This is what we get when people accept the idea that we are nation of consumers rather than a nation of individuals with rights and responsibilities to ourselves and others.
This disgusts me on so many levels. I do not even know where to begin.
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8 comments
November 27, 2012 at 7:34 am
Reneta Scian
Ditto. This is why, even after all these years why I refused to participate in this nonsense. This isn’t how rational human beings should act. But hey, when the banks, and big business, and other industries vetted towards making profits use an over-inflated, less regulated credit market to foster inflation, making it impossible to purchase goods you need without going into debt something is bound to be strained. This is what happens that 1 time in the year where they offer the goods for something closer to what they actually are worth. I am sure big business looks at us as the “greedy little piggies” that will fight our way to get to their products, and many have no clue that it’s our culture that breeds this not of any innate human desire (rather a perversion of one).
The cost of goods, services, rental, and other day to day stuff that people use/need/want has gone up dramatically in the past 10 years. And in that time, this kind of “Sale Bonanza” has been quite hostile. Any coincidence? A culture of top down greed. Should anyone be surprised that it’s like this in a society with a great deal of economic inequality? I think not. I hate consumerism because it is like a disease. Big business has certainly played a role in grooming it’s “little piggies”, and its putting the pinch on us for the sake of their profit margins. Also, it need be mentioned that inflation as a tendency is directly proportional to the amount of available credit, and the regulatory system keeping it in check.
So how about this Big Business, why don’t you be fiscally fair all days of the year, so that we don’t have this happen on Black Friday? That is what a sane person would do. The relationship of business to the public is like an abusive relationship, where most of the time they make your life hard, but occasionally they are nice, and they “not the consumer” profits from it. Don’t know bout you, but I’d rather have fair pricing, checks and balances against corruption and inflation all year round, rather than a few “Sales Ops”. Moreover Black Friday is screwed up on so many levels that I can’t even begin to comment on how badly it needs to stop.
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November 27, 2012 at 8:15 am
Lavender Blume
I don’t think this is simply an issue of Bad Big Business. Black Friday is primarily the launchpad for holiday shopping – for the purchase of luxuries, not necessities. People have so internalized the ideologies of corporatism and capitalism that they don’t even realize what they’re doing. It’s egregious to me that what is supposed to be the celebration of the birthday of a spiritual teacher who preached selflessness, compassion and love turned into an excuse for people – those with the means and those without – to buy shit for people who don’t need it. While people are starving and going without the basic necessities even in our own communities – not only in some distant ‘undeveloped’ nation. We can point the finger at business and government, and we are justified in doing so, but we cannot escape the fact that a huge percentage of the population literally buys into the myth that we need to keep consuming to maintain this destructive, parasitic economy. More than that, we’re told that we should do everything to encourage ‘growth’. We should be doing the opposite – taking personal responsibility not only for our purchases but more importantly for our ability to question our sense of entitlement to have everything we want. By reducing our own impact and being living examples, we make the greatest impact.
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November 27, 2012 at 8:55 am
The Arbourist
@lavenderblume
It is often illuminating to ask the question, “Who benefits?” when dealing with problems such as these. You’ve identified some of the processes at work that are driving our societies. I point to the US version of Black Friday now, but here in Canada we have a similar situation on Boxing Day.
How much experience and does it take to come to this realization though? Recognizing the massive privilege we have is such a huge step that so many people have a hard time taking or sometimes don’t even take at all. We’ve talked about living in the ‘christian bubble of delusion’ but I think the consumerist bubble of delusion is much more prevalent and much more insidious.
It’s been awhile since you’ve commented here, welcome back. :)
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November 27, 2012 at 9:02 am
The Arbourist
@Reneta
I agree, however human beings even at their best are not very rational. Combined with the cultural pressures and norms you mentioned tends to make people behave poorly.
Living the “good-life” has never been more important in North American culture as it is today, it would seem that to do so one must almost recklessly consume to attain and maintain this fabled level of “success”.
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November 27, 2012 at 9:11 am
Reneta Scian
I would agree that there is a culture buying into that, and you are quite right. However, the media is certainly used as a tool to groom that behavior by creating false dilemmas about people and providing profits towards that end. And you are also right that people need to wake up and realize that, indeed. However, I still think my initial point is still quite valid. Without big media there would be no effect on the mentality of an entire culture to facilitate this. And it doesn’t matter that Black Friday is about luxury items, I think the effect still holds true. In an economy of steep inflation the effect is still the same. It is, as always, a multi-pronged effort driven by those with capital to do so. As the ideas about consumer drive aren’t formed in a vacuum, you must consider the where the ideas are coming from, and who is backing and providing those messages. Why do you think Hulu Plus members still have to watch commercials, and additionally why their service can afford far more programming than ordinary internet TV providers?
It isn’t simply an issue of big business, no doubt. TV and Media shapes and conditions peoples minds, if they let it. Big Business, and Media industry still hold the vast amount of responsibility for this materialistic phenomenon, the materialism it has been fostering in America since the advent of TV and the Printing Press, AKA Big Media. People are by and large, dissuaded from departing with their role as hapless consumers, and are indulged to consume by manipulation, even to the point where they will buy in to the inferior products of said system. It’s hard to contradict a culture, especially one you were raised in, so in that sense it’s really media and big capitalism that is controlling the voice of the culture. The internet is taking some of that back, but not enough to stop events like “Black Friday”. In a market where you are barraged by ads it is impossible to entirely prevent one from “internalizing” that message. Manipulation and Greed at it’s best. Also, lets not forget who invented and promoted these “Holidays” in the first place.
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November 27, 2012 at 9:25 am
Reneta Scian
Agreed, Arb. It definitely is. It’s part of that “false dilemma” being created to artificially drive up demand. And as always, your insights and thoughts are articular, and to the point. Also, perhaps as an anecdote, I was raised on public access television, and very little of it at that. I wonder if that has anything to do with my current view of it.
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November 27, 2012 at 9:59 am
syrbal
Likewise disgusted. The more they hype this sort of thing, the earlier I shop elsewhere or make gifts.
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December 9, 2012 at 7:43 pm
VIDEO – frenzied consumerism « nuclear-news
[…] Consumer Society – Black Friday Feeding Frenzy https://deadwildroses.wordpress.com/2012/11/27/fetid-consumer-society-black-friday-feeding-frenzy/ November 27, 2012 This is what we get when people accept the idea that we are nation of […]
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