Monday, December 1, 2008

Black Friday

From Wikopedia: on BLACK FRIDAY
“The local media often will cover the event, mentioning how early the shoppers began lining up at various stores and providing video of the shoppers standing in line and later leaving with their purchased items. Traditionally Black Friday sales were intended for those shopping for Christmas gifts. For some particularly popular items, some people shop at these sales in order to get deep discounts on items they can then resell, typically online.”
Well, now that everyone has worked themselves up into a frenzy, eager shoppers have callously killed an employee of Wal-Mart in Ney York. What a sad, sad comment on our materialistic society.
Make no mistakes. America is the land of believers. We believe in hard work, good times, and especially MONEY. Money is the God of many, many Americans. Now I’m not saying that money is a bad thing. I wouldn’t mind having a bit more myself
. But …
…..when shoppers can trample an employee in the surge to get a “bargain” (G-d forbid that they shouldn’t be able to buy the gadgets that they desire)
… when cost becomes a reason to abort a child with Down syndrome (“The truth is, though people are too compassionate to point it out, that support is in short supply and is expensive.”- Minette Marrin, Sunday Times)
….when families allow squabbles over money to wreck havoc in their relationships
….when we can not part with some of our luxury items in order to help the less fortunate
….when we value people solely on their earning power (as we often do…)

Then we have made MONEY into our G-d. And I guess that “Black Friday” is Money’s holiday, and the employee at Wal-Mart the sacrificial offering.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Black Friday -- the official kick-off to the holiday selling season.

rickismom said...

Yes, I know that--it is also on Wikopedia---and I had gathered that just from context before (I looked at Wikopedia to see why it was called BLACK.)
The part of Wikopedia that I quoted , I did as a comment on our society, the "buyers" culture, and the media.