The Big Store

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With all the to-do about who would make the most effective leader (especially after eight years with George "Huh?" Bush drunk at the tiller) and the genuine excitement among many about a possible Obama administration, there might still be validity in the following bleak consideration:

It's silly to think that America is anything other than a big business, whose global headquarters is the neo-Georgian building in Washington, D.C.; that any president whether elected fairly or dubiously is just the boss and he/she's doing the job the board selected him/her to do. The business is about generating profit mainly for those board members, a lesser profit for a lower tier of executives and some leftover scraps for a still lower level of ancillary employees, all of whom are loyal to the America® brand.

America® puts out a line of products and provides services to justify its existence. It has deals in place with other smaller companies to supply raw materials, labor and security. It carefully scrutinizes its customers, dividing them into those that can and can't afford its merchandise.

And as a business it is concerned with keeping up appearances. It is still a place where its shoppers can wander up and down its aisles pursuing happiness and living lives free from certain kinds of persecution that still pervade other stores in other locations around the globe. But it's clear the America many of us still think about with tears brimming in our eyes, the exemplar of liberal democracy -- is pretty much over.

The soul of the store's gone, you see. The America we want to believe is still operating is in fact encased in a thick, calloused husk, too dense to allow the transmission of the soul from person to person, from heart to heart. Instead, its citizens operate untethered from the collective national consciousness, legions of Zombots who relentlessly shop, guided to each trough/kiosk/teat by omnipresent billboards and commercials, spending their decreasing incomes on things they don't really need and can't really use. And, untethered, they are lonely and angry and confused. And they all live to keep the big store running.

The funny thing is, the guys who run the store and want you to buy all their things also want you to lose faith in the store. They want you to think that the America you've depended on for so many years isn't really that good and that a smaller, leaner, meaner America® is the way of the future. And to prove it, their products are poorly made and customer service sucks. Banks of robot phone operators who never understand what you are saying (and possibly aren't supposed to) have replaced more expensive, more responsive humans. Employee pride has been supplanted by resentment. The store doesn't take great care of the many people upon whose backs it was built and who would keep it running day and night. It actually hires people from other countries, who might need the jobs themselves but who could never guess they are contributing to America's downfall and America®'s rise.

There is probably no way to end this sick symbiosis anytime soon. It would mean shoppers would have to pause before they punch in their PINs. It would mean turning their faces toward a piece of sky that hasn't been leased for commercial use in order to kick-start their deadened neurons.

It would mean detaching, if only for a moment, and reattaching ourselves to the reason this country was formed. Because the needs are there again as well as the desire among the arrogant elite to yoke the people, only this time it's with candy and shallow pursuits instead of shackles and threats.

Seriously considering the candidacy of a person who articulates hope and channels inspiration is a beginning. It means we are ready to reason instead of merely react, to conserve instead of discard. And it would mean that as a nation of consumers we would actually shop to live rather than live to shop. It's not the big store that's the shining city on a hill. It's the government of the people, by the people and for the people.

And what's that worth nowadays?

Comments

[Serfie]

I think ole Steve needs to spend a weekend watching re-runs of Wings in order to understand the depth of his sanctimonious hypocrisy.

[BarryChamplain]

That's right, Serfie. Don't worry. Everything's fine... "Idol" is heating up again, and there's a sale on at Kohl's.

Just shop, breed, pay your taxes, and everything wll be fine. Ignore Steven Weber and all the nattering nabobs of negativity. You'll never see their way of thinking, anyway, so don't bother your beautiful mind with it.

After all, if you were really interested in seeing the decay in the world, you probably would have been reading THIS:

http://www.gregpalast.com:80/admit-it-you-dont-know-where-the-tajikistan-is/

[Serfie]

What are you babbling about?

I don't know anything about American Idol and don't even know what a Kohl's is.

Steven Wright has every right as an American to criticize, but I think that it is hypocritical to rail against corporate America and our consumer culture when your entire career has been spent representing and selling shit for those companies and acting in mind-numbing sitcoms that are not exactly high culture.

