Riots, gunfire, pepper spray, police brutality: although often attributed to the Occupy protests or political revolution in the Middle East, these images actually depict scenes from 2011’s Black Friday shopping brouhaha. Assaults over two-dollar waffle makers, parking lot robberies, a woman pepper spraying a crowd vying for an Xbox 360, and police knocking a man unconscious for attempting to protect a prized video game are all among this year’s Black Friday excursions gone horribly wrong. Although these are extreme cases, one could arrive at any mall or department store as early as midnight on Thanksgiving evening to find crowds of hundreds of angry, over-caffeinated shoppers lined up waiting for the doors to their material dreams to open.
Black Friday’s popularity comes from its seemingly incredible sales and deals, which cause people to spend money and in turn stimulate the economy. However, consumers do not receive much of a discount for their trouble. In recent years, retailers have been caught raising prices before Black Friday so that they can lower them with alleged “discounts” that still leave the price higher than before. And even if Black Friday does bring lower prices, is a “good” deal worth the aggravation, hassle, and depletion of valuable family time caused by this yearly consumer ritual? Most Americans seem to think it a worthwhile tradeoff; clearly, we need to reevaluate what is important in our society.
This abhorrent behavior is not a natural eventuality of capitalism. Considering that other free market countries scoff at our consumer behavior, the Black Friday phenomenon can be characterized as distinctly American. The reason lies in our collective value system. Black Friday is not an societal anomaly, but a symptom of a virulent materialist disease. Americans continue to define themselves by the things they own and the things they can buy, which are often nonessential. Black Friday is a heaven for consumerism, but a hell for a functioning, ethical society.
This “holiday” takes away time from family, affects the health and well-being of citizens, and decreases the overall quality of life. As a society, we should be able to rise above trampling others for a few-dollar discount, especially considering an Xbox and Saint’s Row: The Third may not be the best child’s toy. A value system that results in violence for material goods has serious ramifications elsewhere. Our undying allegiance to consumption and desire has gigantic and observable consequences on the environment in our country and others, not to mention on the millions of laborers who toil in sub-par conditions to deliver the goods that Americans throw under the Christmas tree and then throw away a month later. The current broken American materialist value system is not an economic problem, but a cultural one. If America is serious about building a sustainable and just society, it needs to reevaluate the skewed priorities it displays through the madness that is Black Friday.
