Opinion - Black Friday Sales
It is that time of year again. What are the odds on 6 deaths today? Honestly. It's become a homicidal affair, this Black Friday event, and it is aptly named. There was once another Friday with such a dark connotation. It was day considered sacred, much like it is now. It is a holiday in the Catholic faith called Black Friday because it was the day their savior, Jesus Christ, died though he rose again after three days. It is one of the most sacred days in their religion. Now the name has been re-designated to mark the most sacred day in a discount shoppers calendar. The day they will be able to afford all those lavishly useless material presents to be doled out to relatives on the anniversary of another once sacred religious holiday, Christmas. Strange how religion seems to have been overshadowed by our new belief, consumerism.
Last year a worker in a Long Island Walmart was trampled to death when unruly shoppers broke down the door and rushed inside. Two men were also killed in a Palm Desert Toys-R-Us last Black Friday after their wives got into a "personal dispute" and they both pulled out handguns, fatally shooting each other. Coast-to-coast this consumer driven society we've built is fighting back, bucking hard and turning us against one another. It is an unhealthy foundation which we have structured our whole country around, capitalistic consumerism.
Incidents like this show the violent nature we've instilled upon our society and the competitiveness of humans to the extreme; a point where community and social progress is undermined by corporate cannibalism and the lust for personal gain. Divisions wedged apart further by the contrived need for more. Cultivated by years and years of conditioning by self-serving companies run by individuals with no regard for others. If we worked cooperatively instead of competitively we might have a shot at rebuilding our country.
What is needed is a sense of community once again. Though we are undeniably building a world economy, we must first build our own correctly. The global exploitation model we're currently working with is devastating populations far beyond our own through competition for lower prices and increased profits. Those who strive to make good for all instead of just themselves are pushed aside and put out of business by those willing to exploit others to obtain their own personal success ahead of anyone else's. Operating for only a single persons gain alone is a terribly selfish way to operate and destroys our society. Much more good could be done if we helped each other out and worked toward a common good.
As long as we retain a method of operation based on the benefit of a few at the cost of others, we will suffer. This society is built on competing to become the single best, but studies show that cooperative people are actually healthier individuals in many aspects. They are more functional physically, socially and career wise. The individuals who work with others tend to be more successful than those who work alone for their personal achievement. This capitalistic, consumer driven economy is a scam we have been conned into believing will lead us to progress. It is simply untrue. Though capitalism may be great in theory, this gory celebration of corporate consumerism is one of the most blatant displays of the essential flaws in our society. We could improve ourselves vastly if we rethought the way we live, but it would take a universal shift in mentality. True change into a peaceful and cooperative society is unlikely, but attainable.
This frenzy of a day has become and unholy holiday built by corporations and mutated into a natural persons worst enemy. The addiction to material goods so ingrained in us that we will forsake all other human instincts for satisfaction. The need created for certain objects overrides the human compassion typically present, or at least the common sense. It would be understandable if it were in a region experiencing dire straits and lean times like the war torn countries we occupy, but when someone is injured then killed by SHOPPERS trampling him in a frantic dash for nonessential goods at a suburban big box store, I have to take pause and ask, "What the hell is wrong with us?"
F.T.C. 11/27/09