I don't understand why so many bow down and supplicate to the opinions of celebrities, especially when those celebrities are an economic product and cultural representation of everything they claim to despise.

It is like saying you hate our "bread and circuses" culture all the while you are selling the bread and acting in the circuses.

[4U2consider]

WEBER (not "Wright") has defined the problem; that's just a first step. It"s up to all of us to solve the problem(s) we face and that process begins with communication. So far, your "constructive" communication is a personal attack on someone who has to navigate the modern jungle just like the rest of us but, apparently, is far more successful at it than you are. (Aye, there"s the rub.)

I don"t "celebrate" a celebrity any more than you do; that"s just a misbegotten word for a famous person. But I don"t denigrate someone merely because they"re widely known. There"s a lot of claptrap that comes with being a "celebrity" but I"m willing to overlook it and treat them like a normal person if they have something worthwhile to contribute. I"d even listen to you if I thought you had something worthwhile to contribute.

[jeskiley]

Dangnabbit! That's why McCain debuted his gorgeously georgeousness...his wife. I'd vote for her!

[Sephirothii13]

I just pray that it isn't to late, that the hour is about to strike and we the ones that still are shouting in the streets, in the meeting halls, and in the churches, like the mad men on the street corner with the sign saying "the end is near" is making a change, or god bless we will see 1984 and the world for V in alan moore's comic coming true before we can blink an eye.

[CindySue]

"The store doesn't take great care of the many people upon whose backs it was built".........

Ah, but, according to the latest breaking emailed news alert arriving in my inbox, our House did just vote to spend $50 billion big'uns towards the [health care].......

Of the rest of the World..

Hm.

Cyber hugs.. :)

[Dollerhide]

"The store doesn't take great care of the many people upon whose backs it was built"

Damn straight it doesn't, and it isn't supposed to. I want to live in a business, not a daycare center. I want to do my work and be left alone.

"considering the candidacy of a person who articulates hope and channels inspiration is a beginning."

So, after woefully lamenting the lack of substance and soulfullness in the big business, your only solution is to hire the guy who will tack up a "hang in there!" poster in the breakroom?

Is this an April's Fool's joke? An ironic wink from a guy who's spent his career helping drive audiences to those nasty "omnipresent billboards and commercials"?

"citizens operate untethered from the collective national consciousness"

Yup, sounds like Hollywood to me. I sure as hell have never had any trouble with my "soul transmission" with my fellow countrymen. Take a break from L.A., Steve. Your perspective is skewed.

[loril]

Well, you are one of the first people I have ever encountered who wants to "live in a business". For those many people I know who actually DO "live in a business", the outlook is not so rosy.

Let's see: Do you enjoy 60 hour work weeks with no extra financial reward? Do you enjoy working hard and maintaining an excellent work record...but knowing that none of this will help you if, on a whim, the "business" in which you "live" 60 hours a week decides to outsource your job with little warning? Do you enjoy importing this business in which you live by day into your home in the evenings via the Blackberry, the laptop and the cell phone your company has most graciously given you the better to barrage you with business related e-mail at all hours of the night? Does your family enjoy getting calls from the boss when you are in the middle of a Saturday outing with the kids? Do your kids love the fact that you are never home...or do they wish you could spend more time with them? If you have no family, do you have hobbies and friends...or just work?

I just don't see the great evil Mary Poppins spector here at all. I am for the daycare center. Where is it? I think I would like to try living there for a change.

[doctormaus]

The country is not in any danger of becoming a daycare center. It is often like the LA Superdome, however. Why do you "want to live in a business," anyway?

[jeskiley]

I don't know, do I want to live in a business?--good point

[elbzee]

Indeed, Bravo! Well said! Thank you Steven.

[CatfishJohn]

.....someone once asked mahatma ghandi what he thought of american culture and he concisely said said, "what culture?"..well, whereas i dont think that was a fair appraisal of America and its wonderful , swirling cultural heterogeneity in the 20th century--today, his answer would accurately and concisely be, " compulsive consumerism"..a mindless spiral to nowhere...adding in the observation that the expected free thinking/.maverick mentality of todays youth has been further tamed and caged by tech gadgetry and their own mindless consumerist ethic..its all becoming as homogenized and lifeless as your nearest suburban mall...a tech-addled, credit card carrying vacuous herd....

