Black Friday Rules

I'm not a fan of Black Friday.  I don't like throwing myself into the mosh pits which pop up in our retail stores during and after Thanksgiving.  In my mind, these are completely made up frenzies by corporate America who convince people there's something truly American about rushing out the door, abandoning family and friends, going shopping, and, knowing some people can be enticed by a $50 video game system or a limited edition Barbie doll, creating a false urgency inertia which sucks others into thinking there is something cool about it.

I do not know anyone who really loves shopping on Black Friday.  I'm not saying there aren't some out there, but most people I know who jettison family on Thursday, or wake themselves up at 2 AM on Friday, need a day to recover, looking exhausted and unfulfilled, all while trying to convince me, through a strained grin, "it was SOOOO worth it."  To me, the stores will be open the next few weeks and they will have big deals throughout the holiday season.

Two observations: the corporate executives who have convinced us to abandon one of the last remaining non-religious holidays of the year (and force 95% of their employees to have to work Thanksgiving day), don't need to do this.  They can offer these deals anytime between now and Christmas and they would sell just the same.  Black Friday has become the cherry on top of the Age of Greed Sundae.  They destroy the idea of Thanksgiving, because they can and we allow them to.

Second, all of this is being done under the false celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, a man who preached about throwing aside worldly possessions to help out the needy.  Trust me, Jesus and his disciples would not be elbowing 80-year old grandmas out of the way at a Wal-Mart to get the last half price juicer.  Jesus would hate the 'buy-buy-buy' culture the United States has turned his birthday into.

Some look at me and insist I am just being a fuddy-duddy, insisting this is the America Way.  No, it's not.

Quick story, my children and I love listening to old radio shows, the classics.  To watch younger kids choose to put away their glowing rectangles and listen to a radio play is very cool.  The other day we were listening to a Dragnet episode from December 14th, 1952 or 1953.  I'm not sure of the year, but  positive on it being from Dec. 14th.  In the episode, as they were working their case, Friday and his partner were talking about a 'handful' of early Christmas shoppers.  A handful of early shoppers on December 14th.

The world does change, but not necessarily for the better.  This celebration of consumerism is new, having evolved over the last few decades (I personally blame Cabbage Patch Kids), and something even the conservative god Reagan was against.  "My fellow Americans, let us keep this Thanksgiving Day sacred." (1985)

Sorry for quoting him, but it does lead to a question for conservatives.  If Jesus, and Christianity, are against consumerism and corporate greed overall, and your Republican icons even wanted to keep Thanksgiving "sacred," then if you are for this Thanksgiving shopping debacle, aren't you placing consumerism, corporate greed, and cheap baubles ahead of everything else?

If you really want to shop, be safe and all my best.  Please try a locally owned small business first.  They might not have a cheap, slave labor made TV for $25, but the ripple effect of buying local will help your community for months, not just guarantee some corporate senior executive's great, great, great, great, great grandkid, a spoiled trust fund brat, has their beachside bar tab covered.