Well, I have to hand it to Wal-Mart in one sense. The company, if only subconsciously, understands that it deals in fantasy — a fantasy that ignores the deep corruption of the company, from an entirely cavalier attitude towards the mass deaths of garment workers in Bangladesh to its own putrid track record abusing workers in the U.S. to the greed of the Waltons. So, to play out the game of fantasy, they role out one of the best: Tom Cruise.

I would say this had the quality of a burlesque show but that would insult real artists. Instead, the Wal-Mart annual meeting is really a cult show. It’s the cult of the “free market”, which, for its followers, pushes out the death, misery and poverty it advances. And what better show can a cult put on than, well, inviting another cult to sprinkle some celebrity magic dust:

As expected, none of the shareholders’ proposals passed. The founding Walton family owns more than 50 percent of shares, making it impossible to pass any measures without their support. Likewise, despite opposition from some large pension funds and proxy-advisory firms, all 14 directors up for re-election were reinstated. Wal-Mart said it would release a detailed breakdown of the votes on Monday, which would signal how dissatisfied outside investors are with the company and board.

Yet the portion of the meeting where investors could speak amounted to about 15 minutes of an almost four-hour meeting.

The rest of it was devoted to Wal-Mart’s version of its story.

The head of human resources was one of the first to speak, telling employees, “We’re here to celebrate each and every one of you.” Later, another human-resources executive took the stage, along with William S. Simon, the chief executive of Wal-Mart U.S., as they promoted two employees to assistant managers in front of the crowd of about 14,000.

And:

In one of the odder moments, Tom Cruise, looking dashing in a sharp suit and tie, took the stage not to entertain, but to rehash Wal-Mart talking points about sustainability and promoting women. (Mr. Cruise, like the other celebrities, were not paid for their appearances.) “Wal-Mart has served as a model for how business can address some of the biggest issues facing our world,” Mr. Cruise said.

These people are made for each other. Phoniness combined with denial and corruption.

It really was a show that, unintentionally, shows how bankrupt the whole system is.