Egoism
Individualism
Sovereignty
Splendor

(These ideas are explicated in this sloppy manifesto)

 
Always the Red gambit...

Richard Nikoley has two bits on WalMart, for which I salute him. He and his rational commentarians have come up with many sound reasons for celebrating Sam Walton's brainchild. WalMart clearly is a beneficial economic force everywhere it goes, but its most important contribution goes largely unseen. WalMart is simply a master at the three M's of retailing--marketing, merchandising and management. By being a 900 pound gorilla, WalMart has not only improved the business practices of its vendors, it has improved the practices--and the shareholder value--of its competitors. All retailers are better at what they do because WalMart enforces such high standards on its suppliers. WalMart is Atlas--the giant who bears the weight of the world on his shoulders--to a fault.

And as it happens, Richard's posts have drawn a fair number of irrational commentarians, would-be Woody Guthrie's pinin' away for the poor workin' man back in the hills. My experience of WalMart is of city folk jamming the aisles, shoveling up bargains by the cartload, but this is because they don't know they're being cruelly abused. Likewise the employees, who only smile so big because WalMart won't let them listen to Woody Guthrie records. Jeesh!

But there is an important point to be raised. Two, actually.

The fact is that the gibbering morons whining about WalMart are no different than the gibbering morons whining about Iraq or George Bush or the Roman Catholic Church or whatever is the flavor of the month being peddled by the mainstream media and the rest of the sneering class. They are dupes to the last, and they are just mouthing the propaganda they have been spoonfed. The wielders of the spoons are the Communists, and their enmity toward WalMart is easy to understand. WalMart is not just anti-union. WalMart goes the next step and teaches its employees why unions are evil. Communism can undermine and corrode any uninformed opposition. But it is powerless against an informed opponent, so informed opposition must be destroyed at all costs.

The second point is actually more important: It is common to see libertarians of various stripes affecting to equate the right with the left in American, to claim, however implausibly, that the 'radical right' or the 'christian right' or whatever is somehow a potent threat to liberty, as bad or even worse than the Communist left. This is measurably, demonstrably, objectively, inarguably false. The bible-thumpers are pikers, hapless amateurs at everything they do, where the Communists are serious, dedicated, unwavering professionals. They are always five moves ahead in every game they run, and they are running every single game being peddled by the mainstream media and the rest of the sneering class. It is not going to far to say that everything discussed in public is on some level a Communist gambit. Certainly all of the terms of the debate are theirs. Islamism may be as great a threat, making up for a dearth of finesse with a surfeit of zeal. No other political movement comes even close to posing a peril equal to that of the Communists. To say otherwise is a decisive victory for Communism.
posted by Greg Swann at 5:30 PM

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