Two News Stories from the Weekend
1. It can be tempting to look at the very sad death of a Wal-Mart worker during Black Friday as some sort of indictment on consumerism or capitalism or corporate policy, but I think that would be as misguided as using the Who concert tragedy to indict Rock and Roll. We can draw more meaning from the thousands of stores on Black Friday that had no problems and the thousands of rock concerts that left their fans safe and satisfied. (Excluding Creed fans, of course). But if we need to look somewhere for answers with regard to the Wal-Mart tragedy, I’d probably go with the psychology of the mob combined with weak or poor authority figures, and I’d cite the Stanford prison study and the Milgram experiment for a reference point.
Don’t forget GNR fans!
Oh, and this is correct. Newsday featured a story on another well-criticized behemoth, Best Buy, and their methods of keeping the mob in tact on Black Friday. It can be done safely, it’s just that some Walmarts haven’t figured it out yet.
