Black Friday: A black eye for American culture

Black Friday, the infamous day-after-Thanksgiving shopping ritual, is celebrated by consumers and salesmen alike as one of the great days for the American economy.  

Waffle irons for $2, an Xbox 360 that’s practically free, flat screen televisions priced to sell. What more could we need?

Certainly, there are deals to be had, money to be saved and great gifts to be purchased, but as an outside observer and nonparticipant, I wonder if this is really the kind of thing we want to embrace as a preeminent part of the holiday culture.

It’s not necessarily the near-worship of consumer culture that concerns me. Though that’s definitely bad, it isn’t the worst part about Black Friday.

No, the worst part about the annual celebration of materialism at its finest is people willing to do whatever it takes to get their deal.

As was widely reported last week, a woman in Los Angeles, angling to get her hands on a sleek and competitively priced Xbox 360, came armed with pepper spray to give herself an advantage. A good spray or two and a few minutes later, the shopper did indeed get her 360.

The 20 people around her? Well, they got sore eyes and burning lungs — casualties of coming to a consumer orgy less prepared than our pepper spray hero. Whether or not she will be charged with a crime is still pending.   

Videos poured out of Wal-Marts, Best Buys and a number of other retailers across the country showing mobs fighting for items the instant products hit the shelves. I watched a few of the videos in abject horror as people pushed, elbowed and clawed their way to the products the store was peddling, all so they could take advantage of those fantastic prices.

I couldn’t help but think how animalistic it all was while watching the mobs.
Disgust mixed with a bit of twisted humor as I was vividly reminded of a video I had seen of pigs gathering around a feeding trough, preparing to be served their slop.  At least the pigs were fighting for sustenance.

I’m all for celebrating the holiday season and buying gifts for your loved ones. I’m even OK with high-intensity bargain shopping. But when we glorify the deal more than the wellbeing of our fellow man, we as a culture have lost all semblance of balance.

What’s worse for me is that we all seem to accept this behavior as an unalterable, if less than desirable, consequence brought about by the nature of the day.

It isn’t a new problem, though. From Cabbage Patch Kids to Furbies, fights for the latest toy and the best deal seem to have been a theme for most of recent societal memory. That doesn’t mean we should tolerate it.

I don’t think of myself as a Grinch, but I refuse to praise a day that celebrates greed, self-indulgence and materialism above the higher ideals the holiday season is
supposed to represent.  

­— jontodd@indiana.edu