Thanksgiving and Black Friday

On wednesday night, the eve of the next day...celebratory meal, and friday shopping spree, I was out with friends and it seemed to me that people overall were confused as to what the holiday was about. I passed countless corner stores with cutout turkeys (wearing pilgrim outfits and holding muskets) scotch taped to the window. Fall colors and leaves fallen from trees were also used to show or convey the idea of being patriotic or otherwise involved in the holiday spirit. The true spirit and basis that lies behind thanksgiving, i do not believe to be the celebration of murdering Indian's (although that is what happened), but i know that it is definitly not dead leaves, and a gun touting, clothed Turkey. I think that although we have commercially skewed the message of thanksgiving, the idea remains that the holiday is about giving. Without the Indians to provide the Pilgrims with food, they wouldn't have survived to give the Indians smallpox blankets.



The day after thanksgiving, was black friday. As I am currently without cash flow, black friday was not significant for myself. I did however see a massive amount of people heading in and out of virtually every store I passed, which indicated that the economy must have gotten a severely needed boost from that day alone. When I was with my friend in union square, their were people dressed up as elves and a man screaming in a preacher style about consumerism. The whole idea of the show was right inline with that of the "buy nothing day" that Andy told us about in class. It was relatively hard to take these people who were dressed up to seriously, but because I knew what their idea was and a little bit from what I learned in class, I followed along and understood their message fully. I dont think I really belive that consuming a large amount of goods is a bad thing, and everyone does it, but when its phrased as consumer-ism, it becomes this bad thing, that everyone is against. I think that a better message is to be a conservative consumer, who consumes, with caution, or with a mindset not to make purchases to the point of excessiveness.

A footnote from the holiday. The massive crowds and animalistic shoppers at a Wal-Mart on long island this black friday stormed the doors, trampling and killing an employee. Not a single shopper stopped to help, not a single shopper checked to see if the man was alright. If their is a problem that lies in consumerism, than this is it.

RIP Jdimytai Damour