Black Friday a black hole for some
It is with a feeling of sheer despair that I see Canada following the influence of our U.S. neighbour into the black hole of Black Friday. Once a year the brief pause ostensibly intended to give thanks is “celebrated” by rushes to consume even more within the irresistible flood of Black Friday specials.
York University professor Alex Himelfarb has frequently said we have become far more consumers than citizens. His observation is well supported in the book Brandwashed, by Martin Lindstrom, where he details the nature of subversively addictive marketing. He notes that in the average life cycle we will spend over 25,000 hours shopping. I would ask, how much time in our lifetimes will we spend personally to sustain our democracy?
It seems we simply find occasional moments to stop and make blood sport of attacking government leaders of every sort at every level, before returning to our real sport of consumption — having found not even a moment to be thankful for all that our democracy has brought us and continues to bring us, in spite of its failings.
Chasing the next best deal into the bottomless black hole of consumption will never bring us the society we demand of our leaders. Unless of course, we can find the maturity to become a little less the consumer and a little more the active citizen. Bob Sutton, Camlachie, Ont. Black Friday has gone from being a nice holiday sales boost to almost a national day of observance. On this day, after giving thanks for what we have, we then give chase for what we want — regardless of what we need. One sees more orderly behaviour at UN food donations, and those are some of the most impoverished places on Earth.
Why then do we burn with the desire to buy things we do not need with money we don’t really have? What aching void are we trying to fill in our lives?
I do not observe Christmas and I extend my best wishes to those who do, but I’m concerned at how the cult of consumerism has infiltrated and distorted holidays (the literal origin of which means Holy Days). I suppose we’ll just shrug and have the refrain of “at least it’s not as bad as the U.S.” Harith Chaudhary, Maple