Double Flee A

Wal-mart will have its way. When I try to imagine the future Walmart gives me the creeps. Like Willy Wonka's boat ride, it shows no signs of slowing, and even worse, I think about what would have to happen to make it go away. Our entire way of life would have changed in ways that make me shiver. Free enterprise will have to die before Wal-mart does, so the future's got Wal-mart in it or it doesn't, and either way, because of Wal-mart, it's scary. Say the word to yourself. Wal-mart. That's a word people will be saying after you're dead, a common thread spanning across generations, a part of our collective cultural heritage, one that a thousand years from now will be taught about in history class, if Wal-mart doesn't own the world by then. I somehow grew up thinking that things like the Ohio River Valley would figure more prominently in Americana than a company that embodies the corporate survival of the fittest, but that fantasy has evaporated.

posted by dale @ 8:03 PM