Tuesday, December 30, 2008
A spoof on Black Friday (from NPR)
The short clip listed below is from the NPR website poking fun and criticizing the crazed people who shop like it's a sport during the Christmas season for the "really good deal" or the "doorbuster" to be found on Black Friday. It puts human behavior into perspective and points out how foolish people have become worshipping the "act" of Christmas and taking a human life in the process.
I am one of those crazed shoppers. My sisters and I travel somewhere, usually Appleton, the day before Black Friday. We buy all the papers with the store flyers, lay them out on the hotel bed and scour them for hours while we make our lists. We will go to the store that night to "map it out", what area to go first, where is the item located, etc. (Years ago, we used to go to the store the night before and hide the items somewhere in the store, usually in the tote and garbage can aisle, and neatly store our prized goods until we can purchase them the next day.--They caught on to this devious plan and started covering the hot items with plastic until the day of the sale).
This was always a game for us. What deals could we get? How many other people are we beating out to get the coveted prize? It led us to buy things we didn't need or the kids didn't care about, overspend, and stress ourselves out. We went away from the point of getting our loved ones special gifts from the heart and commercialized it in a way that almost seems vile now, considering that a Black Friday store employee lost their life this year. To make matters worse yet, dozens of people walked/ran by the injured victim laying on the floor and did not stop to help. It appears that our Rules of Engagement, Ten Commandments, The 5 Pillars of Islam, or whatever we may follow as our guide is not working.
As it relates to the learning plan, I have a few thoughts:
1) The stores encourage unethical practices by enticing shoppers and inviting this type of behavior--they advertise these unbelievable deals to draw the masses, they keep the doors locked while making hundreds of people stand outside of a 3 foot door in the cold waiting anxiously for them to open. It's like making your kids wait until 8 pm on Christmas Day to open their presents.
2) What started out with good intentions (the myth of Santa Clause ) has since evolved into a holiday that makes most people wish Christmas didn't exist or are glad it only comes once a year. It has impacted society in the most negative of ways....
Outcome--putting this in to the relationship of the learning plan, I am committing myself to refrain from shopping the day after Thanksgiving, because it seems now to be immoral and unethical for me to do so and I don't want any part of it anymore. While Christmas will always be special at my house, Christmas's of the future are going to be different.
This frenzy is an example of non-consequentialism--I have never thought of the consequences of my decision to go shopping on Black Friday. I did not think there were any until now.
Brian Unger, the humorist that wrote this article did a great job comparing the shopper to a cheetah, stalking our prey in the jungle. Before this year's death, I would have laughed out loud hearing this statement. It's not funny anymore.
Forget The Gun And Other Shopping Tips by Brian Unger
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97650304#commentBlock
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Patty, I really enjoyed reading your post, I thought it made some great points. I too am a Black Friday shopper, although I've never staked out the store beforehand, that's brilliant :) This year's tragic death has left a sour taste in my mouth, however, and has me re-evaluating the shoppping tradition.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I did my first Black Friday shopping this year with the wife of my best friend. I'm not really sure why I let her talk me into it. I was shocked at the behavior of the other shoppers, the rudeness, the aggression. I went to walk down one aisle, not really looking for anything in particular, and there was a couple in front of the last i-pod. I stopped to look at what electronics were in the aisle and the woman jumped down my throat telling me the i-pod was hers and that i better not try to buy it. (Most of the electronics were under lock and key and required a sales person to retrieve it for you). I just walked away, found my friend, and asked her if people are always like this on Black Friday. She told me she had seen worse behavior before. Needless to say that was my first and probably my last Black Friday shopping experience.
ReplyDeletePatty, I must say I have nejoyed reading your posts, and I think that your clip from NPR is a good example of the difference between behavior and philosophy, as most people (at least I think) most people would not consider their behavior as immoral or unethical in the store on Black Friday. I think the behavior represents a completely classic utilitarian view. Morality is based on what is good for me, what brings me pleasure and fufills my needs. Even though I sense that most people in the store would never ascribe to that viewpoint, nor would they see themsleves in that way. That is why it is important to relfect on your actions and try to nderstand how do they match up with my own moral philosophy and ideas. Or do I need to reevaluate. That is the value of all this philosphy as it allows us to base our behaviro on a standard, and then reflect is this the standard we want to base our behavior on.
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