oh walmart. embraced by america. hated by america. representative of all that is american and all that is wrong with america.
on a recent trip to visit my family in the wonderful land of suburbia i was sent on a mission to acquire curtain rods from walmart. they were for my grandmother so if you are the judging, walmart-despising type you can just hold your tongue because she lived through the depression and is "thrifty" and now we'll just move along with the story.
a few years ago my parents moved farther away from the city of atlanta because roswell, the idyllic, upper middle-class, republican, mind-numbing home of my youth had gotten overrun with strip malls and suv's and soccer moms to the point that even my own parents couldn't take it any more. so they moved. to (ahem) forsyth county. from what i can tell, forsyth is much like north fulton except that the suv's all have four wheel drive and trailer hitches and the strip malls don't necessarily have a starbucks on the corner. not yet anyway. oh, and there are more white people.
in essence, forsyth is like roswell only a little more redneck. more georgia if you will. if you're not from atlanta then you may not realize that atlanta is (for the most part) nothing like the rest of georgia. imagine then what a walmart (not known for it's upscale clientele in even the richest of suburbs) in cumming, georgia (pronounced coming or cuming depending upon how dirty your mind is) might be like. let's just say that a barefoot, pregnant brittney spears would fit right in. on the other hand, goth, a style popularized in the eighties and made mainstream by the likes of robert smith and marilyn manson, does not fit in quite as well. does not fit in at all actually. in fact, even though goth has been around for at least two decades it has never really caught on in forsyth county. or so i gathered form the following interaction i witnessed at the walmart in cumming, ga:
a pale young man with long, dyed black hair and wearing a black trench coat, black shorts, and black combat boots exits walmart accompanied by his pregnant girlfriend? wife? sister? mom? who is similarly attired. (note to reader: in any slightly urban, cultured environment this couple would walk by unnoticed. we can therefore conclude that cumming, ga is completely uncultured. yes, that is a scientifically sound deduction.)
a woman in her mid 40's- mid 50's is walking towards the entrance to walmart with her gangly-limbed teenage son walking a few steps behind and pretending that he isn't with her.
the goth couple and the woman pass by one another.
minsicule pause.
woman to her son with a loud voice as stereotypically redneck as you could hope for: "did ewe say thayt!? thayt mayn had grain nail polish awn. nhat just ahny grain ayther. baybah shit grain!!!" (translation: "did you see that? that man had green nail polish on. not just any green either. baby shit green!!!")
um, ok. personally i find a woman yelling about baby shit to her teenage son in a public setting to be vastly more offensive that some dude with green nail polish. i guess that's just me.
so here's the point and i'm going to try not to sound classist and and offensive myself but fuck it really i'm so goddamn sick of america and its bullshit ideals and the idea that we should and do rule the world with the almighty's blessing that i could scream and rip my passport in two except that would mean that i would have to pay to get another passport made so that i can actually leave this damn country-my home- at some point in the future once i finally give up on the idea that we americans can redeem ourselves.
whew. glad i got that out. anyway, i've always known that there aren't really enough rich, narrow-minded republicans to put george w. in the white house. what i had forgotten is that he appeals to the ignorant, narrow-minded masses of americans also. and while it's not my place to blame anyone that may not have had the educational opportunities that i had, i'm tired of the willful ignorance that plagues this country. the lack of perspective possessed by most americans is appalling and i don't know how to change it. how can you force a world view on someone who has never seen the world- whose world consists of a bunch of people just like them and a walmart?
yes, all that stemmed from a chance encounter at the local walmart. what can i say? i have a tendency to overthink things.
god bless the u. s. of a.!
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6 comments:
How can you effect positive change in America if you run away from America? You've admitted that you've benefit from "all that's wrong with America" - the north Fulton upbringing with its socio-economic stability and educational resources, and it appears that you've had the rare opportunity to see other parts of the world. Use those experiences and enlighten perspectives you've accumulated to change your surrounds, as opposed to allowing the red-necks, republicans, and ignorant folks destroy them.
You have a great site - keep up the good work!
Also, check out my site. I wrote a post (Aug. 25) on how Wal-mart is the new dating hotspot in Europe. Wal-mart is taking over...
Overthought, probably, but hey, did you see the President on the cover of American Cowboy? Too fitting. Too unreal.
Hey, Eponymous has a picture on his profile.
Mr. Negrotic Jew, I have no clue what reality is like from your perspective, but it's clear to me that you've got it muddled.
Blame the goth and the white trash for "degrading" higher culture? What higher culture are you even getting at? A culture of "avoiding reality?"
You'd rather people become jaded like you, so they can post self-contradictory comments that just make you sound angry and confused?
What is "taboo" if it is the not the opposite of "politically correct norms?" And how can you then blame goths and poor whites for doing what they want?
The problem isn't people like that, it is people like you, who are just angry at everything and nothing at once. If you want something changed, then great, go for it. Don't sit there and complain about people who have nothing to do with you.
The sad part is that woman probably thinks that she is normal, but she...aint.
the sad part is that woman is more normal than any of us would like to admit.
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