Wal-Mart

From June 2003 - Wal-Mart's Social and Econimic Impact - Earlier this year, Fortune Magazine named Wal-Mart the nation's most admired company. It now has more revenue and more employees than any other U.S. company. Wal-Mart's growth over the last decade is unprecedented -- the company has gone from being a successful discount retailer to being a dominant force that no other retailer can ignore.

"In a four-part series for Morning Edition, NPR News explores the rise of Wal-Mart, examining the company's low-cost philosophy, its impact on more traditional mom-and-pop retailers and its growing pains as Wal-Mart fights lawsuits alleging it discriminates against women and resists paying overtime to its employees."

Musings

• Summarize the main criticisms of Wal-Mart made by the company's critics. Which ones, if any, do you think have any validity.
  
  
• Check out the Frontline documentary, "Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" Again, summarize the main criticisms of Wal-Mart made by the company's critics. Which ones, if any, do you think have any validity.
  
  
• Give us your impression of Wal-Mart or big-box stores generally, including the impact (good or bad) they may have had on your own community.
  

Sell, Sell, Sell

Here are three different Frontline documentaries from the public television station WBGH in Boston:

• Merchants of Cool - "They spend their days sifting through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of the "next big thing" that will snare the attention of their prey--a market segment worth an estimated $150 billion a year. They spend their days sifting through reams of market research data. They conduct endless surveys and focus groups. They comb the streets, the schools, and the malls, hot on the trail of the "next big thing" that will snare the attention of their prey--a market segment worth an estimated $150 billion a year.
  
  
• The Persuaders (11/9/2004) - "Americans are swimming in a sea of messages. Each year, legions of ad people, copywriters, market researchers, pollsters, consultants, and even linguists—most of whom work for one of six giant companies—spend billions of dollars and millions of man-hours trying to determine how to persuade consumers what to buy, whom to trust, and what to think. Increasingly, these techniques are migrating to the high-stakes arena of politics, shaping policy and influencing how Americans choose their leaders. In "The Persuaders," FRONTLINE explores how the cultures of marketing and advertising have come to influence not only what Americans buy, but also how they view themselves and the world around them."
  
  
• The Secret History of the Credit Card - "It's one of the most wonderful times of the year for the banking industry's most lucrative business: credit cards. In the coming weeks, millions of Americans will reach into their wallets and use plastic to buy an estimated $100 billion in holiday gifts. But at what cost? In "Secret History of the Credit Card," FRONTLINE^® and The New York Times join forces to investigate an industry few Americans understand. In this one-hour report, correspondent Lowell Bergman uncovers the techniques used by the industry to earn record profits and get consumers to take on more debt."

Musings

• Summarize the main arguments for any one of these three documentaries. Which points do you find most or least compelling.
  
  
• Draw a connection between any of these documentaries and any material in any of these pages: Wal-Mart, Stuff, Malls, or Born to Buy.
  

Born to Buy

"Social economist Juliet Schor's new book is Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture. Schor says children as young as 18 months can recognize logos. Marketers capitalize on the influence of young minds on parents' wallets." Listen here (9/4/2004 - 6:56).

Also listen to Kim Masters's NPR piece, For Toddlers, a World Laden with Advertising (7/31/2006 - 8:14), or this series from CBS news, Hard Sell: Marketing to Kids.

Musings

• Compare any two of the pieces above. What essential points do they share? Which one do you most more persuasive?
  
  
• Describe a personal anecdote from your own life, as parent, child, student, or educator, that shows the power of advertising or shopping more generally on the lives of children.
  
  
• Check out the web site for the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. What do you find here that may be of use to concerned parents or educators? Check out their links page to find other related sites that might be helpful, and explain why.
  
  
• Nearly everything about the Amish is fascinating, nothing more so than the undeniable visual beauty of their world, at least as captured in Bill Coleman's photographs. What do you feel makes Coleman's photographs of Amish children especially haunting ? Do you think there's connection here between the effect of the photographs and the special nature of the children's stuff?
  
  

Walden

"When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again." So begins Henry David Thoreau's Walden, or Life in the Woods--here from NPR's series, Present at the Creation.

Musings

• Discuss the audio report on Walden from the NPR series cited above, Present at the Creation. What do you find as the most compelling material for people (or consumers) today.
  
  
• Read any TWO of the following selection--from Ch. 1, sections a, b, c, d, or e, or Ch. 2 (starting with paragraph 15)--and in your own words, describe how it is you think this piece of writing has had such influence on Americans and others since its appearance in 1854.
  
