Tell me something…
What’s the best way to turn average people into rude, arrogant, violent, murderous, assholes that don’t give a damn about their fellow man, or the property of others?
Simple, you cut all of the prices on all of this years most popular Christmas gift items, and then advertise it as the start of the holiday shopping season. People line up at the doors to every retail store in the country, and when the doors open, they race as though their lives depended on it (maybe it does.. i’ll get into that later) to the items that they want. They push and shove, they lose all patience and consideration, even trample store employee’s to death (yea, I said _death_) all for that mediocre "deal" on a flat panel tv, or Wii.
Have a look over here at the NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/29/busin … .html?_r=1
A greeter (and a relatively young greeter at that, not one of these old retired folks) at a Wal Mart in Long Island was trampled to death by a crowd of crazed shoppers. He was trying to keep some order amongst the crowd, and when the doors opened, they pushed the poor guy over, and trampled him! Two hundred some people just ran right over him, not with a car, or a cart, or something heavy, just their greedy, impatient, crazed feet. Now this guy’s family is minus one for this holiday season, all because of the craze that this event causes.
Who’s to blame? Everyone involved to some extent, except imho the guy that got trampled. He seemed to be the most innocent of anyone. He was just trying to help out by keeping these people at bay until they were actually allowed to get into the store. There’s no reason something like this had to happen. I’ll elaborate…
The retailers:
These guys have one thing on their mind. $$$ Dont let them tell you otherwise. The days of stores that actually care about their patrons are gone. They all care about the almighty dollar, and that’s it. They don’t _really_ care about the communities they’re in, or feeding the homeless, or curing cancer. Sure they all donate to these causes, but that’s all just to make them look like they care. In reality you have some CEO flipping out at his PR department because theyre requesting 20Mil to donate to the spotted owl. Do i know this as fact? No, but I bet I’m not far from the truth. They hype up this event, cut their markups from 400% to 300% for a day, make you think you’re getting a deal, and they rake in the cash. I heard from a Wal Mart employee yesterday, at the end of the day, their store (yea, just THEIR STORE) raked in over $1,000,000. So apparently the hype works.
The media:
I blame a lot on the media. They’re responsible for providing the public with facts, unbiased and fair. There only seem to be a few that still seem to stick to that. Most of them put their own spin on the "news" so it looks they way they want to. How do you think Obama got elected? But that’s another blog. Today I’m talking about assholes. The media hypes black friday up almost as much as the retailers do.
The customers:
I don’t mean every customer, I’m sure some of them are still civil, and don’t fit into my stereotype, but it seems that the majority do, and maybe it’s temporary. After Christmas is over they turn from Mr. Hyde back into Dr. Jeckal. This temporary insanity is the problem. Without it, all they hype from the Retailers and the Media would be in vain. The problem is that both sources are so damned good at working people into a frenzy, that most can’t resist it! I’d bet that if the media started telling you that Communism worked better than democracy, we’d be ruled by some dictator in a few years. Most of the American people stopped thinking for themselves a looooong time ago, and depend on their TV to tell them how to live their pathetic lives. Harsh? yea, but it’s how i feel, sorry.
Every single person that mis-treated someone else on black friday (or any day for that matter i guess) needs to be reminded WHY they’re even out there in their shopping frenzy. What’s Christmas? We all learn this at a young age. With some it sticks, with others it doesnt.
Presents right? An excuse to spend your money on others, and expect them to spend theirs on you. A day off of work, or a long weekend, or a reason to use a week of that vacation time you’ve been saving up. Or some time off of school. A reason to decorate your house with twinkly little lights, bows, ribbons, wreathes, and little wintery scenes. That’s what it’s all for right?
WRONG! We celebrate Christmas because of the day it represents. The birth of Jesus! Giving gifts is a tradition which represents the gifts given to the baby Jesus by the wise men. Yes, they were all valuable gifts. But does that mean that we should be treating our fellow humans like dirt because you want that deal on a PS3? What the hell happened here?
Ok, i’m done.. i think i got the point across.
Have a Happy, Healthy, and SAFE holiday season!
-War