mile of one of those Walmart Superstores and who used to go there on a daily basis for whatever it was they needed to buy, (including cold-cuts, Who knew?) it's been pretty difficult to get him to understand the importance of a vibrant local economy. He keeps asking "Why are there no Walmarts in New York?" Because New Yorkers won't stand for it. "What's wrong with Walmart? Everything's cheap there." Yes, and that comes at a steep price.

Maybe, by the time he graduates high school -- five loooooooong years from now -- he'll at least understand why Walmart is bad. He doesn't have to agree with us. We just want him to understand it. Hopefully he'll agree with it.

But I look around me, in my neighborhood, in New York City, it's all turning into a strip mall with big box stores. Near me, small businesses that catered to a certain population were replaced by other small businesses catering to a different clientele. That new clientele had money. Once the money came, then the new small businesses couldn't keep up with the real estate prices and they were replaced by big box stores. I've seen it happen all over the city. Even at Union Square which years ago was pretty cool and is now getting, well, a TGIF and Tim Hortons. If it can happen here of all places...

{sigh}

If left unabated, I can see where all this going.

• All of the restaurants in popular locations will be big box, boring and tasteless.
• All of the media will be owned by one company.
• There will be one, ginormous bank that will be maintained by the government at any and all costs.
• One store where you buy everything from groceries to goods, you know, like Walmart. (I'm sure there will eventually be a Walmart in NYC. It's going to happen.)

There are plenty more things that could be on this path, along with a privatized police force, mandatory vaccinations for all, usury like we've never seen usury before, etc. and so on.

I don't want to be all doom and gloom but unless people start to resist this stuff, unless we just say no to it, then it's going to happen because these corporations will continue to grow, continue to rake in the wealth, and continue to have political power that far outweighs what we, as individuals, will ever have.

Arguing over Climategate or any other fiasco is pretty pointless. Whether they lie to us or don't lie to us is irrelevant. They manufacture the reality. They control what we think, what we hear, what we see, what we eat, they control everything. And many of them don't do it intentionally. They just work within the system. They just do what they do because, well, that's what they do. It's hard to resist it all, but resist it we must.

Because not resisting it will be the death of human culture, and I'm not saying that to just be bombastic. It really will be the death of human culture.

No original thought can occur in an bland environment. If we're all having the same experiences, eating the same food, wearing the same clothes, watching the same shows and movies, listening to the same music, if we're all thinking and doing the same things, where will our creativity come from? Differences are needed to spark controversy, and I'm not talking about the difference between Ruby Tuesday's and TGI Fridays (is there a difference between those two?) If all of human culture becomes this amalgam of big box, corporate culture, the end of history will have occurred... and more than likely, it will happen with a whimper.

Labels: corporate greed, corptocracy