  Here's a famous excerpt from section D:
  
  As with our colleges, so with a hundred "modern improvements"; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. Either is in such a predicament as the man who was earnest to be introduced to a distinguished deaf woman, but when he was presented, and one end of her ear trumpet was put into his hand, had nothing to say. As if the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly. We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough. After all, the man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages; he is not an evangelist, nor does he come round eating locusts and wild honey. I doubt if Flying Childers ever carried a peck of corn to mill.
  
  
• The work of 20th-century British economist, E. F. Schumacher, might be seen as a modern-day application of Thoreau's thinking. Explain how this statement may (or may not) apply to Schumacher's essay Buddhist Economics.
  
  Here's a quote from the essay:
  
  
  
  While the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly interested in liberation. But Buddhism is "The Middle Way" and therefore in no way antagonistic to physical well-being. It is not wealth that stands in the way of liberation but the attachment to wealth; not the enjoyment of pleasurable things but the craving for them. The keynote of Buddhist economics, therefore, is simplicity and non-violence. From an economist’s point of view, the marvel of the Buddhist way of life is the utter rationality of its pattern—amazingly small means leading to extraordinarily satisfactory results.
  
  For the modern economist this is very difficult to understand. He is used to measuring the "standard of living" by the amount of annual consumption, assuming all the time that a man who consumes more is "better off" than a man who consumes less. A Buddhist economist would consider this approach excessively irrational: since consumption is merely a means to human well-being, the aim should be to obtain the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption. Thus, if the purpose of clothing is a certain amount of temperature comfort and an attractive appearance, the task is to attain this purpose with the smallest possible effort, that is, with the smallest annual destruction of cloth and with the help of designs that involve the smallest possible input of toil. The less toil there is, the more time and strength is left for artistic creativity. It would be highly uneconomic, for instance, to go in for complicated tailoring, like the modern West, when a much more beautiful effect can be achieved by the skillful draping of uncut material. It would be the height of folly to make material so that it should wear out quickly and the height of barbarity to make anything ugly, shabby, or mean. What has just been said about clothing applies equally to all other human requirements. The ownership and the consumption of goods is a means to an end, and Buddhist economics is the systematic study of how to attain given ends with the minimum means.
  And here's a link to quotes from his influential little book, Small Is Beautiful.
  
  
• Explain how Adbusters.org seems to be influenced by Thoreau.
  
  

Malls

The Mall of America - "The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., turns ten years old [Aug 2002]. Host Madeleine Brand talks to author Ian Frazier about his surreal vision of the massive shopping center." You can read Frazier's Atlantic piece here.

Re-Creating the Mall Online (12-15-08) - "New companies are trying to replicate real-world shopping environments on the computer. Shopping at the new virtual 3-D mall is a little like shopping in Second Life and a little like the actual mall in Seattle."

Mall Makeover (5-20-07) - "Shopping malls are an icon of American pop culture, but they face extinction unless they modernize. Debbie Elliott visits a Washington, D.C., area mall that's getting a makeover for the 21st century."

Musings

• Compare any two of the three NPR pieces above.
  
  
• What's your response to David Segal's piece in New York Times, "Our Love Affair With Malls Is on the Rocks" (1-31-2009). Check out background piece on malls at Wikipedia.
  
  
• It seems that everyone has a mall story. What's yours? If you want, relate it to thus City X mood piece that also serves as a commentary on the place of the modern shopping mall in a “real, yet unnamed, city”: “Using a sound rich audio mosaic of observations and ruminations, all scored to Muzak, the universal mall experience comes to life, for better or for worse.” It was first broadcast (in a shortened form) on NPR’s Living on Earth (15:52) in November, 2004., and is also available in its original full length at the Third Coast Festival (22:32).
  
  

This I Believe

NPR describes its popular series, This I Believe, as "an international project engaging people in writing, sharing, and discussing the core values that guide their daily lives."

Singing: The Key To A Long Life (11/23/08) - British composer and activist Brian Eno talks about the joy of singing, a subject taken up as well by Eunice ("Make a Joyful Noise") and Paige ("Singing, My Anti-Drug"), both in written form only. More pieces on singing here.

Dancing All the Dances As Long As I Can - Best-selling author Robert Fulgrum expounds on his joy of dancing, a subject found in the written pieces, Dancing Is Dreaming with My Feet. More dancing pieces here.

Baking by Senses and Memories. (Morning Edition, 11/20/06 - 4:18) · “I believe baking is the best way for me to express love for my people in the present, and honor the people of my past, all in one batch.”

Walking Across the Grand Canyon (6/13/2008) - Radio producer Scott Carrier describes a walk in the desert with his son. From the This I Believe series comes two written pieces, I Believe in Walking and I Believe in Hiking.

