Freedom of Consumption

• Tweet
• Share on Tumblr

• Tweet
• Share on Tumblr

I read in the paper today that the tiny town of Cornelius, Oregon, has finally gotten a Walmart. People slept in the parking lot overnight to be first in line for the opening at 7:30am. There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony where cheerleaders performed, veterans raised the American flag, a quartet even sang the national anthem. Yes, the flag and the national athem. At the opening of a Walmart.

300 new jobs is a big deal for this impoverished town. But what does it say about us that we raise the flag and sing the national anthem – the national anthem! – before swarming en mass through the sliding glass doors to buy cheap, mass-produced stuff? And why? Because it’s there. Because it’s cheap. Because we can.

In the same breath we use to protest a mosque near ground zero (a mosque that, whether or not it’s insensitive or in bad taste, must be defended on constitutional grounds), we sing of stars, stripes and freedom beneath the banner of a Walmart.

I took this picture on my first visit to New York City, not far from Ground Zero. The boat was full of junked cars. I hope the irony isn’t lost on you.