You know I remember watching nature videos of army ants swarming over vegetation and unfortunate insects, and rapidly devouring them completely. That had NOTHING on this.
It's scenes like this which reminds us just how uncivilized we can become under the right circumstances.
For fucks sake they're just phones!
(Source)
We slept in, had a lovely mid-day meal, and saw Skyfall. I don't feel like I've missed anything.
ReplyDeleteAlso slept in, then stacked wood. I plan to shop online and at locally owned small shops. Might as well support the good and creative folks who live in my town, not billionaire owners of big box stores.
DeleteThese scenes are becoming a perverse spectator sport, like the Romans in the Coliseum setting the gladiators against each other for entertainment. The retail stores set up these ridiculously low prices in very small quantities and with no organization to create scenes like this to make the news for some free publicity.
ReplyDeleteThe media generates and supports it - then they go looking for the very few people who act this way - If people were paid a living wage they could afford to pay US workers and farmers a living wage - when you treat your employees like 3rd class citizens - this is how you recommend the customers behave.
DeleteSad
I agree with you, TS. Frequently, on the day after Thanksgiving (I will never call it "Black Friday"), we have heard semi-hysterical reports on NPR while driving home from the festivities the day before. The media must really get a charge out of watching people who will fight and trample one another in order to get a bigger bargain. The whole notion of a shopping frenzy in connection with either Thanksgiving or Christmas is abhorrent to me.
DeleteThere is plenty of time to shop before the holidays and it's always better to think hard about what the best gift for someone might be. Most often, it will have nothing to do with batteries! Besides, people should get over the idea that the more they spend on stuff that no one needs the more the recipients will love them. Expensive electronic gadgets can not buy love.
Beaglemom
"And this is why I do NOT participate in Black Friday shopping opportunities."
ReplyDeleteNope, me neither. Had the day off, stayed home, literally chopped some wood, had a beautiful warm fire, listened to Van Morrison, and kept my sanity clearly in check.
And to top it all off, kept looking out my window at my "Forward" sign!!
Force your way to the trough sheeple.
ReplyDeleteHey, where did we go
ReplyDeleteDays when the rains came?
Down in the hollow
Playing a new game,
Laughing and a-running, hey, hey,
Skipping and a-jumping
In the misty morning fog with
Our, our hearts a-thumping
And you, my brown-eyed girl,
You, my brown-eyed girl.
...
Definitely prefer Van Morrison to whatever was going on in that video. That was disturbing. All that kind of crap going on amidst the War on Christmas. Madness.
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher...my absolutely favorite Van Morrison CD..
DeleteWow! Van Morrison and H.S.T. in one post. There is hope. I hope. Ex Cat
DeleteSat in a pool, admiring the mountains above Palm Springs, California, wondering why there wasn't another soul around.
ReplyDeleteIf THIS is what they were doing, I feel true pity for them.
No shopping for me - I took a nap today!
ReplyDeleteAnd this is civilization?
ReplyDeleteAfter a busy Thanksgiving Day I stayed home, did a little online shopping, put up some Christmas decorations, watched a replay of the Patriots totally embarrassing the Jets last night, 3 TDs in 52 seconds. Very enjoyable day. No Black Friday madness for me, EVER. Not much on TV tonight, might just watch my recording of election night - still haven't deleted it from my DVR :)
ReplyDeleteWe live in a small city with a nearby shopping mall area. I opted for the Thursday night thing as opposed to the midnight to 5 am Friday madness.
ReplyDeleteKmart did it right. They had a limited number of TVs & other desirables (nothing I was after), and while everyone was peacefully lined up, they called out the item and handed out tickets. When the tickets were gone, the items were gone. The folks who came just for those items left when they ran out. When the store opened at 8 pm, everyone was in a jovial mood and helpful to each other.
Target, located just across the street, had 5 cops (Kmart had none), a gated line up area, and a mad dash for the hot items when the doors opened at 9. The only thing Target did right was the checkout. They had all lanes open, and enough staff to direct shoppers quickly to open registers.
