Gnomes and Wall-Mart

Two South Park episodes for those of us on the "wrong" side of the Northcross/big-box/Las Manitas debate:

Gnomes (download available from AOL video).  The townspeople crusade to save the local coffee shop from an evil "Harbucks."  (Here's the episode's Wikipedia entry.  Here's a straight-faced deconstruction by a University of Virginia English professor.)

Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes (complete episode).  A "Wall-Mart" opens in South Park, wipes out local businesses, and sparks a, uh, "backlash" by the townspeople.  (Warning:  this one's scatty even for South Park.)  Stone and Parker don't reveal their take until the last minute.

Comments

[Wes Benedict]

Stumbling across a political lesson taken from my favorite TV show, perhaps you'd find this oldie but goodie letter to the Austin Chronicle appropriate. Scroll down towards the bottom of the list of letters:

"If You Replace the Word 'Wal-Mart' With 'Libertarian' Would Anything Change?"

http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid%3A180078

Cheers!

[DSK]

That is an excellent letter, and unfortunately (unfortunate for Austin) I agree with your insights.