don't get me wrong. i like to shop. i don't shop often any more, but when i do, i like to have a clear idea in mind of what i want, and then i like to find it, quickly, efficiently and at the best possible price. a great shopper, in my opinion, isn't one who scores bargains while the world is watching... the great shopper, like the great hunter, bags the prize, stealthy and alone.
the news that a walmart worker was trampled to death by a crowd on long island doesn't really surprise me. im only surprised it hasn't happened sooner, and, between the advertising and the desperation, it didn't happen in more places.
what's wrong with us?
even libby made noises about going to target at four am. what's wrong with you? i asked her. there's good bargains, she declared. there's nothing there worth losing sleep over, i replied. a few more years and i won't be able to prevent her from going if she has her mind made up.
it simply boggles my mind that some of us take pride in getting out of bed before even a rooster crows on the day after a major holiday - a holiday that requires the ingestion by most of us of a sleep-inducing food - to go buy a THING? what THING is worth more than precious hours spent asleep? what's wrong with us that we want to brag about how cheap we got a gadget that will break or wear out or get lost or tossed aside before another year passes?
it's sad and it's sickening, and i hope the poor man's death will encourage all of us to examine why we buy what we buy and why we think we need what we think we do. consumerism begins at the top of the food chain. the stampede at walmart is just trickle-down economics at its most crude.
it seems like half the ads on television or in magazines this year are either about indigestion and sleeplessness, and the other half about how to spend money. is it any wonder we need the former, when we buy into the latter?
and furthermore, the war must end. blessed be.
10 comments:
i was horrified at what happened
that as a society we would even act in such a manner
civilized?
not at all
I am disgusted with it all, the crass commercialism sickens me to the core of my being. I am doing 90% of my shopping online including craftswomen through etsy. On my way to Little India in Orange County, CA today, will be thinking of you!
You asked such a kind question re.my brother and his presence in my life. He is with me most often through dreams, also auditory, music, and as a companion in my pyschic field.
It's Not for me, gorilla shopping, you'd think people wouldn't be as enthuiastic with the economy and all. As for that Wallmart thing. I was wondering if it was one of those older retirees that wallmart pays minimum wage to be greeters, it's a shame no matter what. What you said Annie.
my daughter just told me he was a 34 year old man. The people bent the metal on the doors pushing through.
Death by Walmart is a horrible way to die. So senseless and unnecessary.
At Thanksgiving dinner my friend's daughter announced that she had to leave early because she needed to be up early to start shopping at Midnight and that she had a whole itinerary laid out for the pre dawn hours. Mind boggling. It's disturbing that with the economy the way it is, that people are responding by going shopping.
Yeah.. the pursuit of the almighty "THING" has ruined many a man hasn't it? Sad. I look at those people and feel sorry for them though because LIFE has pretty much done that to them. They've been indoctrinated to believe that "THINGS" will make them happy.
So sad...
You couldn't have said it any better. I probably won't even touch the subject. Its just heartbreaking - how could a life be lost because a herd of people needed to Buy Things. And not life saving things. Nothing that would heal the sick or make someone happy for probably more than a fraction of time.
I love online shopping. On the budget this year though (ha ha, and I say that with jest) I did go to Walmart for the practical matters that some people have asked for. Only I went a week before Black Friday and late at night.
There's so much about this "season" that just sickens me ... and has for years now ... and I wonder ... here I sit, taking part in only the few clinging stray fringes left of this madness I was indoctrinated in and I wonder ... if it sickens *me* imagine what it must be doing to those that engage in it.
There is a part of my heart that - yes, sadly - turns as cold as winter in this "season" and I find myself thinking all sorts of ugly thoughts.
Dark thoughts for the dark season ...
Even so, for the few gifts I do purchase at this time of year, I am Proud to have, yet again, taken the Handmade Pledge.
I was wondering the SAME thing.. what is WRONG with us???
I wish the world would WAKE UP already.. it's so sad things like this have to happen in order for people to SEE..
Many Blessings~
Sage
Oh I totally agree with you! I am learning to not buy everything that strikes my fancy and since last year our rule for our two boys has been NO TOYS. I encourage family to get them books, journals, pens, pencils, markers, crayons, clothes, but PLEASE NO TOYS. In fact if they do get a toy, and it gets opened before I can get to it, it promptly goes to Good Will. I have told my family that I will do this and do do this, so I recommend they do not throw away their money in this way.
I HATE nick knacks. I always have. Just more to dust (and I DON'T dust) I always prefer something useful or BOOKS!
I am sickened that our world has turned so fickle and silly. It's ridiculous that people KILLED another human being to buy STUFF. It ridiculous that they had be forced out of the store because they didn't CARE that someone lost their life. It makes me sick to my stomach.
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