Looking greyly at Black Friday (redux)

Must…eat…brains…

(Waveflux is pleased to present this encore presentation of last year’s day-after-Thanksgiving entry…because the story never changes.)

Every damn year, it’s the same damn story, told in pretty much the same damn way. The economic fetishization of the day after Thanksgiving never fails to repel me on a variety of levels. First off, it’s wrapped in a lie, or perhaps just a lazy misunderstanding: it’s considered by many the busiest shopping day of the year, and it’s not. Secondly, the vaunted importance of the day is parrotted by national and local media to the point that you think you’re actually missing out on something, when all you’re missing is the opportunity to orbit your local Googleria shopping mall in a desperate search for a parking space, or the chance to be elbowed by a balding father of three while scrambling for the last XBox 360 on the shelf. Thirdly, and most irritatingly, there’s an implicit idea that this is the only thing that you should be doing, this shopping. Many people have the day off, and they haven’t the foggiest idea what to do with themselves. They already watched TV the day before. They have largely forgotten how to read. The idea of sitting and talking to one another makes them break out in hives. Fortunately, the guy on the TV screen says, “Go out and spend money! Everybody’s doing it!” And people do, no doubt with a sigh of relief. There’s a Dawn of the Dead (the original, that is) aspect to Black Friday that makes you want to board up the windows and load up the thirty-ought-six.

Or maybe it’s just me.

Technorati Tags: Black Friday, Shopping, Thanksgiving