Tuesday, April 16, 2013

You Can't Keep a Good Businessman Down (or a bad one)

Yesterday, I tried to suggest, as tactfully as possible, that the attack at the finish line of the Boston Marathon was an act of terrorism (domestic or international) in reaction to the unfeeling oppression of homo economicus. I knew that homo economicus would not get the message. What I did not realize was the degree of tunnel vision induced by regarding "selling it" as the only legitimate focal point. Thus, like many, I was shocked to discover that a company called Epicurious used Twitter to try to convert grief over the loss and injury of human life into an opportunity to sell whole-grain cranberry scones. I used to think that the claim that market-based globalization had created a culture without a soul was simply rhetorical hyperbole. Apparently, it is closer to reality than I had feared.

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