In Cascade Township, east of Grand Rapids, Mich., a woman fell as dozens of people rushed into a store for the 5 a.m. opening. Several stepped on her, and a few became entangled as a man pushed them to the ground to keep them away.
Tempers flared at a Wal-Mart in Orlando, Fla., where a man allegedly cut in line to buy a bargain notebook computer and was wrestled to the ground, according to a video shown by an ABC affiliate, WFTV-TV.Is this the kind of society we want to be? Commercialism has infected America. Every holiday is a sales event. Every Christmas I grow more weary of commercialism. Just read the Wal-Mart stories above. Who do you think these people are who are trampling each other for a sale? They're people who can't afford the shopping they're doing. They aren't "buying" these products, they're "charging" them. Just stand at Wal-Mart on a Saturday in December. Watch the lower-middle class of America stand in lines with their two carts full of commercialized products. Why? Do the kids really NEED that toy? Do you really NEED that 52-in. TV? People try to fill voids by purchasing *things*.
This critique is everything I want to say about commercialism. Don't get me wrong, I'm not innocent of this cultural madness. I own a TV, an MP3 player (although not an IPOD because I find them ridiculous), and a laptop, etc. But that doesn't mean that I don't find commercialism incredibly invasive and more than just a little annoying. What will we do next, turn love and happiness into an enterprise too? Oh wait...we already have.
2 comments:
Have you come across this site?
http://www.buynothingday.org/
I have to admit I felt a bit smug working from home yesterday. There truly was nothing going on!
I actually didn't buy a single thing yesterday, either. Ohwait! Except train fare and a latte.
I find it interesting that people say consumerism "has" affected America, as if there were some brief period where we didn't want stuff. Perhaps this was the period where we all had Family Values and loved God, too.
Maybe it's just more obvious now. The Sears-Roebucks catalogue a hundred fifty ago on the prarie doesn't seem quite the same as bashing someone with a wiffle bat in Aisle 7 because they stole your kid's toy. Or whatever.
I admit that advertising is obnoxious, though, and leads to or contributes to all the problems listed in the article you linked to. But one can make a conscious effort to avoid it. I try to rip out the advertisements in magazines and I don't watch much tv or listen to the radio at all. But I know a lot of people aren't going to take these steps because they're thoughtless consumers. The thing is, they're going to be thoughtless anyway. You can't make people read the fine print, y'know? I wish you could.
...Anyway, my long and belabored point is that advertising works because people let it. The more research you do into it, the more you realize how repetitive and formulaic it is. But this isn't hidden knowledge--anybody who cares could read a book on marketing. But most people don't bother.
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