Walmart at 10--not a chance. I HATE them. I won't shop there on a regular day unless absolutely necessary. So when we left last night around 9:30, there were the usual campers in front of Best Buy. The Panera right next door planned to open at midnight to lure the suckers, I mean shoppers.
Ironically, almost nothing we bought was for ourselves as we're already finished with what shopping we had planned. I was buying stuff for work instead. Nice to spend the corp's money instead of mine! So no pressure, and we actually had some fun.
What we're really waiting for is tomorrow--Small Business Saturday. Those are the stores that get most of our daily business.
Like a mosh pit for greed heads.
ReplyDeleteAh H. S. Thompsen, R.I.P. My Friend, Rest in peace. Ex Cat
DeleteCome on Gryphen, you know dared well that swarming ants communicate with each other and have a common goal unlike these crazy shoppers.
ReplyDeleteOh, They all have a common goal. They just are not on the same team, or hive or whateve.Ex Cat
DeleteThe link below is a lecture that discusses this behavior in the context of our larger civilization.
ReplyDeleteIt's worth the time.
Bestselling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society.
http://youtu.be/1-7BjeHepbA
The Empathic Civilization...said by Rifkin:
Delete"I suspect we may be seeing the extinction of our species sometime in the next century."
"Humans are less than 1% of the biomass of the earth and use 24% of all photosynthesis. This is breathtaking. We have become monsters and we're going from 6 to 9 billion people in the next 30 years. This just is not sustainable."
"According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at the UN: global temperatures may go up 3 degrees Celsius or more in the next century. If we go up 2 or 3 degrees, and this is looking very optimistic that we would stay that low, we risk the extinction of upwards of 70% off assessed species of life on this earth by the time your grandchildren are my age (65 years old). This is a wipe out. We've only had 5 waves of biological extinction in the last 450 million years and every time it took 10 million years to recover the biodiversity we lost."
"The biggest contributors to climate change are, number 1: buildings, number 2: the beef industry and animal husbandry, and number 3: transportation. The fact that no one is talking about number 2 shows we aren't serious about dealing with climate change."
Rifkin's solution is an immediate evolutionary leap forward in empathy with other people's potential suffering...good luck with that....
Nope...no Black Friday shopping for me! Fuck Walmart...I know for some folks it's the only game in town...but that's a game I can't play.
ReplyDeleteInstead I watched "It's a Wonderful Life" on DVD...love that movie!
I also fault the stores for this kind of frenzied bs. They could say one per customer and have people line up to be handed one of whatever...they promote the chaos and the suckers go for it. Weird. Bread and circuses.
ReplyDeleteYou know things have hit rock bottom when consumerism has the citizens of the so-called "greatest democracy on Earth" people pulling guns on one-another over a fucking parking space...at a Wal-Mart no less.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-black-friday-walmart-shooting-20121123,0,5316248.story
I have never participated in Black Friday EVER. The most I've ever done is go to a movie.
ReplyDeleteM. from MD
This is why the rest of the world looks at us like a country of depressed whiners, we are consumer whores.
ReplyDeleteI could never figure out Black Friday...it's even sadder this year with Sandy still fresh and the bloodshed in the Middle East. The corp monsters that can never get quite enough out of the sheep. So let us pop a few more pills and buy shit, that will make us feel better....sigh, only in America. I gave up retail years ago, I bake and sew and personalize my homemade gifts while trying to spend my time volunteering instead of waiting in line. I guess it comes with age and adult children..and making life more simple.
slept until 11 today, then just hung out at home, relaxing. Had a wonderful day!
ReplyDeleteBlack Friday is for idiots.
ReplyDeleteI had exactly one retail job, and this is exactly why I quit and never went back.
ReplyDeleteThe malls, shopping centers and strip malls have full lots, stores have lines that snake for blocks. People are tailgaiting, sleeping in tents for eight, nine, ten hours to hold their place in line.
And Fox news is saying consumer confidence is at an all time low?
And disproof of the old adage that we are only three meals from anarchy. It is now we are only free phones from anarchy.
ReplyDeleteHow utterly STUPID! What is wrong with these people? I never go to Black Friday shopping as the ugly comes out in people. I stay home, rest and eat leftovers.
ReplyDelete