"The mall is no place to grieve"

[David Morris]

This post could give David Lynch inspiration.

>From: barbara100 at jps.net
>To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: "The mall is no place to grieve"
>Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 17:48:31 -0700
>
>
>I don't know what to make of this one.  It doesn't sit well with me; I'm 
>not
>sure why.  I'm used to the anti-corporate-America "tone," but this author 
>is
>making moral insinuations I'm not comfortable with.  I feel like she's
>trying to demonize the Economy itself.  Yes, it's gross how we're
>manipulated by consumerism, and I don't appreciate the President telling me
>to go to Disneyworld either, but, really, is there anything inherently 
>wrong
>in circulating our dollars as a collaborative effort to keep the economy
>flowing?
>
>I went to the site this article came from, and I read one right next to it
>that said the state of the economy was almost completely dependent on
>"consumer confidence."  Don't we all benefit from a flowing economy, 
>however
>disproportionate?  Isn't it a good thing to do to spend a little money 
>right
>now?  Not everybody's mourning like New York.  To me, it's almost as far
>away as Afghanistan.  I got sent home from work on September 11 as a
>precaution.  You know what I did?  I'm not exactly proud to admit it after
>reading "A Mall is No Place to Grieve," but I went shopping.
>
>I've also been thinking-granted I'm a little weird in my optimism--but I 
>was
>thinking if we all banded together to save, say, Wal-Mart (now wait a
>minute, Doug, bear with me), we might discover a power (a collective POWER)
>we never knew we had.  And who knows what a power like that could translate
>into.  Today Wal-Mart, tomorrow the World!
>
>Anyway, back to the author.  Here's what I didn't like about her:
>
>"We should consider our impulses carefully, for they are the best evidence
>yet that we have already surrendered the freedom that we say we want to
>defend.  Slaves to the mall, to our own consumption and that of our
>neighbors, we find our liberty to abstain has been eroded."
>
>I'm all for considering our impulses; and we do surrender too much freedom
>as it is (it's no wonder, though-Jeesh! Look at the heat you gotta take for
>it.); and we are consumer slaves.  But what's that got to do with how long
>folks have to stay in the unemployment line?  I wanna look beyond her moral
>implication at a greater good.  I'm not gonna buy an airline ticket-fuck 
>the
>Airline industry, they're gonna get their bail out anyway-but why not buy a
>little something of what I like?  To keep the juices flowing so to speak.
>Whatever evils are in the Economy are there because we buy them.  Yes,
>sometimes we have no choice; but oftentimes we do.  I think there's 
>untapped
>power in those choices.  And I'm for trying to find them and use them to
>everyone's benefit.
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Doug Millison <millison at online-journalist.com>
>To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Sent: Friday, October 05, 2001 9:38 AM
>Subject: "The mall is no place to grieve"
>
>
> > http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/10/05/dont_shop/index.html
> > The mall is no place to grieve
> > We are being exhorted to shop our way out of a recession. But to do so
> > would disrespect our dead.
> > By Margaret Storey
> >
> > Oct. 5, 2001 | Now that the dead are gone (though their bodies still lie
>in
> > pieces, yet to be recovered, among the ruins), we are daily exhorted to
> > celebrate their wake with more vigor, to abandon the restraint that the
> > events have imposed upon us. Or, more accurately, the restraint imposed 
>on
> > our wallets. [...]  But, to borrow a phrase often used by President 
>Bush,
> > "make no mistake about it": It's still the same old sell. Thus, the
> > administration encourages us to get on a plane and go to Disneyworld to
>put
> > America "back to work." Fancy clothing manufacturers plaster their 
>display
> > windows with flags, inserting fashionable fall merchandise among the 
>folds
> > of Old Glory, reminding us that to buy a new pair of leather boots is to
>do
> > one's part to get the economy back on track.
> >
> > Forget the rivet-gun, Rosie! Shop!! The New York Times, in its "Pulse"
> > section of Sept. 30, notes that for $32 we, too, can acquire the
>loungewear
> > of choice "for New Yorkers who feel better staying at home just now":
> > "skinny scrubs," knockoffs of the medical professionals' standard, are
> > alluring in light blue and made particularly attractive by their 
>"trimmer,
> > slightly boot-leg cut, which minimizes hips and thighs." (The author
> > thoughtfully acknowledges that concerns about hips and thighs might not 
>be
> > "uppermost" in our thoughts as we "stagger to the newsstand" in the
> > morning.) The toll-free number to order is provided. Anxiety might keep 
>us
> > at home, but shopping (and our "pulse"?) can go on unabated. Whether 
>it's
>a
> > trip to fantasyland or fantasies about private retreats in one's 
>pajamas,
> > the airwaves and newspapers are full of options to make us, the people
> > (otherwise known as the economy), feel better and "get back to normal."
> > Retail therapy for a nation.[...]
> >
> >  Where in all this is the dignity borne of mourning? In the wake of all
>our
> > losses, do we have no greater sense of our purpose than to get people to
> > spend money, pathetically chasing consumer goods in an attempt to salve
>our
> > wounds? Where is the time of quiet, of reflection on life, that death
> > should always bring? We should consider our impulses carefully, for they
> > are the best evidence yet that we have already surrendered the freedom
>that
> > we say we want to defend. Slaves to the mall, to our own consumption and
> > that of our neighbors, we find our liberty to abstain has been eroded.
>Such
> > restraint is not tolerated, but is feared, even abhorred by some as
> > unpatriotic.
> >
> > But traditions of mourning rightly distance us from the patterns of
> > everyday life; they offer us a way to live out, symbolically, our 
>sorrow,
> > to represent publicly the change that the loss has brought upon us. We 
>are
> > told to be patient in the war to come; let us also be patient with
> > ourselves -- as human beings, not automaton-like economic actors -- as 
>we
> > strive to understand how to live in light of this loss. Nothing we can 
>buy
> > will provide the space for that reflection, although the demand that we 
>do
> > so could well demoralize us even further.
>
>


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