[peonyharp]

We must "allow the transmission of the soul from person to person, from heart to heart."

Materialism was never the way.

A fine piece, Steven.

[4U2consider]

Wow, sterling post! And all the better for appearing thesauri free. Now who's the eloquent one?

[NoFactsJustTruth]

What it's worth, Mr. Steven, is a list of things SOOO long that it's difficult to know where to begin, and may in fact be just about - without end. This piece deserves silent respectful thought, and NO glib responses.

Well said, sir.

NFJT

[susanlno]

Great post, as always. In this country, if you're not pissed off at what's going on, you're not paying attention.

[Mariel]

this is a very accurate article. What you are describing, corporate America, is "fascism."

I used to think fascism just meant any form of ruthless dictatorship. But a bright man told me it really means gov't by big corporations. They have all the say-so. That's what we have now.

I gather you think Obama would bring a change. I don't think so. I had a couple of other candidates in mind, but they are not here any more. They might have brought real change. Obama will give false hope and the fascism will continue.

[itmaybetoolate]

"citizens operate untethered from the collective national consciousness" Man, can you turn a phrase! That is a perfect summary of what has happened in this country, and until we can re-tether, we are in big, big trouble! I wish I could believe Obama could help us do that, but I fear the republicsum too much. They simply won't allow it, and I don't believe he has the chops to defeat them.

[susaw]

Steven --

You amaze and delight. Once again, you are right on the money -- oops, no pun intended.

[LanceJetson]

I think you need a vacation, Steve. Go to the woods and breathe.

[kellygrrrl]

well, in this interview process for CEO of America, I think we should remember the CEO sets the tone of "the company" and it's a trickle-down effect. Do we want the CEO who inspires hard work and hope and drive and the ability to look past the injustices of life and work toward a better future? I do.

[Dansden]

Incisive and inciting...hopefully enough to get us 'thinking' again since
there is NO $$ to shop with,
NO CREDITability to shop on,
NO country to believe in...and
NO government to trust!

Look out, fiefdumbs, here comes America....
building back from the 'gaited-communities' that 'scewed' and 'jewed' and 'tatooed' us,
from the shopping malls that 'spewed' us and
from the 'board rooms' that 'brewed' us......

back to the soul and heart that 'birthed' us,
back to the community that spawned our trust through genuine care,
back to the time when 'a word was her/his bond' and
back to the time when an elected representative/senator actually cared about people!

[kellygrrrl]

excellent!

[Desiderata]

I remember when...

[BadChristian]

You have described the "evolution" of the corporate world. The death of the Nation.

Grover wanted the nation so weak he could drown it in a bathtub...
You ever wonder why?

[kellygrrrl]

and we are currently witness the "evolution" of humanity

[bridgeworker]

Excellent, if somewhat depressing article, Steven. Truth in truckloads. Thank you.

[lovethesinner]

Really one of your best, Steven. I'm always moved when your comedy serves a serious point this way. "John Adams" has been getting to me lately. I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[MNinWI]

I would love to hear you read your posts, Steven-what are the chances? Youtube?

[PistonMoaned]

I was 4 when JFK was elected. My dad took me into the voting booth with him, picked me up, and said: "Pull that lever. Now you can tell everyone that you voted for JFK."

I knew it was a big deal to him but I didn't really understand it until this year. Now I get it.

[ArchAngel]

And when I was 4, my father took me to JFK's inauguration and at that tender young age, I discovered that I was absolutely fascinated by all of the long legs of the cheerleaders, majorettes, etc. marching in the parade.

[Desiderata]

and when I was 4, my mother took me to the jail to visit my father. It taught me jail is not a nice place and that I never wanted to live there....

[TRYKER]

Super post again Steven, you're so bright!

That was a reminder of when Bill Clinton said..."when Hillary is elected, she'll be ready on day one...to say to the world, America is open for business". Surprise surprise.
That 3 o'clock phone call must be a notice that there is a sale on Pant Suits for one day only.