Any number of people are waiting to pounce with criticism of you no matter what you do or don’t say about either this or that or both.  That happens to be one of the prisms of reality that we must all deal with by some means or other.   We may, as individuals in a world of others including/excluding ourselves, be more or less bothered by this fact.  To some extent, we will inevitably be persuaded to shift our position this way or that way at one time or another according to those winds that may buffet us with this or that suboptimal result.  

We may limit ourselves for fear of losing our job, not getting a job, going to jail or losing our head.  We may, in less dire circumstances, hold our tongues for fear of causing offense, injury or revenge fantasies to arise in others within our social/socio-economic sphere, and this is undeniably the wisest course of action in many personal situations.  Nevertheless, it may also be the case that if we stifle what otherwise is best said aloud, for fear of whatever cringing denial and back-lashing may arise in the face of the naked facts, we cut out our tongues to spite the truth.

Some of us cannot bear even to speak certain truths aloud, alone, in front of a mirror.  Some of us are mired in it all, tired of it all, lost in a feedback loop of dread.  Where is this going?

You may be one of those people who wants a lot of plastic/polyethylene/polyester shit, and you want it cheap.  Maybe you don’t ‘want’ it.  Maybe you dream mahogany and jade dreams but all you’ve got coin for is plastic.  I know where you’re coming from.  I’ve been to the dollar store.  I’ve also been to China.

I bought a lot of stickers of Canadian flags and hearts and such and took them back to China.  One of the girls I gave the stickers to told me she wants to grow up and be the CEO of transnational corporations.  I’m not sure what to say to her about this aspiration.  What do you say to a child who says they want to join a gang, sell crack, and work their way to the top of the pyramid scheme?  

 "Wal Mart is China’s seventh largest export market. It bought $18 billion in goods from China in 2005 and $22 billion in 2006. More than 12 percent of China’s exports to the United States end up at Wal Mart stores and trade with retailers accounts for 1 percent of China’s GNP."

I guess my young friend has already got a pretty good idea about which side her bread will be buttered on, eh?

’s own audit of 12,500 factories in 2004 found 9,900 violations of working conditions serious enough to suspend a factory or put it on notice – despite advance notice of factory inspections.

 is publicly charged with human right’s violations in at least 25 countries (China chief among them), worldwide.

is the largest private employer in the US.

 is a cancer – the full bore appetite of amerikan kapitalist kulture unleashed on the bloated bellies of consumers and desperate workers alike.

"David Kelley is a philosopher with The Atlas Society, formerly The Objectivist Institute.  He rebukes the anti-capitalist point of view and said it is incorrect to accuse Wal-Mart of earning high profit margins "at the expense of others."

"Workers are there voluntarily … They’re not serfs," he said. "Their alternatives might not be great, but there is nothing in the nature of life that guarantees you’re going to have a job that offers everything."

Kelley said customers have choices either to go buy a bar of soap at the local Wal-Mart or go to a mom and pop store and pay a few cents more. Most of the time, they choose Wal-Mart.

"Consumers are voting with their feet," he said. "If you complain about that, you’re complaining about freedom."

Mr. Kelley has a point which is difficult for me to concede given that he apparently is a – mouthpiece for the raving nonsense now famously known as ‘objectivism’/whipping boy for Ayn Rand’s ghostly ego, but that’s a polemic for another day.  

In this much he is correct: wAl©MaRt can’t sell what the people won’t buy, after all.  

Human society needs an enema, and that’s a mighty dangerous procedure if you’ve got your head stuck in your arse.