The day marked for celebration of the birth of Jesus is nearing. Comments are frequently made about the origination of the holiday being pagan. I would argue that which was pagan and made religious has largely become pagan again. The "celebration" that we now call Christmas has become the commercial exploitation of God coming into the brokenness of humanity. I will continue to add some posts on the repulsivity of consumerism. For the next 5 posts I am responding to a post of a friend noting "The Top 5 Reasons why I like Black Friday."
"5. A 3-way-tie. The fifth place spot is a hodgepodge of three things that I couldn’t cut out. They are being awake at 3am, getting 50 to 70 percent off, and hanging out with a pair of identical twin ladies in their mid-40’s that were proudly wearing reindeer antlers on their head that light up and play music. Basically, I love being up when so many others are sleeping, its just like you got the whole place to yourself. As for the savings, paying a lot less for something I’d be buying anyway always helps. The ladies with the affinity for their holiday head gear, well…I guess you had to be there."
What should be marked as #7, "being awake at 3:00 a.m." does not have to involve being at a store to spend one's money. I am usually awake at 3:00 a.m. either in dialogue with residents of Oakwood Hall or reading and writing for my master of arts program.
What should be marked as #6, "getting 50-70% off" is extremely problematic. Here, the marketers of all thins retail and commercial have perfected the art and science of making one think that he/she needs something. One will think, "If I can get 50-70% off then why shouldn't I buy it? I'm saving 50-70% of the original price." One then forgets that he/she is, indeed, spending. Though the spending may be half the amount it is still monetary spending on a product that you may not be buying anyway. I have to wonder that if a "sale" didn't exist if one would still maintain that "I'd be buying that anyway." The possibility exists that there are many things that are desired as opposed to needed that would not be purchased "anyway" if we were not tempted by the marketed "sale." Aside from the monetary issue, is shopping really the most valuable use of one's time? Please refer to comment on #7 above.
As for the "identical twin ladies in their mid-40’s that were proudly wearing reindeer antlers..." I simply cannot argue with that.
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
IN RESPONSE: "Why I Like Black Friday."
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10 comments:
you hate christmas
Man TK, your entire post is very problematic for me. Your arguments are all wrong.
First, there is no good reason to be up at 3 am short of putting out a fire. Don't give me all this, "I'm talking with students and doing MA work." Not applicable to 90% of the people out there. Unless by "dialogue with residents", you mean that you're talking to students about putting out a fire, I don't buy it.
Second, your friend said he/she would be buying this stuff anyway. Given that people do buy a lot of stuff around this time of the year, do you begrudge them the chance to spend less on things they were already planning to purchase? Your argument here is muddy and tries to incorporate too many ideas. I'm not sure if you're against sales, marketing, unneeded items, or just buying things in general. You lost me somewhere around the first "50-70% off".
Finally, the one thing you should be opposed to on fundamental level, you justify out of hand: Middle aged women wearing reindeer antlers. This is disturbing on a deep, deep level. I'm am completely opposed to people who wear antlers! (Especially middle aged women in department stores.)
My distaste for Black Friday stems from the fact that stores start playing Christmas music and putting out those stupid giant inflatable snow globes. Disgusting...
I think that I heard Lee say that he was going to use his savings buy canned food for Pioneer Hall so they could beat Oakwood in the truck filling contest.
He is my response to the good things that can happen on Black Friday: http://ryanschmitz.blogspot.com/2007/12/black-friday-surprise.html
Travis,
I was going to write a response to the post, but I'm still laughing at john's response. Classic. John, we are in complete agreement about the inflatable snow globes.
mmmm Christ and competition. I would like to study that. I would like to hear you thoughts on Christ and Competition. Like Bible quizzing and can counting. You should do something like that sometime, or look for me to and you can hit me up with a sweet response like usual.
i'm not sure if adam or john's comments are funnier. i'm still laughing histerically at both but i'm pretty sure "you hate christmas" is what did it for me. ahahah! maybe even more for the fact that there is no punctuation
I'm a bit chagrinned. I spent all that time writing my post, then Adam goes and clarifies the heart of the matter in three words. "you hate christmas"
Travis, you're sort of the Michael Dukakis of Christmas if you know what I mean...
My question is.......Who is adam?
adam is...
http://deweberdesign.com/
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