Musings

• Not surprisingly, when it comes to core values and beliefs, people often focus on some of life's simplest things. Why do you think this is so? In your response make a reference to one or more of these NPR pieces, or, if you are adventuresome, listen to some more of these series here.
  
  
• Much of the pleasure from simple things often comes from following a prescribed regiment, a set of rules for doing something the right way. Describe your own pleasurable or enriching experience doing something simple that entails its own set of rules.
  
  
• The religious community known as the Shakers played an important role in pre-industrial American life. You can read about their Culture and Artifacts here @ Wikipedia, and a fascinating video @ YouTube. Today Shakers may be best known for a single (simple) song: Here's a slightly jazzed-up version of the classic Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts (on YouTube). The tune was also the basis of the John Williams piece performed at President Obama's inauguration. The song may be better known for its melody than its lyrics--the melody being incorporated into one of the most beloved of American symphonic composition's: Aaron Copeland's Appalachian Spring. Here's a brief analysis of the piece @ NPR emphasizing the work's simplicity (There's also a link to a full perfomance, under "hear the Music'), and below are the original lyrics, written in 1848. Your job here: Describe the lasting appeal of the artifacts or music or general sense of the Shaker world.
  

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Hand work

Woodworking - (Weekend Edition Sunday, 1/6/02 - 2:54) · "Essayist Tim Brookes experiences a flashback to his youth while working with a piece of fine wood."

Typewriter Lover. (All Things Considered, 9/22/98 - 3:46) · "Alex Van Oss introduces us to his family of five old typewriters. One was once owned by a Supreme Court Justice, another by the Christian Science Monitor, and a third - a hefty thing from Switzerland, once crashed through one of his desks."

Baking by Senses and Memories. (Morning Edition, 11/20/06 - 4:18) · “I believe baking is the best way for me to express love for my people in the present, and honor the people of my past, all in one batch.”

Musings

1. Here are three short pieces linked by a common concern: the value of doing work the old-fashioned way, that is, by hand. Describe one of the pieces in some detail while also commenting how you can relate to the piece on a personal level. If you have trouble listening to these or want to others instead, try listening to 3 other pieces from the Special Features page of "This I Believe." where you will find sections on basic ("hand") things like gardening, poetry, pets, letter-writing, coffee shops, sewing and knitting, walking in the woods, fishing, and so forth.
   
   
2. Describe a mechanical tool (that is, a tool that works without electricity or batteries) you have used, or perhaps still use. Do others still use this tool? Why? Why not? Don't overlook such simple tools as a pencil or a hammer or a cooking utensil.
   
   
3. Have a knack for comedy? If so you might want to take a different approach and describe some new, highfalutin tool (or gadget), mechanical or electronic, like the iPhone or iPod that, despite all the hype, you find vastly over-rated. (Here's Alison Bryce's brief, sardonic response to her boyfriend's iPhone.) Don't worry about a little exaggeration--it might help underscore your point. Here's a case in point: Rube Goldberg, the American cartoonist who died in 1970, has become something of a household word, or at least a common noun, for creating the concept of an overly complicated way of doing something simple--like a 15-step contraption to scratch one's back. Here are examples at RubeGoldberg.com, or, as one might imagine, plenty of new Ribe Goldberg contraptions on YouTube. Here's one for crushing Cadbury Cream Eggs.
   

Stuff

George Carlin's classic comedy routine, "A Place for My Stuff" (5:09) is satire at its best--outrageously funny while saying something serious about our behavior.

"The Story of Stuff" is also a video satire, by Annie Leonard--"a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns . . . . [that] exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues."

NPR commentator Daniel Schorr offers this short commentary (2:05) on Princess Diana and Mother Teresa ("Saint of the Gutter, Saint of the Media")--both of whom died the same week. What do you see as the connection between this commentary and the points made by Carlin and Thoreau?

The Nova web site portrays five families from the 1995 book, A Material: A Global Family Portrait, a book that posed families from around in the world standing in front of their houses with their possessions.

Here's the Website from John Freyer's 2002 project, All My Life for Sale.

Ellen Kushner’s WGBH program Sound and Spirit offers a wide-ranging, weekly musical tribute to a single theme. Here is the playlist for her show on stuff--click here to listen (59:00).

Musings

• Annie Leonard's video, "The Story of Stuff," is clearly a form of propaganda, although a form that some of us (at least those who sympathize with her larger point) may not especially object to. What do you feel makes her video so effective?
  
  
• Describe what you see as the most important connection between any two of these pieces.
  
  
• Use of these pieces as the basis for a story of STUFF in your own life.